Teaching critical thinking using active learning strategies
(Tuesday November 7th 3- 4:15 pm)

The workshop will be an overview on how to teach critical thinking in the classroom (regardless of the discipline) using active learning strategies. It will include general definitions of critical thinking, some sample techniques for teaching an explicit skill or a broader critical thinking strategy. The question of assessment will also be addressed as we often try to promote critical thinking in the classroom, but then evaluate our students with traditional tests that do not address the critical thinking skills that we try to emphasize.

Facilitator:
Dr Aziza Ellozy, Center for Learning and Teaching
Maha Bali, Center for Learning and Teaching

Visualization: Key to Learning
(Tuesday November 14th 3- 4:15 pm)

The focus of this workshop is on how visual rhetoric, integrated into course materials as “learning objects” can enhance active learning. It draws on educational research which attributes primacy to visual texts and current teaching practice which makes extensive use of “learning objects” as a means of communicating complex conceptual and/or theoretical issues. In particular the workshop will exemplify ways in which we can enhance active learning through a construction and reconstruction of ideas and experiences, by reference to carefully designed activities that rely upon visual learning objects.

Facilitator:
Dr Pandeli Glavanis, Center for Learning and Teaching

Economics for Everyone: a learner-centred approach
(Tuesday November 21st, 3- 4:15 pm)

This workshop will describe the content and process of creating a new "core curriculum" course for entering Freshmen. The course is as much about process (learner-centred), as it is about content. It is a collaborative journey to understand the diversity of the world economy, the importance of the Arab/Islamic region in the world's economic scheme of things, the strengths and weaknesses of the Egyptian economy, or, as Alfred Marshall put it, “the ordinary business of life” which we all pursue as consuming, producing and decision-making people.

What are the causes and limits of oil prices? Why is the unemployment rate for Egyptian women lower after the age of 30? Why are some people so poor that they are forced to beg for a living? Why are baby seals annually beaten to death in the Canadian Arctic. Is the distribution of income and wealth fair? Why is the Nile River turning into a sewer? Why are there taxes on cigarettes? When should a rainforest be cut down? What's wrong with downloading music for free from the Internet?

Facilitator: Dr Herb Thompson, Economics Department

Constructing a Critical Pedagogy for Visual Literacy and Document Design Across Curricula
(Tuesday November 28th, 3- 4:15 pm)

Visual literacy in a technologically advanced world is an integral part of critical thinking. How one interprets visuals requires a methodical approach that observes and explains the rhetorical appeals of visual images. Interpretation can further promote analytical skills, as language and visuals are full of ambiguity. Therefore, the art of interpretation begins with the assumption that we care enough to resolve ambiguity in visuals to achieve shared understanding which in turn fosters a culture of learning.
Across curricula, the meanings of texts are more often the result of a combination of visual and verbal messages. After close examination of student performance in Writing and Journalism classrooms, our students seem generally less intimidated by the visual than literary texts because they possess strong visual sensibilities.
This presentation will introduce a basic vocabulary and pedagogical approach for the observation, analysis and instructional elements of visual messages in the classroom.

Facilitators: Dr Doris Jones, Writing Program/JRMC

On “clickers”, student engagement and classroom assessment
(Tuesday December 5th, 3- 4:15 pm)

Most students cannot listen effectively to lectures over a sustained period of time no matter how skillful the lecturer. Active learning strategies coupled with the help of technology can improve student engagement in the classroom without using too much class time. This semester, the Center for Learning and Teaching has initiated two pilot projects to assess the effect of “clickers” (student classroom response systems) on student interaction and engagement in the classroom. These clickers interface with PowerPoint and allow the professor to collect, evaluate, and record responses from everyone in the classroom in less than a minute.
In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to try out these clickers and to discuss how this technology, together with well-designed questions, can be used to stimulate classroom discussion and peer instruction and gather information for classroom assessment. Faculty members who are interested to experiment with this technology next semester in collaboration with CLT are encouraged to attend this workshop.

Facilitator:
Dr Aziza Ellozy, Center for Learning and Teaching
Dr Ahmed Hassanein, Construction Engineering

First Impressions: How to Use the First Day of Classes
(Tuesday December 12th, 11 am – 12 noon)

What should faculty do on the first day of classes? Some faculty do almost nothing, knowing that many students won't show up till the second day of classes (or later); some start right in with a lecture that lasts the full period. The first wastes the students' time; the second misses a valuable opportunity to create an interactive atmosphere in the classroom. This workshop will discuss a variety of techniques to make effective use of the first day, both to encourage student participation and to orient the students to the subject they will be studying.

Facilitator: Dr Michael Reimer, History Department