Why They Don't Get It: Implications for Our Teaching from the Intellectual and Ethical Development of College Students

Why They Don't Get It: Implications for Our Teaching from the Intellectual and Ethical Development of College Students

Dr. Craig Nelson, Indiana University

Most of us who teach undergraduates aim to foster our students' capacities to think through complex problems and to make informed judgments in full awareness of ambiguity and complexity. But this sort of deep learning that we long to see is strongly constrained by our students' cognitive development and implicit assumptions about learning. While this has been a consistent finding of over 40 years of research, beginning with William Perry’s seminal work with Harvard undergraduates, we typically design our courses with little attention to the developmental capacities of our students.

In this workshop, we will examine students' typical epistemological assumptions as well as concrete strategies for designing assignments that foster deeper change in our students. We will also suggest ways in which our success in this effort facilitates students' subsequent success in graduate and professional school and in other contexts. While relevant across the curriculum, this workshop will be especially appealing to those who teach in values-encompassing fields, such as religion, culture, politics, and literature.

Craig Nelson is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Indiana University and a nationally recognized expert in teaching and learning. Dr. Nelson's scholarship on teaching has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and he served as the first President of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Register for Dr. Nelson's afternoon workshop--Grading's Dual Roles: Facilitation and Evaluation--here: https://cotworkshop-gradingsdualroles.eventbrite.com

Questions about these workshops? Contact Aaron Hollander, Craft of Teaching Program Coordinator at athollander@uchicago.edu