The APS Teaching Section has planned an exciting Institute on Teaching and Learning (ITL) this summer that will feature best practices in evidence-based teaching of physiology and opportunities to move into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) or Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). For more information and how to register, visit the ITL website.
This second biennial institute (the first ITL was held in 2014 in Bar Harbor, Maine on June 23–27) is targeting physiology educators of undergraduates and physiology educators in professional schools with a variety of plenary talks and workshops. Participants are also encouraged to present a poster, which will be featured during a poster discussion at the institute.
At the 2014 ITL, a new Physiology Educator Community of Practice (PECOP) was formed that is open and free for all physiology educators. The Physiology Educator Community features various activities, including announcements, discussions and a bimonthly blog highlighting numerous items of interest for physiology educators contributed by a large number of guest bloggers.
The 2016 ITL will begin with an optional pre-meeting workshop on using ultrasound to teach professional students (separate registration required and participant cap). Plenary topics throughout the week will address broad aspects of teaching and learning, including faculty role in the classroom, team-based learning in large classes, testing and evaluation, online teaching resources, physiology in the professional curriculum, physiology in community colleges, and educational leadership.
Twice a day, there will be three different workshop opportunities facilitated by a variety of experts and featuring a number of topics, such as flipped classrooms, using PULSE rubrics for assessment, team-based learning, beginning educational scholarship, using conceptual frameworks in teaching, using visual literacy to learn physiological principles, and working with a physiology majors interest group.
Guest keynote speakers include Jay Labov from the National Academy of Sciences (“The National Landscape in Undergraduate STEM Education: Connecting the Dots”) and Terry Doyle from Ferris State University and author of The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony with Your Brain (“A New Paradigm for Student Learners”).
The 2014 ITL had phenomenal evaluations from the 80 to 100 participants, and a number of close relationships among physiology educators were founded, leading to collaboration. In a survey soon after the institute, 95.8 percent of participants said they gained new ideas that would be useful for their teaching. In a second survey eight months later, 66 percent of participants had carried out their planned action from the institute. Because 85 percent of participants from the 2014 ITL said they were either highly likely or somewhat likely to attend a subsequent ITL, please get your registrations in soon! We are hoping to meet you at the 2016 ITL and as a member with us in the Physiology Educator Community of Practice!
For further information, please check out the institute website, or I would be happy to answer your questions at 605-658-6337 or barb.goodman@usd.edu.