Much of the work we do in the CITL mixes faculty members’ experiences and perspectives in the classroom with what we know about educational theory and research. Naturally, we look at teaching and learning from the perspectives most familiar to us. What we too often leave out, though, is the student perspective, and we are working to add that to our mix starting this fall.
We started out this year’s New Faculty Orientation with a video of five IUB undergraduates talking about what best helps them learn, as well as what they’d like new instructors to know about teaching at this campus. This video project gave these bright young people a chance to reflect on what motivates them and helps them excel in their studies, and it provided unique viewpoints that added to the day’s discussions of teaching. I invite you to watch this video and think about how your own teaching can meet the expectations they expressed.
We are also adding two students to our staff in positions we call Student Learning Liaisons. These undergraduates will be helping us understand how student perspectives can inform our programming and initiatives. They will reach out to various student groups and communities, gathering student views about a variety of issues—their educational challenges and aspirations, their views about certain instructional approaches, and their input on specific efforts to improve student success.
We are excited to more actively include student voices in our work, and we hope you will all help us identify ways to better engage students in supporting instructional innovation at IU Bloomington. If you have ideas, please leave them in the comments below. To see more about this initiative as well as others the CITL is working on, visit us at citl.indiana.edu.
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