| Learning to Teach: Provost's Speaker Series Brings International Experts to Faculty
Provost Allen Mori had not taught freshmen for about 25 years when he taught UNV 101 last year, a class
titled “Personal, Social and Intellectual Development” for first-time freshmen, and found it eye-opening.
“Personally, it’s really given me a greater commitment to the freshmen success seminar program,” he says. “I now see first-hand the great needs our freshmen have, coming to us from high schools where often they
don’t get the best academic preparation. They’re not really always college-ready, and they’re challenged by
the university curriculum.”
Joseph Cuseo, a professor of psychology and a nationally-known expert in freshmen success, worked with CSUDH faculty and
administrators to re-examine an existing course focused on individual development, self-knowledge and assessment,
learning to learn, career development, and using University resources such as the library. The revised course was
launched in fall of 2005. Many sections were voluntarily taught by senior administrators as a retention strategy
for students’ first year at Dominguez Hills.
Similarly, CSUDH faculty and administration are aided in their academic development through the Provost’s Speakers
Seminar and a separate workshop for the general University population. This series is titled “On Becoming an
Engaged Community of Learners,” and is part of a five year engagement plan which is being implemented by a steering
committee of senior faculty and administrators and co-coordinated by Randy Zarn, associate vice president of
Student Life and James Cooper, professor of graduate education and faculty associate in the Center for Teaching
and Learning.
Cooper brings international experts to campus to present topics such as student engagement, critical thinking,
and learning communities. Four speakers per year engage administrators, faculty, and staff in discussions of these topics. Speakers first
address a luncheon meeting of the President, vice presidents, and other senior administrators, then speak to a
larger gathering of faculty and staff. In addition, a video talk show of each speaker is available through the Center
for Teaching and Learning website at http://ctl.csudh.edu/.
According to Cooper, “Most graduate programs don’t
offer even one class on the pedagogy of their discipline. You would think that most graduate programs would offer
six to nine units on how to teach.”
Mori notes, “When young Ph.D.s teach our average freshmen, they’re disappointed at what they perceive as a lack of
skill level of the students,” he says. “They don’t know what to do about it, and they get frustrated. If you have
that mindset, the tendency is to blame the students in part.”
Mori enthuses about this level of professional development available to CSUDH faculty, noting that “It’s really
encouraging when faculty who have been around a long time are willing to make changes when they see what the outcomes
are. You can come into [teaching] with the attitude that, ‘I know everything, so I’m going to fill the empty vessels
with what I know.’ But if you shift that to, ‘Yes, I have a great deal of technical knowledge about my field, but
these students have a different way of communicating with each other, and if I can get the information across where
the kids will interpret it in a way that helps them learn more effectively,’ then we’ve accomplished something.”
This semester’s first guest speaker is Diane Halpern, professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College and former
president of the American Psychological Association. Her presentation, “Learning is Not a Spectator Sport: Using the
Science of Learning to Transform College Classrooms,” focuses on research and theory in the science of learning and how
it translates into classroom practice. The author of hundreds of articles and a number of books, many dealing with
critical thinking and gender differences, she has presented her work on cognitive science to many audiences, including
the White House Office of Science and Technology and the Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Halpern’s workshop will be on Thursday, September 21, 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. in Small College Complex, SCC 1300.
Hopeful that the seminar will encourage faculty and administration to engage in dialogue on teaching and learning, Mori describes
the value of the program to faculty, saying, “We want to set up an environment that will produce successful outcomes.
Faculty members often get frustrated because students are having difficulty in their classes. The speaker series and
other professional development activities give faculty a wider array of instructional strategies to use in addressing
the diversity of learners we have here at CSUDH.
“We talk about the campus as a learner-centered campus, we talk to the new faculty about what that means,” Mori
continues. “Our faculty wants to be successful in the classroom. When we provide the support to help them, they
really embrace viewing what they do in the classroom not as being imparters of knowledge, but as facilitators of
learning.”
- Joanie Harmon
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