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How to Create Goals for Lessons that Foster Deeper Thinking and Greater Learning

Becky LaVally, Assistant Instructor, Communication Studies

Carefully crafted learning goals help students develop higher-order thinking for discovering new knowledge and empower instructors to assess whether they’ve achieved desired outcomes. Using ideas developed by David Krathwohl based on a revision of Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy, this session will teach you how to set goals for encouraging students to reach higher levels of cognition in mastering lesson material.

Engaging the Millennial Generation: Problem-Based Learning as a Tool for Effective Classroom Discussion

Danielle Hayes, Higher Educational Administration
Kiersten Ferguson, Graduate Research Assistant, Higher Educational Administration

This session will introduce you to problem-based learning as a strategy for effective classroom communication, addressing contemporary learning styles of the millennial generation. Using an interactive, hands-on approach to problem-based learning strategies, you will better understand the undergraduates you serve, explore experiential learning using the problem-based learning approach, and learn strategies for incorporating critical thinking skills in the classroom.

Personal Narratives To Promote Critical Thinking: Creating Lessons that Link Students’ Stories to Subject Matter

Chris Milk, Curriculum and Instruction
Elizabeth Villarreal-Perales, Curriculum and Instruction

Personal experiences are crucial in developing critical thinking skills to enhance learning. In this session, we will walk through a modeled lesson that links personal narratives to critical thinking. We will provide lesson planning templates and graphic organizers to give you the opportunity to plan your own lessons and post them on the Web.

Watch, Discuss, Communicate – Crafting Discussions and Critical Thinking with the Help of a TV Show

Judith Hammer, Germanic Studies

This interactive session will focus on strategies to foster communication through discussion of cultural topics. Using hands-on activities, you will develop strategies to engage students in effective discussions. You will view clips of a German TV serial, analyze learner-centered discussion approaches and tasks, and then work in small groups to design and present activities to engage students in discussion and effective communication.

How I Successfully Engaged Students in a Required, Lower-Division Course

Kerk Kee, Organizational Communication
Michael Sweet, Graduate Research Assistant, Educational Psychology

This session will describe how we integrated Team-Based Learning into two sections of a lower-division professional communication/public speaking class. Our goals were to engage students who saw the class as a “hoop” to jump through and to draw all students further into the material, so they could really apply it at a higher level. Team-Based Learning—which makes both individuals and teams accountable for mastering course content at increasingly complex levels—accomplished both goals.

Experiencing Dynamic Communication

Kelly Welsh, Health Education

This session will use the dynamic properties of experiential education to increase your awareness of the importance of communication skills and to provide you with communication tools you can use in your personal and professional lives. With reference to each major component of the program included in a handout, you will be invited to engage in initiatives followed by reflection.