No expertise in teaching critical thinking and no experience with performance tasks will be assumed, although we will certainly benefit from the expertise and experience you bring. Everyone is welcome.

Special Note: This conference will include a refereed poster session. If you would like to present a poster outlining a performance task you've used or are developing, please submit an abstract of your poster to caese@uwsp.edu by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 28, 2009.  Abstracts should be 250 words or less.

Preliminary Agenda                            Performance Tasks Booklet

WHAT ARE PERFORMANCE TASKS AND WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

A performance task is an actual or simulated reality-based situation that requires students to generate a product or performance in order to acquire or demonstrate mastery of identified learning outcomes.

Performance tasks are good ways to develop and assess higher-order thinking skills, such the ability to gather, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, the ability to dissect and evaluate arguments, the ability to formulate and defend theses and hypotheses, and the ability to solve complex problems.

Additionally, by providing authentic learning experiences and assessment methods, performance tasks are intrinsically meaningful to learners, and can bestow meaning and purpose upon more traditional learning activities and assessment methods (such as lessons, drills and exercises).

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE CONFERENCE?

This conference will introduce faculty to performance tasks and help faculty to reflect upon how they might use performance tasks to teach and assess high-level critical thinking skills.

Participants will leave the conference with:

1. A firm understanding of critical thinking skills

2. A solid grasp of how to develop and employ performance tasks as a teaching and assessment tool

3. The invitation to join a community of other faculty with whom they can share the performance tasks that they develop.

To view the preliminary agenda, click here.

To view a pamphlet about performance tasks prepared for the conference, click here.

Please feel free to direct any questions to Dona Warren, dwarren@uwsp.edu.

This conference is made possible by an OPID grant and support from UWSP's Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement.

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Faculty College 2010, sponsored by the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development, will be held once again at the UW-Richland campus, in Richland Center, from
June 1- 4, 2010.  The College brings together approximately 100 faculty and instructional academic staff from across the System for three days of intensive exploration of teaching, learning and curricular issues. 

This year OPID is pleased to feature an exciting lineup of workshops: 

·         “Decoding the Disciplines,” by Joan Middendorf and Leah Shopkow.  Joan Middendorf is a long time educational developer who serves as Associate Director of Campus Instructional Consulting Center and Adjunct Professor in Higher Education Administration at Indiana University Bloomington. Leah Shopkow is an Associate Professor of History at Indiana University Bloomington

·         “Looking Inside the Black Box: Exploring How Students Learn,” by Bill Cerbin, Professor of Psychology and Director of the UW-La Crosse Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning

·         “Inclusive Excellence in the Classroom: Creating Equitable Learning Experiences for All Students,” by Paul C. Gorski, founder of EdChange and Assistant Professor in Integrative Studies at George Mason University

·         “Gathering SoTL Evidence: Methods for Systematic Inquiry into Student Learning,” by Renee A. Meyers, Coordinator of the UW System Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In addition, this year’s keynote speakers will be Joan Middendorf and Leah Shopkow. They will be introducing all the participants to “Decoding the Disciplines.”

All UW System institutions have been invited to nominate four participants. Those interested in attending should contact Patricia Ploetz at the Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement, phone ext. 4930 or email pploetz@uwsp.edu<mailto:pploetz@uwsp.edu> by April 1, 2010. Please direct questions about Faculty College to Patricia Ploetz at ext. 4930 or email pploetz@uwsp.edu<mailto:pploetz@uwsp.edu>.

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Association of American Colleges & Universities 2009-2010 Network Conferences
1818 R Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
www.aacu.org

AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal offers an annual series of working conferences, collaboratively designed with AAC&U member campuses and led by experienced practitioners. In these challenging economic times, we know that our members are working hard to maintain the quality of their undergraduate programs and the momentum of their educational change initiatives. These conferences are designed to help campuses do just that.

We hope you will join colleagues from around the country who, like you, are seeking new strategies to address key issues today - general education reform, outcomes assessment, integrative and applied learning, faculty work, and creating campus cultures of ethics and integrity.

General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities
Seattle, Washington
February 18-20, 2010

Register now online

General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities invites fresh thinking and new approaches to help faculty, staff, and administrators maintain momentum in general education and assessment during tough times, and reaffirms a commitment to engaged liberal education as the guiding principle for campus action. Attend this meeting to learn new approaches to aligning scarce resources with an ambitious plan for general education, and ways to integrate diversity, global, civic learning, and models for advancing scientific and quantitative literacy through real-world curricula and problem-based pedagogies.

Opening Keynote Address: "Conceptualizing a Twenty-First Century Renaissance for General Education," Robert Weisbuch, President, Drew University

Plenary speakers include:
"Speaking Frankly: General Education for the Unknown," Rebecca Berryhill Jessup, Seattle University; Isiah Bingley, Seattle Community College; Megan Otis, Western Washington University; Marina Pita, University of Washington - Seattle; Wassan Singh, Highline Community College; and Gillies Malnarich and Emily Lardner, Evergreen State College

"Betting on Gravity," Ken O'Donnell, Associate Dean, Academic Program Planning, California State University, Office of the Chancellor

Learn more about the conference online.

Can't come to the meeting in Seattle, but working on general education? Learn about fifty common errors and pitfalls in general education reform in Paul L. Gaston and Jerry Gaff's book, Revising General Education—And Avoiding the Potholes: A Guide for Curricular Change.

FACULTY ROLES IN HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES
March 25-27, 2010
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Faculty know that increasing students' effort and engagement are both important to student success.  Certain curricular and pedagogical practices - including undergraduate research, service-learning, first-year and capstone projects/programs, and learning communities - by their nature require students to be actively involved in their own learning. These "high-impact" practices, when done well, engage students by helping them to make their own discoveries and connections, grapple with "big" questions whose importance they can see, and address complex problems.

From teaching integrative capstone courses, to running offices of community engagement, to leading national networks devoted to undergraduate research, faculty are at the forefront of developing, improving, and expanding the reach of these high-impact practices. What can others learn from their efforts?

Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices will highlight the new and expanding roles that faculty are playing in developing and using high-impact practices-in and beyond the disciplines - to foster student learning. The conference is designed for faculty members seeking innovative, robust, and practical  designs  for  learning, teaching, and assessment approaches proven to deepen student engagement,  and a network of engaged colleagues. It is also geared toward administrators and others on campus looking to support and partner with faculty to advance the use of high-impact practices for more students, more intentionally, across multiple points in time. The conference thus seeks proposals highlighting models of these high-impact practices and those that address issues of faculty rewards, promotion and tenure, cost-effectiveness, and more.

AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal invites faculty, division heads, department chairs, deans, and others to explore faculty roles in high-impact practices. Proposals from institutions of all types and sizes - public and private, two-year and four-year, large and small - are encouraged. Visit the Call for Proposals for more information.

For more information and to register, click here.

Questions about any of AAC&U's meetings? E-mail meetings@aacu.org.

The 3rd Annual SoTL Commons Conference 
March 10-12, 2010
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia (USA)

Registration is now open and the submission of proposals period is August 15 - October 15, 2009.  The registration fee is reduced from the last conference and can be further reduced when 4 or more people from the same institution register at the same time.The conference focuses upon SoTL in higher education.

We anticipate 10-20 countries to be represented at the conference.  Keynoters are Gary Poole (University of British Columbia, Canada), Kathleen McKinney (Illinois State University, USA), and Carolin Kreber (University of Edinburgh, UK).

For more information, go to
http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/2010/index.htm

General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities
February 18-20, 2010
Seattle, Washington

Register now online at http://www.aacu.org/meetings/generaleducation/index.cfm

Early registration available now through January 25, 2010.

The conference program will include sessions on the latest trends in general education reform. Participants will explore practical approaches for using general education reform and developing meaningful assessments that drive student success and achievement of essential learning outcomes.

Opening Keynote Address
Conceptualizing a Twenty-First-Century Renaissance for General Education
Robert Weisbuch, President, Drew University

Expanding the Circle: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LBTGQ Students and Studies
February 25–28, 2010
San Francisco, California

Visit the conference website: www.ExpandingtheCircle.com.

Register by October 25 to take advantage of our early registration rate.

In this conference, we will address factors that have contributed to excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues from academic study and student life; and also explore strategies to make our campuses more inclusive for all students. We will examine strategies and best practices that effectively integrate LGBTQ areas of teaching and research with student life activities. This will be among the first national conferences in higher education to focus on LGBTQ concerns by seeking connections across diversities, disciplines, and academic and student affairs.

Partnering Organizations:

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
Association for College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA)
Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals
Global Fund for Women
Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

Plenary Speakers:

John C. Hawley, Santa Clara University
L. Lee Knefelkamp, Teachers College, Columbia University
Scotty McLennan, Stanford University
Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women
Steven Tierney, California Institute of Integral Studies

6 Pre-Conference Workshops and 35 Concurrent Interactive Sessions

For inquiries, contact ExpandingtheCircle@ciis.edu.

Educause Midwest Regional Conference 2010: Focus on New Realities
March 15–17, 2010
Chicago, IL

Register now at http://www.educause.edu/blog/cluckett/MidwestRegionalConference2010R/192884

This year's conference will look at the creative, effective, and sustainable ways that the higher education IT community is transforming teaching and learning, e-research/e-scholarship, IT leaders and enterprise services while coping with financial challenges.

• Connect with innovators and forward thinkers and learn about current and emerging best practices in higher education information services.

• Collaborate with others in positions similar to yours to exchange experiences and explore ways to tackle common challenges.

• Contribute your uncommon thinking for the common good in numerous discussion sessions and networking venues.

Join top leaders in higher education technology in a convenient and affordable setting this winter—register now to save money with low early-bird rates.

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