Upcoming Discussions at the TLTC

If you are thinking that what you do is different or you won't get much out of listening to colleagues from across campus talk about teaching then you are really missing out to this sort of wonderful learning opportunity.

Faculty Reading Circle

In the spirit of collegiality and community, the Faculty Reading Circle through the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center offers a relaxed venue for gathering over some provocative readings and invigorating conversation about teaching, learning, and higher education. This semester we will read a selection of articles and book chapters on topics that include academic bullying, assessment issues, and qualities of good teaching. Faculty, staff, administrators and graduate students from all disciplines are welcome! Come to one session, or attend them all! The discussions are scheduled as follows, and our first meeting takes place next week:

• Meeting 1: Wednesday, September 17, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, TLTC 153
Academic Bullying
Readings will include chapters from the book Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to Do About It, by Darla J. Twale and Barbara M. DeLuca, and the articles “Handling the ‘Bad Apples’” and “Dealing with Bullies” from Inside Higher Ed.

• Meeting 2: Thursday, October 16, 12:30 – 1:30 pm, TLTC 153
Assessment
Readings will include articles such as Lee Shulman’s “Counting and Recounting: Assessment and the Quest for Accountability” from Change and Laurie Fendrich’s “A Pedagogical Straitjacket” from The Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as a chapter from Ken Bain’s well-known book What the Best College Teachers Do.

• Meeting 3: Wednesday, November 12, 12:00 – 1:00, TLTC 153
Great Teaching
Readings will include selections from What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain, from Louis Schmier’s Random Thoughts: The Humanity of Teaching, and from Letters to a Teacher, by Sam Pickering (the inspiration for the film Dead Poet’s Society).


The readings are available for download on the TLTC website. To access them, go to http://www.tltc.ttu.edu/teach/facReadingCircle/. For purposes of copyright protection, you will need to use your eRaider information. When asked for your username, simply enter TTU\ and then your eRaider username. You will also enter your eRaider password. You will find the readings organized by meeting date and topic. Simply click on each title to download the article or book chapter.

Please register online for one or each session by visiting the TLTC website at www.tltc.ttu.edu and clicking on “Sign up for a Class.” For more information, please contact Dr. Allison Boye via email at allison.p.boye@ttu.edu, or by calling 742-0133.

Please bring your lunch and join our informal conversation about some important issues in higher education!

Grade Distribution Data Update

I entered the raw data into IBM Watson Labs' new on line visualization systems "Many Eyes" to get these charts. You can manipulate the data there too, if you wish. The link takes you to this database.

Women in Architecture

There's been an interesting debate brewing about the stats on female students in our college. Cursory checks indicate that we're graduating professional degree students at about 75/25 male to female. Here's the nationwide statistics:


Female architecture graduates from US schools as a proportion of all. Source: National Center for Education Statistics' Digest of Education Statistics (2007).

In 2006 almost 45% of all professional degree graduates were women. That makes us about 20% below the national average. We'll let you know the stats for our school in more detail when they come out.

Committee Shuffle

There is an initiative afoot to fold the role of the Lecture and Exhibitions committees and expand the domain of service into a new set of duties: The Symposia, Exhibitions, and Lectures (SEL) committee.
Currently, the Lecture Committee is:
Rex, Davis, Perbellini, and Taylor.
Currently, the Exhibition Committee is:
Tsubaki, Aranha, Pauls, Watkins, and Zugay (Martin, Ex-Officio)

The combined cohort would be nine faculty and that's too large. The SEL committee is proposed to be reduced to:
Tsubaki, Davis, Perbellini, Aranha, and Taylor. (Martin & Rex, both Ex-Officio)
That removes Rex, Zugay, Pauls, and Watkins.