Department of English

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Center for Teaching and Learning Conference Room

Vodra Hall Room 143

2:00-3:30 PM

RSVP: Elizabeth Silvas (esilvas1@njcu.edu) or call extension 2116

• Empower Students By Engaging Them In The Educational Experience
• Help Students to See That Learning Can Be Enjoyable
• Give Students More Control Over Their Own Education

This interactive workshop faculty will explore ways in which helping students analyze critically their past and current educational experiences can lead them to take a more active role in their university education and help them break out of the more disempowering cycles of the educational system. Students are regularly asked to reflect on curricular and pedagogical practices that have shaped their own development as learners.

Dr. David Blackmore explores some of the challenges of working with students who enter the University from inadequate public school systems and offers specific instructional strategies for engaging students in an analysis of their own education. Through small-group discussions and brief writing exercises, Dr. Blackmore, engages workshop participants in an examination of their own educational experiences while modeling pedagogical approaches that can be applied across a wide range of disciplines. Dr. Blackmore describes how he approaches students within the context of English courses, but engages audience participants in a discussion on about how they might adapt his strategy within their own disciplines.

There is a particular emphasis on empowering students who wish to become public school teachers to reflect on curricular and pedagogical practices that have shaped their own development as learners, as well as to think about ways that they can use lessons learned from their own experience to become effective teachers in the future.