Feel like an impostor? This free webinar is for you!

It’s inevitable… at one point or another we’ve all felt it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a certain point, the Daily Affirmation of Stuart Smalley just doesn’t cut it.

Thankfully, the folks at Academic Coaching and Writing are offering a free webinar in September on just this pervasive malady:

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Managing the Impostor Syndrome in Academia: How to Overcome Self-Doubt

Do you ever feel like you are an academic “impostor,” living with the dread that you will someday be discovered to be a fraud? Do you feel that you are not really seen for all your strengths and capabilities? Key to academic success is your ability to present yourself in a compelling manner. Howevcr, many academics are inhibited by negative self-talk that undermines the way they present their competencies. This webinar will help you to step back and assess how you present your academic capabilities and how you manage others’ impressions of your abilities.

This webinar will present some research on faculty productivity and guide you through coaching exercises to help you:

• Understand your role in the performance of being an academic
• Identify the three components of “Academic Presence:”
  • Recognize how academic culture may lead to negative self-talk
  • Increase self-awareness of how negative thoughts sabotage your performance
  • Step into your strengths and manifest your Academic Presence

Join Moira Killoran for this webinar September 25, 2014 at:

• 1 p.m. PDT
• 2 p.m. MDT
• 3 p.m. CDT
• 4 p.m. EDT

About the Presenter

Moira Killoran, ACW Director of Academic Coaching, is a professionally certified coach with experience in leadership, academic career and dissertation coaching, as well as in qualitative research consulting. As a consultant, she has worked extensively with faculty members, university administrators, and graduate students, assisting them to complete manuscripts, dissertations, and grant proposals. She also has worked with academics to transition out of academia and into new industries. She has been principal investigator (PI) or co-PI for a variety of studies, and has been funded by the NIH, DOD, and SSRC. Moira’s publications focus on gender and identity construction, organizational culture, substance use, and doctor-patient communication. Her faculty appointments have included positions at George Washington University and Whittier College. She received her PhD in cultural anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin, and has post-doctoral training from the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco in medical anthropology.

Why Saving Work for Tomorrow Doesn’t Work

As we all know (but often try to forget), procrastination is a professional killer and a personal stressor. Whether it’s that nagging pile of essays that need grading or that essay submission that needs reviewing, the impulse to put it off usually causes more problems than it solves. This piece by Elizabeth Grace Saunders in the Harvard Business Review provides some important perspective, as well as two useful strategies for keeping your inner procrastinator at bay.

Give your students the gift of unplugging!

So, the academic term has just started. How many students have you found texting in your class already? Or checking e-mail, doing social media, or hitting the Candy Crush?

Most of us, to our chagrin, have encountered this hassle frequently — and a recent study in the Journal of Media Education reveals that the number of students who admit to using their phone during class time for non-class stuff exceeds 90%! We also have a good sense that the student defense of “multitasking” is largely bunk; study after study reveals that student multitasking with phones or computers while engaged in class or studying results in degraded academic performance.  But the lure of the digital distraction is pervasive, as many (most?) of us can attest if we’re being honest with ourselves (who here hasn’t gotten through at least part of a long meeting without a furtive phone check or two… or more?).

Louise Katz from Columbia State Community College may have found an answer, at least for her students. While some chafe at the idea of providing rewards for behavior students should be performing anyway, Katz argues in the Chronicle that a well-executed extra credit assignment might yield some valuable lessons for the digital addicts in our classrooms. So consider giving your students the gift of unplugged class periods! Some of them just might thank you for it.

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August 25, 2014

Today’s Lesson: Life in the Classroom Before Cellphones

By Louise Katz

Although I had taught for more than 20 years, I didn’t realize that I had forgotten what it was like to teach in a classroom without cellphones until I came up with a plan to relive those halcyon days. It was near the end of the semester, and I offered one point of extra credit per class period for my psychology students who turned off their cellphones before class and put them on the front desk.

I was sure that no students would part with their phones for such a meager offering. Wrong: Virtually all my students did. They even said they loved the idea, so the next semester I offered all my classes the same deal for the entire semester, and participation continued unabated. In fact, much to my surprise, after the first few days, when I walked into my classes all the cellphones were already on the table in the front of the room.

Don’t let your students fall off the concept map!

Maps can be amazing things — they can not only reveal what is there, and how things are connected, but also how to navigate and master a terrain. Of course, some maps are more amazing than others…

For high-impact pedagogy that can apply in a variety of situations, though, the concept map can be hard to beat. A “concept map” is defined by Cañas and Novak of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in this way:

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts.

If you’re unfamiliar with concept maps and their potential uses for student brainstorming, classroom discussion, and assessment of learning, check out this brief, useful video by Karen Rohrbauck Stout from Western Washington University’s Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment.

I experimented with concept mapping in my Rhetorical Theory class last year. While I found it a great tool for guiding class discussion in a way that helped students define tools and shape the key ideas of a theoretical perspective, I had less success helping students use concept mapping independently to study course material.

If you’re unsure about incorporating concept maps in your classes (especially if you’ve tried, crashed and burned before, or heard of someone who has), Maryellen Weimer‘s advice might help you rethink how to use this potentially powerful tool for student learning.

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Keeping Students on Board with Concept Maps

Written by: Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D.
Published On: August 25, 2014

The benefits of concept maps are well established. They encourage students to organize knowledge and do so in ways meaningful to them. They help students sort out, prioritize, and understand relationships between terms, concepts, and ideas. Students can also use concept maps to forge relationships between new knowledge and what they already know.

But students don’t always see these benefits when first introduced to concept maps, and as the authors of the article referenced below discovered, how concept maps are used in a course directly affects student perceptions of their value.

Can professors work 9 to 5? (Clean up the coffee you just spit out.)

Compared to most folks, we work weird jobs. Now, that’s true for lots of reasons, but one of them is the bizarre relationship we have with time. On the one hand, we are usually blessed with a flexibility in our professional schedule that our friends and loved ones who work 9 to 5 would kill for.

On the other hand, we are constantly complaining about being overworked. And that’s not an unreasonable complaint — late-night lesson preps, weekend grading binges, committee meetings that are never scheduled at convenient times… The issue of work/life balance is a constant in academia, it seems, and the goal envisioned in this discussion is one few people seem to achieve… unless, of course, in the estimation of some of us, that lucky sot is obviously letting something slide.

So when I started reading Trish Roberts-Miller’s piece in Inside Higher Ed this morning, I had to clean up the coffee I spit out. Her claim — that yes, we academics can manage the average pace of a 9 to 5 schedule — is at once audacious and uncomfortably on point for those of us who revel in how “busy” we always are.  (Please bear in mind that this article is not being shared by one who has mastered this discipline! I am digesting this food for thought myself, and considering how to implement her advice to tame my own crazy work rhythms.) It might not be a bad idea to try timing our work like lawyers to see where our productivity waxes and wanes, so that one day we can work more like bankers and rest and play like real people.

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9 to 5

August 25, 2014

By Trish Roberts-Miller

Recently, I told a group of graduate students that it’s possible to finish a dissertation and have a happy scholarly career while working 9 to 5. I think they were cheered and shocked, and I only later realized there might have been a lot of confusion. It’s hard to talk about working hours and academics partially because we have what others have called a culture (perhaps even cult) of “busyness,” partially because of the collapse of the 40-hour work week, and partially because academic work is a gas that will expand to fill all the time available.

So here is an attempt to clarify.

Can we move our students from consumers to realistic achievers?

The scenario is a painfully familiar one…

For the last two decades the scholarly study of “academic entitlement” and its relationship to the higher education experience has yielded some important insights. While defining the concept is tricky, Singleton-Jackson et al. (2011, p. 232) identify the following facets of the phenomenon:

a) a belief that some reward is deserved that is not justified based on one’s actual academic achievement; 2) that a high academic entitlement disposition implies a diminished role for personal responsibility in actual academic achievement; and, 3) that a high academic entitlement disposition also implies expectations about the role of instructors that are above and beyond their obligation of providing educational opportunities and effective, quality instruction.

These tendencies should come as no surprise to us, as we have been and will continue to teach the Millennial generation — and their expectations based in part on an educational consumerist perspective — for the next six years. First year college students, in particular, are vulnerable to experiencing a system shock as the work patterns that yielded high achievement in their K-12 past don’t seem to cut it in the bigs. So is the answer to provide toughlove and get them used to lowered expectations?

We don’t want our students to be demoralized, and to settle for lower expectations for their performance in our classes.  Indeed, a healthy body of research confirms that establishing high expectations for students can be a powerful means of achieving effective student learning outcomes.

Maryellen Weimer of The Teaching Professor Blog addresses an important dilemma we all face as college teachers:

Unrealistic expectations present teachers with a conundrum. We want students to believe in themselves. We want them committed to doing well. But we need them to be realistic about what success demands.

Her useful recommendations bear some attention as we start our courses this year — how can we use the first day, the first week of class to set expectations that are both realistic and aspirational for students? How can we use the first few weeks of the term to provide formative feedback that helps students adjust their expectations while maintaining their morale? And how should we respond to the first big exam or essay to help keep students motivated and on the right track? Your suggestions and conversation are welcome in the comments below!

Singleton-Jackson, J.A., Jackson, D.L., and Reinhardt, J. (2011). Academic entitlement: Exploring definitions and dimensions of entitled students. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5(9), 229-236.

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AUGUST 20, 2014

Reality Check: Helping to Manage Student Expectations

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog

It’s not until the day of the test, as they’re confronted by a number of questions they can’t answer, that the anxiety sets in. They will sit staring at the questions and guessing at far too many answers, before turning in the test and then persuading themselves that chances are still pretty good for a B. Most students begin college, the academic year, and new courses motivated and optimistic. Many first-year students expect to do well because they were successful in high school. Some are right, but others will only find similar success if they work much harder than they did in high school. Yet most start out expending the same level of effort. They will talk with their classmates and convince each other that an exam covering three chapters can’t be that hard, so they put off studying and then “look over” the chapters the night before—happily dealing with any and all interruptions and distractions.

A lot of students continue to hold unrealistic expectations throughout the course even in the presence of mounting evidence to the contrary. A student can be going into a cumulative final exam with a solid C, but she believes she is going to ace that final and come out of the course with a high B. That may be possible in a few courses, but it’s a long shot in others and is simply not going to happen in most courses.

It’s that time again!!! “What Do You Do on the First Day of Class?”

If you’re a school geek like me — not to mention if you’re a parent — the first day of school is a magical time.

But for us teachers, it can also be a nerve-wracking time… there are a number of goals we have for kicking off our class in the right way: establishing our own persona, introducing the course in a way that whets the students’ appetites, establishing clear expectations, and establishing a welcoming and warm yet serious classroom environment. [Maryellen Weimer blogged a short yet dead-useful summary of goals and tips last year in the Teaching Professor.] Yeah, yeah, we introduce the syllabus, but what then?

Just in time, Josh Boldt at the University of Georgia shares a great idea — both for building a welcoming classroom culture and for helping you learn names and faces! — in Vitae. Boldt also gives a shout-out to Augustana’s own David Gooblar, who provides tips on this subject and much, much more on his Pedagogy Unbound website (which you should check out ASAP).

Enjoy that first day!

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What Do You Do on the First Day of Class?

Image: Oregon State U. Special Collections & Archives.

August 21, 2014

A huge proportion of Vitae members identify themselves either as graduate students or faculty members—which means that a pretty significant number of people here will be teaching at least one section this semester. And of course for every section taught, there’s always a first day of class.

So I thought it might be fun to come up with some ideas for first-day lesson plans. David Gooblar has compiled an excellent database of teaching resources here at Vitae and at his website Pedagogy Unbound. We’ve also just created a new Teaching Tips group where teachers—beginners and veterans—can share more tips and ideas. Consider this post the beginning of that discussion.

Free MOOC on Undergraduate STEM Teaching!

Colleagues in STEM fields, have I got some helpful news for you (thanks to my Augie colleague Jon Clauss, who gave me the heads-up):

Starting in early October, the  Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is offering a free 7 week MOOC on “An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching.” Targeted especially at grad students, postdocs, and new STEM faculty, the MOOC seems potentially valuable for experienced faculty looking to sharpen and shake things up as well.

I’ve pasted a description from their website below, and attached their introductory video. The seven weeks include:

Week 1 – Principles of Learning

Week 2 – Learning Objectives, Assessment of Learning

Week 3 – Cooperative Learning, Peer Instruction, Lecturing

Week 4 – Inquiry-Based Labs, Problem-Based Learning, Writing to Learn

Week 5 – Diversity in the Classroom, Student Motivation

Week 6 – Lesson Planning

Week 7 – Conclusion

Enjoy!

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An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching

This seven-week course explores effective teaching strategies for college or university STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) classrooms

This course will provide graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) who are planning college and university faculty careers with an introduction to evidence-based teaching practices. Participants will learn about effective teaching strategies and the research that supports them, and they will apply what they learn to the design of lessons and assignments they can use in future teaching opportunities. Those who complete the course will be more informed and confident teachers, equipped for greater success in the undergraduate classroom.

The course will draw on the expertise of experienced STEM faculty, educational researchers, and staff from university teaching centers, many of them affiliated with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a network of 22 research universities collaborating in the preparation of STEM graduate students and post-docs as future faculty members. The seven-week course will be highly interactive, with many opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. Learning communities are at the heart of CIRTL’s activities, and this open, online course is intended to foster a large, healthy learning community of those interested in undergraduate STEM teaching–including current STEM faculty.

“An Introduction to Evidence-Based Undergraduate STEM Teaching” has been developed by faculty, staff, and students at Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, Boston University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Colorado-Boulder. The course is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1347605.

Free webinars on academic career advancement? Yes please!

The start of the academic year is when we all need to build our calendars so we can keep everything straight — when are my classes? when are my committee meetings? when are my hot yoga workouts?

 

 

 

 

 

OK, maybe not hot yoga. But when our calendar gets busy, it can be hard to remember to fit in some opportunities for professional development — especially in areas that don’t always hit our day-to-day schedule, like article writing and professional career management. That’s why jumping on opportunities while the academic year is young can be helpful — and that’s where Augie Prof in Progress comes in handy.

We here at APP love free. So when the fine folks at Academic Coaching and Writing offer free webinars on topics like writing articles and book proposals, managing your tenure clock and academic “brand,” even research tips for dissertators, I’ve gotta pass it on.

So register for your free webinars… and I’ll see you in Zumba class.

 

 

 

 

 

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Here’s a preview of the 12 webinars in our Free ACW Fall Webinar Series. These are topics you’ve been asking about again and again. Sign up to reserve your space. Academic Publishing Writing a Journal Article: How to Move from Evidence to Argument September 11, 2014 This webinar will address the fundamentals of crafting successful article submissions in the sciences and social sciences. REGISTER HERE Writing an Academic Book Proposal November 6, 2014 In this webinar you will learn how to start the process of writing a successful book proposal and how to find the best press for your academic book. REGISTER HERE Academic Coaching Managing the Imposter Syndrome in Academia: How to Overcome Self-Doubt September 25, 2014 Do you ever feel like an academic “imposter” or have negative thoughts about your capabilities? This webinar will help you rethink how you present yourself. REGISTER HERE Getting in Sync With Your Tenure Clock October 23, 2014 How do you create peace of mind when working against the tenure clock? Learn strategies to create a tenure plan and rethink your relationship to your tenure process. REGISTER HERE Developing an Academic Support Network November 20, 2014 Have you found an academic team that will support you on your academic journey? Learn how to grow your network and ask for support. REGISTER HERE Academic Branding Academic Branding: Improving Your Visibility, Network, and Career Opportunities September 17, 2014 Academic branding puts you in the driver’s seat, allowing you to tell the story you want to tell about yourself, your scholarship, and your leadership. REGISTER HERE Conducting an Academic Job Search with Clarity, Positivity, and Resilience October 1, 2014 In this webinar you will learn how to manage the uncertainty of an academic job search in ways that increase your clarity, positivity, and resilience. REGISTER HERE Designing Your Online Presence to Promote Your Academic Persona October 15, 2014 This webinar will introduce you to the most popular online platforms and tools and help you decide which ones to use to promote yourself and your academic work. REGISTER HERE Dissertation Proposal Writing Finding and Focusing Your Dissertation Topic: Setting Out on Your Dissertation Journey August 14, 2014 Finding a topic that you are passionate about will sustain you as you traverse the various obstacles that lie ahead on your dissertation journey. REGISTER HERE The Dissertation Proposal: Putting the Pieces Together September 18, 2014 Completing a proposal is like doing a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces. In this webinar you will learn how to put the pieces together. REGISTER HERE The Review of Literature: Finding Your Way Out of the Literature Fog October 16, 2014 In this webinar you will learn how to begin the literature review, organize your materials, decide when you’ve read enough, and synthesize the research. REGISTER HERE Selecting a Research Design that Aligns with Your Research Question November 13, 2014 This webinar offers a crash course in understanding research methods and how to align them with your topic and research question. REGISTER HERE Visit http://www.academiccoachingandwriting.org/ for more information.

Cheers! Dr. Sally Academic Coaching and Writing www.academiccoachingandwriting.org Phone: 760.635.1545

 

Make a great first impression… with your syllabus!

The old cliche reminds us that we never get a second chance to make a first impression.  So true.

This is particularly true for the first day of class, and that all-important document that goes along with it: the syllabus. Sure, the syllabus fulfills some specific course information and management functions. But it can also play a crucial part in how you come across as a teacher, and how your course is framed and received by students.

Just in time for your last-minute syllabus completion crunch, here’s an oldie-but-goodie post on the Teaching Professor Blog by Maryellen Weimer. There’s good stuff here to consider in order to help your syllabus help you make an effective first impression — and maintain it as long as students continue to use the syllabus in your course.

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AUGUST 24, 2011

What Does Your Syllabus Say About You and Your Course?

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog

A colleague shared an excellent but not yet published paper on the syllabus. It got me thinking as this is the time of year when most of us are revisiting these venerable documents. Oh, I know, some of you finished yours back in May when the semester ended. And then there are the rest of us who are working on them feverishly as the beginning of new academic year quickly approaches.

Whether yours are ready to go or just being developed, all our syllabi merit a critical review on a regular basis. I’d like to share some questions to think about as you take a contemplative look at your syllabus.

How would you characterize the tone of your syllabus? Is it friendly and inviting or full of strongly worded directives? Is the focus on what students will be learning or on all those various things that they should and shouldn’t be doing? Why do we feel so strongly that we have to lay down the law in the syllabus? Do we need a policy to cover every possible contingency? Do multiple prohibitions, rules and pointed reminders develop student commitment to the course?

Does your syllabus convey the excitement, intrigue and wonder that’s inherently a part of the content you teach? Does it hint at or openly state the enthusiasm you feel about teaching this great subject? Does it mention the many things students will know and be able to do as a consequence of their engagement with the content? If you read this syllabus, would you say the course is taught by somebody who loves learning?

Does your syllabus indicate that all the decisions about the course have been made? Or does it leave some options up to students or identify some areas where they might have a hand in deciding some of the details associated with the course? Is it really necessary for the teacher to make all the decisions about the course? When the teacher decides everything, how does that affect the motivation to learn? Does teacher decision-making help students develop as independent learners?

Have you ever asked students for feedback on your syllabus? Try this, wait until three or four weeks into the course and ask students to take out the syllabus and in a five-minute free write tell you anonymously what they thought about the course and the instructor on that first day when you went over the syllabus. Or, ask them to describe their sense of an ideal syllabus. Or, ask them to write about the most unusual syllabus they’ve ever encountered. Or, inquire why so many students don’t read their syllabi, and if you’re really daring find out if they have or haven’t read the syllabus in your course and ask why.

The authors of the paper I mentioned think we’re too oriented to the syllabus as a contract and I have to agree. When the focus is on all the logistical details, all the terms of this particular learning deal, we miss an opportunity to generate enthusiasm for the course, indeed, for learning.

Syllabi can convey messages that build rapport between the teacher and students and they can help create community among students. I know courses need policies, students need guidelines and some students take advantage of teachers. But I wonder if we don’t err on the side of being too defensive in our syllabi. We could all benefit from discussion of these syllabus-related issues, and I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comment below.

It’s also a great discussion to have with a colleague. Give a trusted colleague your syllabus and ask him or her what they conclude about the course and the instructor based on the syllabus. If you’re not comfortable doing that with your own syllabus, there are lots available online and one of those can be considered in light of these questions.

I have three final questions for you: Have you ever thought about creating a syllabus that invites students to a learning event they just might want to attend? What would that syllabus look like? How different would it be from the syllabi you’re polishing and posting for this Fall?