Why Workshops?
Instructors are always seeking ways to expand their current skill sets and increase engagement in the learning space. Workshops offer a great opportunity for instructors to see pedagogical practices in action, test-drive technology tools, engage in reflective practices focused on teaching effectiveness, exchange ideas, and gain feedback from colleagues. The Grove Center offers a variety of workshops that span a range of contexts and audiences, from disciplinary specific to interdisciplinary and from novice to more-experienced instructors.
Teaching and Learning Workshops
Since 2012, the center has hosted over 100 workshops on research-based teaching practices that include curricular design, student engagement, creating instructional teams, using technology to increase student learning, creating an inclusive syllabus, and instructor reflection to annual reporting, to name a few. The topics chosen for workshops come from instructor requests and have been developed for interdisciplinary and department-specific audiences. Our workshop audiences include faculty, postdocs, graduate students, learning assistants, and staff. We partner with our Grove Center colleagues in the college and demonstrate authentic strategies used in our classrooms. If an instructor, administrator, or instructional support staff member would like to collaborate on creating a workshop, the Grove Center team is available to support the development and facilitation of the experience.
Our Workshops
Workshop for New Faculty: Welcome and Connect
Since 2016, the Grove Center has hosted an annual fall workshop to welcome and connect new faculty to the Eberly College of Science teaching community. The workshop introduces new faculty to the resources provided by the Grove Center and colleagues in their departments who are active in the center and its educational communities. The workshop is a half day and takes place during the week before classes start in the fall semester.
Evidence Based Teaching Academy (EBTA)
The Evidence-Based Teaching Academy (EBTA) is an annual weeklong academy that focuses on introducing and modeling research-based teaching and learning practices in STEM education. This experience was developed for novice and experienced instructors and has an embedded project component that leads participants through the process of editing a specific aspect of a current course they will be teaching soon.
Academy Logistics and Demographics
When: the week following spring commencement.
Daily schedule: 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.; lunch is included each day.
Number and composition of participants: 25 instructors from across the Eberly College of Science educational community. If space permits, senior-level graduate students and postdocs are also invited to participate. Department heads are asked to provide nominations for participation by January 1 of each academic year. A balanced cohort of 25 is selected from the nominees and includes instructors at all levels from across all the departments and programs.
Academy instructional team: A team of eight instructors from the Grove Center community and all of the Grove Center team support the day-to-day presentations and facilitate the learning and consulting activities for the entire week. Additional Grove Center community members may come to consult and share expertise on certain days. The total number of Eberly College of Science instructors who have participated in the academy instructional team is 27. Undergraduate learning assistants (LAs) also play a key role in the academy. Since 2018, we have had 20 undergraduate LAs participate as members of the academy instructional team.
Participant benefits: each faculty participant is provided with a $1,000 honorarium.
Participant count to date: since 2018, we have had 167 instructors participate. Interested in attending EBTA? Contact us.
How to Schedule a Workshop
Please contact our team for more information about creating a workshop and visit our website for details on previous and upcoming workshops.
