FIC Helps BME Focus on Learning
For this past academic year, the FIC met with BME faculty on a monthly basis to talk about teaching issues. BME's chair, Dr. Ken Diller, sponsored these lunch time events in order to provide a forum for dialogue and to spark interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning. One topic that the professors wanted to address was the differences between teaching undergraduate and graduate students. As with most teaching issues, there isn't a silver bullet or a step-by-step approach that fits most cases. That being said, however, these two populations are distinctive and current literature does provide some insights on ways to effectively meet their needs.
When it comes to undergraduate education, there is concern at a national level on the quality of education at research institutions. In 1998, the Carnegie Foundation's Boyer Commission released, " Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America 's Research Universities." ( http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/ ). This landmark report urged the following:
So what does this list mean to a UT professor? In our discussion, we looked at who is a "typical" UT student (http://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/research/2001-2002.pdf) and who is a "typical" engineering student. One message that seems fairly universal is that teaching, "freshman first how to be successful as students" is just as important as the teaching of concepts and fundamentals. A good instructor guides undergraduates in how to take notes, take tests and how to study.
Graduate students tend to be adult learners with years of accumulated knowledge and experience and they are often goal-oriented and practical. Undergraduates are learning about themselves and their place in the world; graduates are much more self-directed and autonomous. Research suggests that graduates are looking for professors who are effective, sensitive and able to encourage problem-centered learning.
If you and others in your department would like to get a similar type of group together to focus on instructional issues, please contact us at k.schmidt@mail.utexas.edu. There's lots of topics so don't be shy.