Editors\u27 Message: A New Platform for Pedagogical Practices and Perspectives

At the heart of the University of Dayton’s mission lies a commitment to learning, scholarship, and excellence in teaching, along with a dedication to sharing and implementing new knowledge across disciplines and among members of our diverse educational community. With these values in mind, Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (RRLTHE) is an exciting opportunity for colleagues at UD to join forces and form a community of scholars committed to promoting learning and teaching

Exploring Teaching Practices: Helping Students Adopt an Author’s Mindset

As professionals in higher education, it is natural for us to recognize the need to write as a means to advance our disciplines. And most, if not all of us, had professional experiences outside of UD where our ability to produce effective written communication helped to sustain or advance our work. But it has been my experience teaching college composition and supervising the Write Place that many of our students do not consider themselves writers. Yet they had to write to get into UD! How can we help them adopt an author’s mindset? What classroom strategies can we leverage to give students more confidence in their written communication skills? This session will explore some strategies and highlight how strength in writing is also about being able to give and receive feedback. Please feel free to share any assignments or activities you have used to help students grow as writers

Community Connection Across the Pacific: An English Class Collaboration Between Chaminade University and the University of Dayton

Randomly assigned to a Zoom breakout room during a 2021 MEA meeting, Chaminade Assistant Professor Koreen Nakahodo and UD Write Place Coordinator Christina Klimo quickly recognized they had a shared passion for helping students grow as writers. Additionally, they were both attracted to the idea of helping first-year students recognize that they are part of a larger Marianist community. A collaboration was born! This session highlights the student interaction between the two universities, what went well, how the students reacted, where there is room for growth, and our plan for future collaboration. While this collaboration is new, we are committed to helping students better understand what it means to be a student at a Marianist University. Soon, we hope to engage St. Mary’s and explore how all three universities may work together to connect students

Fostering Hope, Leadership, and Mentorship in Peer Learning Facilitator Roles

Hope is an integral part of learning processes. All learners — students, peer leaders, faculty, and staff — must believe improvement is possible and that challenges can be overcome. Hope is important when the learner is struggling to understand a concept or complete an assignment. Typically, hope comes from explicit expressions of confidence. Learners must hear that an authority believes they can persist. While faculty often fulfill this role, they aren\u27t the only sources of hope for students. Often, it is peer learning facilitators — like tutors, SI leaders, and Write Place consultants — who foster hope for their peers. Bringing hope to a hopeless learner requires practice in listening, empathy, and scaffolded learning that helps students achieve small goals. Supervisors and mentors are essential to provide peer leaders with explicit training and to model the practices that learning facilitators will then enact. This panel discusses the role and value of hope for learners, peer learning facilitators, and supervisors of learning facilitators. Specifically, we focus on how peer learning facilitators build capacity to foster hope in the students they work with through direct training and experiential, on-the-job learning

Creating Stronger Classroom Communities through Active Learning Techniques and Student-Led Classroom Engagement

The University challenges its students to live and learn in community, a buzzword used frequently on campus that captures the founders’ mission succinctly. This community spirit makes the University unique. Many students expect to experience community in their residential spaces, but how is community felt in the classroom? Can a deeper sense of community help students learn? In what ways can community be created to make student learning more successful? This roundtable, facilitated by Office of Learning Resources (OLR) team members, explores techniques to get students helping each other in the classroom. Participants will be introduced to active learning strategies and tools and experience some firsthand during the session. Discussion will focus on how students leading classroom activities can help faculty connect better with students and increase student learning. Discussion will also focus on how today’s UD Student brings a unique learning perspective to college given the dramatic impact of COVID-19 and other societal concerns have had on classroom norms and student behavior. Participants should bring along any classroom strategies they have found successful as well as questions they have regarding how to help students succeed. The session will also highlight OLR’s peer learning services as another opportunity for students to learn from one another