Fostering Science Communication and STEM Learning Through Improvisational Techniques

  • Starts: 12:00 pm on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
  • Ends: 1:15 pm on Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Nicholas Gross; SED Very often instructors teaching introductory courses have been successful in traditional lecture/demonstration courses, both as undergraduate and graduate students, and as teaching assistance and lecturers. Such "direct instruction" is instructor focused - the instructor is predominantly the center of attention and univocal: the instructor is delivering exactly what he wants to say without any deviation due to student interaction. The new modes of delivery require a different approach to teaching that may be outside the comfort zone of the instructors. The goal of this talk is to introduce instructors to the practice of novel delivery modes. Improvisation exercises and the ethos behind them can be valuable in providing instructors with a framework for these new approaches. The talk will outline some of the challenges of these new approaches, give active examples of improvisational exercises (with some opportunity for participants to play), and discuss the relationship between the improvisational approaches and student centered learning.
Location:
1 Silber Way, 9th floor, Kenmore Conference Room
Link:
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/training/register/index.php?admingroup_id=51