Imagination in Higher Education

What if undergraduate education could be engaging, exciting, and even...wait for it...FUN?

"Imagine the Possibilities" is the new theme of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Utah. As part of this initiative, Eric Liu, co-author of Imagination First, will be visiting the campus this month to provide a talk entitled "Imagination in Higher Education in the 21^st Century". According to Liu, imagination is a skill that can be developed.

It seems to me that this is a skill that could be put to good use in our classrooms. How do we hope to foster innovation in our students, the leaders of tomorrow, if we are not imaginative in the way we teach? We do have many excellent instructors here on campus who use innovative approaches to teaching (for just one example, consider the Honor College's latest recipient of the Distinguished Honors Professor Award, Matthew Bradley) - but what if every classroom at the U was a model of the best applications of imagination to education? What if every classroom was engaging and exciting? What if every instructor was able to motivate students to learn? Perhaps taking a moment now and again to "Imagine the Possibilities" may be the first step towards these goals.


There are many reasons to transform the undergraduate experience, and all of them require that we re-think the way we typically do things. Take a few moments and Imagine the Possibilities with us. Eric Liu's talk will be held in the UMFA Dumke Auditorium on November 30, 2011 beginning at 5:30 pm.

University of Utah's FYI recently published an interview with Eric Liu. You can read blogs written by Eric Liu and colleagues on their website: Imagination Now.

Welcome!

If you are new to the blog (and perhaps to the University of Utah as well), I'd like to wish you a warm WELCOME!

For everyone else WELCOME BACK!

It's the beginning of Fall semester already - can you believe it!?! This year we have a great selection of services for you to take advantage of. Here are a few highlights:

The Annual TA Teaching Symposium - Every year we are joined by faculty and senior graduate students from across campus to provide a day of break-out sessions on teaching topics designed especially for new TAs. You can see the whole program and check out materials from this year's event here. To gain online access to videos of previous sessions, email us at info@ctle.utah.edu.


The Teaching Workshop Series - Each month we have another free workshop. This year, many of the topics were chosen by YOU. The first workshop will be September 25 on the topic of Ensuring Integrity with Student Work. Click here for more details and to register.

FREE & CONFIDENTIAL Mid-term Evaluations - We can visit your classroom and provide you with feedback, discuss the class with your students, or collect feedback from students online. We offer a wide variety of evaluation options to best meet your needs. We follow up with a one-on-one consultation to provide you with resources and answer your questions. Great for the beginning TA or the seasoned professor!

For a full list of our services, please see our website. And be sure to check back here for teaching tips, announcements, and reflections on teaching.

We can't wait to work with you this year!

TA Scholars

Here are the 2008-09 TA Scholars posing just outside their poster session last week at the Academic Senate meeting. We had an amazing group of people this year!

Top row (L-R): Jana Schurig (Film Studies), Tim Edgar (Geography), Danielle Ballinger (Music Education), Holly Rau (Clinical Psychology)

Third row: Russ Askren (Philosophy), Rachel Eddington (Sociology), Steve Elmer (Exercise & Sports Science)

Second row: Keri Schwab (Parks, Recreation, & Tourism), Lin Sunthonkhan (Economics), Alfred Kalyanpu (Civil & Environmental Engineering)

Front Row: Rebecca Blais (Clinical Psychology)

You can learn about their projects on the TA Scholars website.They've done some innovative things like implementing virtual labs in traditional classes, creating peer mentorship programs, comparing online and face-to-face teaching, and assessing the effectiveness of an entire program of study.

I am so grateful to have worked with this bright, creative, fun bunch of graduate students!

If you or someone you know is a graduate student at the U and would like to become involved with the TA Scholars program, please email me at beverly.brehl@utah.edu.

Here I am with this year's Scholars: