First summer workshop draws faculty
from across Elon and area universities

Turning Everyday Teaching into a Scholarly Form of Problem-Solving

Summer workshops featured
Dr. Dan Bernstein, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Director,
Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas

In afternoon workshops held May 26 and 27th, Dan Bernstein offered examples of sustained inquiry into student learning, and then situated that work within the opportunities for faculty scholarship related to teaching and learning. Using a model of inquiry that begins with goal setting, participants were asked to consider several options for transforming every day teaching into a scholarly form of problem solving. The model is designed to help faculty members find a place in that work that fits their interests, skills, and available time.

Dr. Bernstein also discussed what he refers to as “the intellectual work of teaching.” In a 2005 article in Academe, he described the Peer Review project, which he created and led, this way: “We made no attempt to sell a particular approach to teaching and learning. The only common feature was the public reflection on the quality of student understanding; it was left to the faculty teachers and their colleague audiences to ask about instructional practices, methods of measuring learning, and opportunities for students to practice and demonstrate their understanding. The process encourages development of a community of teachers inquiring into the success of their students. These communities function like informal groups of scholars who discuss the early stages of their research and creative efforts; participants receive intellectual commentary and social support.”

About Daniel Bernstein

Daniel Bernstein has been leader in building scholarly communities around what he calls “the intellectual work of teaching.”

He is co-author of MakingTeaching and Learning Visible (2006), founding director of the Peer Review of Teaching Project, a member of the inauguralcohort of Carnegie Scholars, and a founder of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL).

From 1995 to 2002, Bernstein directed the Peer Review of Teaching Project, which began at the University of Nebraska and expanded to the universities of Michigan and Indiana and Texas A&M and Kansas State universities. Funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation supported the project's development; funds from the Pew Charitable Trusts subsidized its expansion. Faculty teams from different departments documented what they did as teachers and shared their findings with colleagues on their campuses and, through electronic course portfolios, with peers across the country.

Dan Bernstein received an A.B. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at San Diego in 1973. He was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln from 1973 until 2002, when he became Director or the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas. He is also a Professor of Psychology at KU.