Putting It All Together: Creating and Scaling Exceptional Learning

Thanks to learning science and to the creativity of teaching and learning professionals, we know much more about the ways students learn experientially and collaboratively. For our courses, teaching scholars have identified practices and pedagogies that engage students to collaborate and experience deeper learning. Ken Bain has called Super Courses the courses that possess opportunities for learning in the classroom, the lab, and into the world where experiential learning joins course content. The course practices and pedagogies so fundamental to deep learning should also be included in program design (both for academics and campus life) and even the curriculum itself. Putting it all Together provides a frame that includes the pedagogies and practices and discussion of the larger contexts within which they can be applied. The book also offers more than thirty brief chapters of selected practices applied in individual contexts. The authors are faculty members, administrators, and staff professionals who have developed learning experiences for students. The rationale behind the book is simple: embedding the most powerful practices and pedagogies within courses, programs, and the curriculum calls for every professional at every institution to play a different but equally important role in improving student learning and student success.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Tristan Denley Preface: Jeffery Galle Introduction: Jeffery Galle Chapter 1: Pedagogies of Engagement: ‘Teaching Moves’ for Student Learning Jeffery Galle Chapter 2: “Cool Class” ideas applicable in online, hybrid, and face-to-face modalities Jim Fatzinger Chapter 3: Strategizing "Failure": Found Texts, Inquiry, and Building New Mental Models Rebecca L. Harrison Chapter 4: Using Growth Mindset to Facilitate Belonging in First Year Writing Julie Kozee Chapter 5: How focusing on learning from mistakes facilitated learning in Calculus Class Veena Paliwal Chapter 6: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? A Learning Community Experiment Lindsay Bailey, Shane Toepfer, and Laura Ng Chapter 7: Small Teaching Strategy: Connecting through the Circle Molly Zhou Chapter 8: What’s in a Name? Carl J. Gabrini Chapter 9: Using Engagement Activities To Spark Greater Openness to Learning Marlene Call Chapter 10: First Day Activity Prior to Orientation and Disbursement of Syllabus Clarence Riley Chapter 11: How Small Teaching Creates a Big Impact! Sutandra Sarkar Chapter 12: An Evolution of Engaging Students: Learning Assistants in the Classroom Aubrey L. Dyer Chapter 13: Using Evidence-Based Practices in Courses About Evidence Emily G. Weigel Chapter 14: The Legal World is Wider than Students Think Monica Carol Miller Chapter 15: Service-Learning for Social Justice in General Education Courses Stefanie Sevcik Chapter 16: Virtual Exchange Integration in Precalculus: Enhancing Collaboration and Learning Sutandra Sarkar Chapter 17: Writing in Mathematics (WIM) Belinda P. Edwards Chapter 18: Google Docs, A Tool for Engagement & Self-Explanation Ava Hogan-Chapman Chapter 19: Creating Cultures of Creative Critical Thinking and Self-Reflection in the College Arts Classroom Laura McCloskey Wolfe Chapter 20: Understanding Friction: Using a Faculty Learning Community to Promote Student Success and Faculty Satisfaction Robert R. Bleil Chapter 21: Learning Moves and Program Innovation Jo Galle and Jeffery Galle Chapter 22: An Effective Institutional Data Communication Plan Jesse Bishop Chapter 23: Listening Without Speaking: Making the Need for Equity Real Devon Fisher and Jessica O’Brien Chapter 24: Creating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Opportunities for Faculty Donna Troka Chapter 25: Establishment of Centers to Support Faculty and Students Tyler Yu Chapter 26: Reinvigorating the First Year Experience Program at Savannah State University Frank J. Mendelson Chapter 27: The Undergraduate Research Symposium at South Georgia State College: History, Status, and Future Robert L. Potter, Rosa Guedes, and Frank Holiwski Chapter 28: New Faculty Orientation: Developing Faculty in Academic Mindsets and More Laura R. Lynch Chapter 29: Developing Expertise for Teaching through a Graduate Fellows Program Ania Kowalik Chapter 30: The New Faculty Academy of the Center for Teaching Excellence Mei Zhang Chapter 31: Interprofessional Education Collaborative: A Pilot Project Laura Kim Gosa Chapter 32: Learning Moves and Gen Ed, the Curriculum, and New Degrees Jeffery Galle Chapter 33: High Impact Practices Across the Curriculum: GC Journeys Jordan Cofer Chapter 34: An Exaltation of Larks Jeffery Galle Bibliography About the Author

About the Author :
Jeffery Galle has served in a number of leadership capacities, most recently as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Faculty Development, for the University System of Georgia. English professor, administrator, and author—in each role the focus has remained on the power of innovative teaching practices. Jo K. Galle served as Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at Georgia Gwinnett College for thirteen years. An award winning faculty, she was aptly named Professor Emerita for her outstanding administrative body of work performed at Georgia Gwinnett College.

Review :
By offering thick descriptions of teaching and learning strategies in multiple contexts, Putting it all Together does a great service to the profession. Faculty can find here inspiring models to evolve and improve their practice, while administrators can learn how to support and reward the faculty who are doing this important work. Every reader, no matter their discipline or institutional context, will find useful guidance here. One of the purposes of Putting it all Together is to encourage higher education professionals to focus on student learning as a top priority. It provides a pedagogical roadmap that can guide professionals across disciplines and academic units to achieve success in creating exceptional learning experiences. The book emphasizes that every professional, including faculty, staff, and administrators, must place student learning as their top priority and work within distinct but overlapping areas towards the same purpose. Highlighted is the importance of High Impact Practices and other key pedagogical strategies, along with the use of faculty learning communities to develop academic courses and programs. What's unique about this book is that it not only presents the voices of many experts, but it also offers a path to effecting change. By embedding the important activities and strategies discussed in this book in every facet of the academic community, we can create a more engaged and successful learning environment for students. Virtually everyone who works in higher education is theoretically dedicated to deepening student learning, but the reality of bringing such a lofty goal to fruition on a large scale can be daunting. Putting It All Together: How to Create and Scale Exceptional Learning is perfectly titled because it does just that; it provides what is required to move individuals and institutions from idea to implementation by providing what is most needed to make that leap: concrete examples and attention to the whole spectrum of courses, programs, and entire general education curricula. I highly recommend this opportunity to learn from those who are already doing it. A fantastic resource for ALL who support the student learning experience. We know that how we engage students is foundational to their learning. In this book Dr Galle, working with over 30 authors, masterfully leads us through evidence-based practices and a faculty learning community program that demonstrate massive innovation across courses, programs and the curriculum. A book to return to time and time again for inspiration and ideas. I can say that being part of the Chancellors Learning Scholars really motivated me to explore these concepts to improve my teaching. One of the pedagogies I decided to implement in my online courses was Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT). TILT benefits student learning by increasing academic confidence. The TILT framework focuses on making the how and why of learning transparent, which helps students understand the purpose of the assignments and how to succeed. A TILTed assignment makes the connections to what knowledge and skills the student will learn as well as the application to their chosen profession. It gives value to the assignment. TILT aims to advance equitable teaching and learning practices that reduce systemic barriers to student success. By using TILT techniques, faculty can help students achieve better learning outcomes. I found it easy to implement and had a significant impact. I have had less questions about the formatting and expectations of the assignments, allowing the student to focus on the content. In the end of course surveys, the students often comment that the course was well organized, that they knew what was expected of them, and they found it easy to navigate. The approaches outlined by Dr. Galle and contributors in Putting it all Together: How to Create and Scale Exceptional Learning provide a framework for thoughtful, literature supported, and implementation focused innovations. A common criticism of movements toward expanding high-impact practices and other instructional innovations is that it requires so much time and effort from already over-burdened faculty. Sifting through the literature, identifying meaningful innovations, and then incorporating them into teaching practice requires a significant time commitment from even the most dedicated educator. Through his work and in collaboration with the many contributors to this book, Dr. Galle demonstrates ways to scale implementation by lowering the barriers to entry, reinforcing the communal aspects of education, and encouraging low-stakes experimentation. This book provides accessible examples of how instructional innovation can be encouraged and spread through an institution through grass roots activities as well as administrative influence. We all know faculty who stand out as gifted teachers, but for many faculty who have had no training in pedagogy, improving their teaching and engaging students is largely a process of trial and error. Putting it all Together: Creating and Scaling Exceptional Learning offers a wealth of examples of research-based techniques that faculty can implement in their classrooms, but perhaps even more importantly it offers a roadmap for amplifying the impact of pedagogical innovation from the single classroom to whole programs, institutions or even systems. As Provost, I am excited by what innovative faculty do in their classrooms, but my passion is making exceptional learning experiences available to all students. This book outlines strategies that administrators at all levels can use to scale these impactful practices.