Leadership Site Initiatives
Each year, with grant funding from OPID, the Leadership Site sponsors initiatives that help faculty investigate significant teaching and learning questions in their classrooms. These initiatives typically pair a specific teaching and learning topic with a wider initiative (i.e. diversity or AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes), and are designed to help faculty and staff better understand what student learning "looks" like in their classrooms.
The Leadership Site sends out a call for proposals to faculty across the system. Selected participants attend an initial meeting and participate in subsequent meetings via teleconference. The Leadership Site supports participants throughout the two year process by providing resources, articles, D2L sites, and any other materials needed to make their projects a success. Additionally, the Leadership Site staff consults with faculty as needed.
Here are the current Leadership Site initiatives.
Threshold Concepts and Diversity
The UW System Leadership Site received and OPID Conference Development Grant to bring together faculty and staff to examine Threshold Concepts and Diversity in their classrooms. Faculty and staff from Barron County, Fox Valley, La Crosse, Marinette, Milwaukee, River Falls, Stout, Parkside, and Superior, from the disciplines of journalism & mass communication, mathematics, nursing, human development and family studies, sociology/anthropology, women's studies, gender studies and sexuality, and spanish will meet in Madison in October 2009 to discuss their respective Threshold Concept and Diversity SoTL Projects.
In brief, threshold concepts are ideas students need to learn if they are to get any further in a particular subject area; not because someone says they have to learn them, but because the subject itself demands it. Students have to fully understand these concepts. They have to "get" them. If students get a threshold concept, other parts of the subject or topic make much more sense. So, TCs are often where students get stuck. But if we leave them stuck there, and just plow on regardless, the most they will ever do is mimic or fake understanding.
You can view our SoTL and Threshold Concepts handout, which includes a list of references and further readings on Threshold Concepts.
Aligning LEAP Outcomes with Student's Perceptions of Their Own Learning
The UW System Leadership Site received an OPID Conference Development Grant to bring together UW System faculty to examine the SoTL question, "How do students perceive they are (are not) learning in an integrative fashion?" Faculty from Eau Claire, Barron County, Madison, Parkside, and Platteville, from the disciplines of theater, soil science, business and accounting, and music therapy, met in Madison in October 2008 to embark on this two year research project. Wisconsin is a designated AAC&U LEAP state. View our LEAP Project poster, which was listed in the ISSOTL program and newsletter as a Featured Poster at the 2009 ISSOTL Conference. View the Integrative Learning Music Therapy LEAP Final Project poster.