When first entering a community college classroom, many faculty members are shocked that students don’t act like “adults.” Even seasoned faculty members are sometimes flabbergasted by students’ behavior. Workshop participants gain a new perspective on student behavior, why students behave in certain ways, and how to respond to unprofessional classroom behavior.

By the end of this workshop, participants know or are able to:

• Identify expected professional behaviors for students already employed in their respective industries.
• Examine how to define expected behaviors in the classroom that are vague or general.
• Explore how culture, age, background, and other factors contribute to a different interpretation of professional behaviors.
• Identify current problematic learner behaviors, experiences dealing with those learner behaviors, and current management styles and strategies.
• Discuss how to identify at-risk students and analyze the relationship between learning barriers and classroom behavior.
• Learn effective strategies and principles for managing adult learner behavior in the classroom.
• Compare and contrast the aforementioned effective management strategies to their own individual strategies.
• Identify and use non-aggressive techniques to disarm potentially aggressive student behaviors and learn why some techniques may provoke students.
• Create written behavioral expectations designed to explain specifically desired behaviors, what undesired behaviors look like, and the results and consequences of each behavior.

Everybody is doing it: companies like Google provide professional development around mindfulness for their employees, professional athletes practice mindfulness, and even the military trains soldiers through mindfulness. A growing body of neuroscience and other research suggests that mindfulness also holds an array of benefits for higher education, including individual benefits (such as increased self-regulation, attention, and creativity) and communal benefits (such as the promise of more inclusive environments). When students are emotionally engaged in the classroom, they have a greater sense of belonging because content connects to their personal lives and academic pursuits. During this workshop, participants learn how to incorporate mindfulness into their classrooms to support student engagement and success.

By the end of this workshop, participants know or are able to:

• Understand the “contemplative pedagogy” movement in higher education.
• Identify practical strategies and a wealth of resources for implementing mindful practices.
• Implement mindfulness in various classroom formats.
• More fully support their students!

Activities:

• Hands-on exercises involving practical strategies for implementing mindfulness practices in and out of the classroom.

Difficult classroom conversations can arise in any discipline. Contentious current events, challenging course content, and events on campus and in students' lives can all be the impetus for unexpected comments, a challenging turn in dialogue, or a need to proactively acknowledge an issue. How can you lead conversations that create a more supportive, respectful course climate? How can you tie these discussions to your course content? How do you navigate such circumstances without derailing your lesson plan? During this workshop, you’ll discuss how the structure of classroom discussion, classroom ground rules, and your facilitation skills all work together to help you navigate difficult conversations while creating a positive course climate and enhancing student learning. These strategies are designed for faculty in any discipline with any level of experience, from skilled facilitators who regularly teach topics involving difficult conversations to those who have little disciplinary training or experience in navigating tough topics.

By the end of this workshop, participants know or are able to:

• Reflect on experiences and challenges with difficult dialogues.
• Learn strategies for creating a positive course climate.
• Brainstorm how to create and use course ground rules.
• Create discussion structures that lead to deeper listening, respect, and equitable participation.
• Apply insights into how course climate, ground rules, and structured conversations can work together to help you navigate unexpected difficult conversations.

Activities:
This workshop is almost entirely hands-on. You’ll experience many of the strategies you can immediately put into practice in your courses.

• Structured small and large group discussions about past experiences with difficult conversations.
• Hands-on activities for creating a positive course climate and ground rules.
• Jigsaw discussion on four discussion strategies for difficult conversations.
• Applying strategies to case studies.

While they are effective pedagogical tools, leading discussions can be frustrating. They can easily go awry, leading to uncomfortable silences, domination by a couple of speakers, superficial contributions, or off-topic remarks. This workshop reviews research-based principles for guiding classroom discussion and strategies for designing and facilitating classroom discussions that work to create an effective, positive learning experience. You’ll experience a variety of specific strategies first-hand, including those relevant to small classes, large classes, online courses, and a variety of disciplines. Plus, you’ll reflect on how to apply these strategies to your own classes. You’ll also learn what you can do to prevent the “common discussion pitfalls” listed above, along with what to do when they happen. You’ll also learn how to design discussions as a part of your course so they truly help students learn (and so you’ll know that they worked!).

During this workshop, you’ll experience these engaging discussion techniques first-hand. Expect a fast-paced, highly practical day!

By the end of this workshop, participants know or are able to:

• Review and discuss 12 research-based principles to guide class discussion.
• Experience a variety of discussion techniques that faculty can use to engage all students.
• Explore strategies to prevent and respond to common discussion pitfalls.
• Design discussions that lead to deep, meaningful, and measurable learning.

Activities:

• Structured small group discussions and activities on 12 research-based principles on class discussion.
• Discussion “mini-simulations” including framing and debriefing.
• Designing a “discussion that works” for one of your classes.

Have you ever wished that teaching could be more fun and more effective more often? We believe it can! The first step in this process is building a relationship with each student. Clinical Psychology offers a unique perspective on this. The same skill sets that facilitate relationship building and healing in the consulting room are transferable to the classroom. This workshop seeks to explore best practices for relationship building through lectures, story sharing, PowerPoint presentations, videos, breakout room activities, and opportunities for full group discussion. At the conclusion of this workshop, participants can:

• Translate the relationship building skills used by clinical psychologists into effective classroom management tools.
• Adopt an engaging presence and bring optimism, warmth, and enthusiasm into the classroom.
• Incorporate principles of rapport building and bonding into their teaching.
• Use active placebo effects to increase student learning.
• Use principles of behavior modification to build structures that support risk taking.
• Apply the above competencies in face-to-face and virtual classroom settings.