Learning and Teaching Center (Old)

Tuesday, April 12: Bush Writing Scholar:

Gregory Colomb, Professor of English, University of Virginia

Greg has been a colleague of Joe Williams, Wayne Booth, and others who developed the famous Little Red Schoolhouse curricula and wrote The Craft of Research, among other standard works for writers. In addition to his work on writing and rhetoric, Greg is well versed in the cognitive processes that inform reading and writing. At a recent conference, Carol Rutz heard him give a brilliant talk on the various schemata that operate within a reader's brain as s/he apprehends text. She says "This is one cool guy."

A videotaped copy of this presentation is available through the LTC, Willis 207.

David Davis-Van Atta

Director of Institutional Research and Analysis

Carleton is routinely considered to be among the nation's "best colleges." U.S. News annually ranks us around #5 nationally within a study set of 162 liberal arts colleges. But what's the truth? How good is Carleton, really? This presentation drew upon a decade of findings from key surveys of freshmen, current students, and seniors, as well as of faculty, parents, and alumni. It incorporated a variety of objective measures, all drawing careful comparisons of these data for Carleton to those for other highly selective liberal arts colleges, as well as for the Ivy League and other prominent national universities.

Joseph C. Miller

Public lecture: Gould Library Athenaeum, Tuesday, March 8

Joseph C. Miller has done research for 35 years on the history of Central Africa and of slavery and the slave trade and has written extensively on all three subjects. His best known book is _Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade_, 1730-1830 (Wisconsin, 1988), which won the Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association as the best book in African studies in 1989. He is also the author of _Kings and Kinsmen: Early Mbundu States in Angola_ (Clarendon 1976) and the editor, among other things of The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History, of the Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara and of the Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery. He served as President of the American Historical Association in 1998 and is now the vice-president and president-elect of the African Studies Association.

Martin Klein, Benedict Distinguished Visiting Professor of History, together with the History, and African/African American Studies Departments and the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles grant co-sponsor Dr. Miller’s visit.

Thursday, March 3:

Quantitative Skills in the Sciences:

What Students Need to Know

Samuel Patterson, professor of mathematics, chair of mathematics and computer science

View powerpoint presentation here.

Phillip Sandro, HECUA senior program director, director of the Metro Urban Studies Term, Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs

with a panel including

Humberto Huergo, Professor of Spanish and Director of the Carleton Spanish Seminar in Madrid Sarah Cadwallader '05, Border Studies in Texas and Mexico through Earlham College Sinda Nichols '05, HECUA Scandinavian Urban Semester in Oslo

Phil Sandro of HECUA discussed the (abundant) research results that show the value of experiential, field-based learning and provide guidelines and examples for constructing field-based learning programs that will fulfill their potential. Humberto Huergo and two Carleton students gave a local perspective by discussing the programs they have organized and participated in. A suggested reading is available from the LTC in preparation for this discussion.

A video recording of the presentation is available by request from the LTC, Willis 207.

Cosponsored by the Office of Off-Campus Studies

This pilot project allows students and researchers access to more than 600 letters and supporting materials dealing with the life and times of a provincial family of French notaries in the 19th century. http://esternay.carleton.edu

Many faculty members find class discussions hard to lead, particularly when the discussion topics may relate deeply (or should!) to the personal experiences of the faculty member and students. How can we balance the academic goals for discussions with students' desires to personalize some topics? How can we encourage open and honest discussion of sensitive issues in a way that allows all students to participate and to learn from each other? This pedagogical discussion is part of an ongoing LTC effort to share faculty approaches to discussion and other teaching techniques.

Tuesday, February 1

Collaborative and Collective Learning:

Triads, Dyads, Linked Courses

Tuesday, January 25 and Wednesday, January 26

College Curriculum Discussion Series, part 3:

Intellectual and Ethical Development at College:

Implications for Curriculum

Jade Bender, '05 psychology