# 2016 Breakout Sessions ## Breakout sessions run from **10:45 AM to 12:00 PM** Get to know the voices behind our sessions: [View the full list of bios here](https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:71134a29-0817-476c-83b0-24165bd6d9d7). More session details below! ## **"Case Teaching as Practiced Across Disciplines and Professions at Harvard"** *For faculty, instructors, and academic professionals who support active learning* This session will explore case teaching and how its practice varies across Harvard. What exactly is a case? What are some common forms of cases, and which forms best serve different types of learning goals? How might instructors leverage cases in the context of small-group learning? How might the practice of case teaching differ across disciplinary domains within and across departments? **Carolyn Wood** *(facilitator)*, Assistant Academic Dean, Director of SLATE and the Case Program (HKS) **Archon Fung**, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship and Academic Dean (HKS); Member of the Faculty of Education (HGSE) **Matt Miller**, Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, Lecturer on Education (HGSE) **V.G. Narayanan**, Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration (HBS) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Experience a live demonstration of case-based learning, and look behind the curtain to see the teaching plan and the instructor’s intended learning goals. - Engage with a panel of Harvard faculty from various professional schools and disciplinary backgrounds who teach different types of content with cases. - Explore a range of case formats—from vignettes to mini-cases to conventional teaching cases – and which formats are being deployed to advance different types of learning goals in an array of disciplines. - Learn about resources across Harvard to support faculty to get started with case teaching. ## **"How Can Research Advance Learning?"** *For faculty, instructors, and students* This session highlights research-based initiatives that advance teaching and learning. Moderators will solicit participant feedback for future extensions, applications, and collaborations. **Andrew Ho** *(facilitator)*, Professor of Education (HGSE); Chair, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) Research Faculty Committee **Dustin Tingley** *(facilitator)*, Professor of Government (FAS); Faculty Director, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) Research Team **Meira Levinson**, Professor of Education (HGSE) **Dan Levy**, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy; Faculty Chair, SLATE (HKS) **Todd Rogers**, Associate Professor of Public Policy (HKS) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Learn about cutting-edge educational research findings and methods from our own Harvard scholars. - Discuss implications for our own teaching and our own degree pathways and programs. - Meet fellow research-minded educators to build university-wide networks for spreading pedagogical innovation. ## **"Creative Approaches and Nudges for Educational Development"** *For academic professionals* Explore how to develop new, creative, and research-based ideas for supporting instructors and leading initiatives, with examples for inspiration and discussion. **Cassandra Volpe Horii** *(facilitator)*, Founding Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, & Outreach (California Institute of Technology) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Develop new approaches to working with instructors that go beyond the ordinary, engage people in essential dimensions of teaching, and don’t necessarily require extra time or resources. - Tap into the wealth of perspectives offered by different academic disciplines—from physics to photography—to inform educational development efforts. - Build a robust framework for inquiry and decision-making about supporting instructors and leading initiatives. ## **"Student-Led Learning: How and Why"** *For faculty, instructors, and students* This session will provide examples of student-led learning innovations from bite-sized interventions to substantial curricular redesign and consider their purposes and effects. **Jon Hanson** *(facilitator)*, Alfred Smart Professor of Law (HLS) **Jacob Lipton** *(facilitator)*, Program Director, Systemic Justice Project (HLS) **Beth Altringer**, Lecturer on Innovation and Design (SEAS, GSD) **Hisa Kuriyama**, Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History (FAS) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Learn about colleagues’ design and implementation of student-led learning curricular components: from individual, topical assignments to collaborative entrepreneurial proposals to semester-long projects and presentations. - Discuss the many potential benefits of student-led learning—including, but not limited to: fostering inclusivity, increasing student engagement, teaching collaborative skills—and identify which elements may be most appropriate for your course. - Share your own ideas for feedback and brainstorming. ## **"Small-Scale Teaching Innovations"** *For faculty and instructors* This session will explore how small-scale innovations can improve teaching. Examples collected beforehand or provided by participants will scaffold a discussion. What improvements are the easiest to implement with the biggest payoff in terms of student learning? **Matthew Schwartz** *(facilitator)*, Professor of Physics (FAS) **Chris Robichaud**, Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy (HKS) **Richard Schwartzstein**, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education, Director of The Academy (HMS) **Andrew Warren**, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities (FAS) **Lucie White**, Louis A. Horvitz Professor of Law (HLS) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Help determine the best way to communicate small-scale teaching innovations among the Harvard community. - Learn from the examples of small scale innovations piloted by colleagues and what they wished they had known before trying them. - Implement a small scale innovation in your own teaching and get feedback from colleagues about effective execution. ## **"Slowing Down Learning and the Benefits of Frustration"** *For faculty and instructors* This session will involve participatory discussion of teaching approaches that promote intensive work and deep reflection, and the benefits and challenges of embracing the difficult. **Jim Engell** *(facilitator)*, Gurney Professor of English Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature (FAS) **Attend this session if you want to:** - Engage in active, cross-disciplinary discussion: What works and what doesn’t at Harvard? How has teaching and learning changed over time, with what gains and losses? What is generalizable and what is discipline-specific about specific intensive-learning approaches? What is the value of frustration compared with a clearly demarcated path to mastery of skills or command of knowledge? - Explore the complex skills that accompany intensive study, and reading- and writing-intensive courses, and what it takes to teach these skills - Familiarize yourself with some of the research regarding trends of student time-on-task as essential to the value of higher education.