HILT Conference 2019
Peer Learning: Everyone’s a Teacher, Everyone’s a Learner
Friday, September 27, 2019
Wasserstein Hall, Harvard Law School
#hiltconf
Welcome remarks
Alan M. Garber is Provost of Harvard University, where he holds professorships in the Medical School, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Kennedy School of Government, and School of Public Health. Alan’s academic work explores health policy and the economics of health care. As Provost, Alan has taken a special interest in pedagogy and teaching, leading Harvard in its partnership with MIT to create edX. He received his AB summa cum laude and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, as well as his MD with research honors from Stanford University.
Framing the day
Dustin Tingley is Professor of Government in the Government Department at Harvard University. He is also Deputy Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (Deputy VPAL) and directs the VPAL Research Group and Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT). He received a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton in 2010 and a BA from the University of Rochester in 2001. His research interests include international relations, political economy, data science, and education.
Promising Peer Learning Practices Beyond the Classroom
Cecil Adderley, Chair of Berklee’s Music Education Department, has over 30 years of teaching experience at the junior/senior high school and college levels. He has performed professionally in the Charlotte Community Band (NC) as a clarinetist and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra (NC) as a violinist. Dr. Adderley is a former actor and is also an Argentine Tango Dancer. Dr. Adderley works with Education Testing Service (ETS) where he evaluates the Praxis Series for Music Teachers. In addition, he is the 2016 recipient of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) Visionary Leadership Award and serves as the President to the MMEA Board.
Erin Driver-Linn (moderator) is Dean for Education and a faculty member in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She provides dedicated strategic leadership for the educational activities of the Harvard Chan School and plays a critical role in strengthening connections between SPH and other schools and offices across the University. From 2012 to 2018, she served as founding director of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT), a ten-year, $40 million initiative to catalyze innovation and excellence in teaching and learning across the University and also served as Associate Provost for Institutional Research from 2008 to 2018.
Mike Way is the Gregory Lee ‘87 and Russell Ball ‘88 Endowed Coach for Squash at Harvard. A native of England, his formative squash years were in Nottingham where he won a state championship and helped his team reach the finals of the national championships. After moving to Canada in 1981, he worked his way on to the national squad and helped the Canadian team win the Pan American squash championships in 1985. Way was the driving force behind the National Squash Training Center for Canada, training most of the country’s national team. He has been a frequent guest speaker at coaching conferences held by the World Squash Federation and both the Canadian and U.S. Squash Associations. The Crimson men and women finished both of their respective 2018-19 seasons undefeated, each picking up Ivy League Championships, National Team Championships and both Individual titles (Gina Kennedy ’20 and Victor Crouin ‘22). Way earned men and women Ivy coach of the year and National coach of the year recognition with the women.
Peer Learning in Practice (concurrent breakout sessions)
Engaging with Colleagues: Faculty Peer Learning about Teaching
Joe Blitzstein is Professor of the Practice in Statistics at Harvard University, where has taught since 2006, after completing his Ph.D. in Mathematics (with a masters in Statistics) at Stanford University, advised by Persi Diaconis. At Harvard, he has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate probability and statistics courses, including the popular statistics class Stat 110, which provides a comprehensive introduction to probability as a language and framework that can be applied wherever there is data, randomness, or uncertainty, to over 500 on campus students per year at Harvard. With Professor Hanspeter Pfister from Computer Science, Joe also launched Harvard’s first course in data science in 2013. Joe is also a chess expert and serves as faculty adviser to the Harvard Chess Club.
Thomas J. DeLong is a senior fellow and former Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice in the Organizational Behavior area at the Harvard Business School. Since 1997 DeLong has taught over 15,000 MBA’s and Executives both on campus and throughout the world. He is internationally recognized for his teaching and course development. DeLong has written over 100 cases and teaching notes during his tenure at HBS as well as three books. He has designed MBA elective courses focused on managing human capital in high-performance organizations and leading professional service firms. Before joining the Harvard Faculty, DeLong was Chief Development Officer and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Group, Inc., where he was responsible for the firm’s human capital and focused on issues of organizational strategy and organizational change.
Kessely Hong is a Lecturer in Public Policy and the Faculty Chair of the MPA Programs and the Mid-Career MPA Summer Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She teaches both Degree Program as well as Executive Education students in the areas of negotiation and decision-making. Kessely was presented with the Manuel C. Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching by the graduating class of 2015, and the Holly Taylor Sargent Award for Women’s Advancement by the Women and Public Policy Program in 2018. She has been collaborating with a team of colleagues funded by the Hewlett Foundation Madison Initiative to develop teaching materials that demonstrate tools to make progress in partisan legislative negotiations. Before coming to the Kennedy School, Kessely worked for the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company and taught English in Ecuador.
Allison Pingree (facilitator), recently joined the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Teaching & Learning Lab as Senior Instructional Coach. Previously, she served as HILT’s Director of Cross-School Programming, overseeing the annual conference, the Teaching & Learning Consortium, Into Practice, and piloting a program for formative peer observation called Classroom Visits. Prior to that, Allison supported teaching and learning at the Harvard Kennedy School as Director of Professional Pedagogy with the SLATE initiative, and at Vanderbilt University, as director of the Center for Teaching. She holds a Ph.D. in English & American Literature and Language from Harvard and has taught both at Harvard and at Vanderbilt.
Learning from Each Other, Learning Online: Peer Learning in Online Environments
Bharat Anand is the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and the Senior Associate Dean and faculty chair of HBS Online, the school’s digital learning initiative that he helped create. He is an expert in digital strategy, corporate strategy, and organizational change, and his work on these topics has influenced start-ups and established companies around the globe. His recent book The Content Trap has received acclaim for its perspective on strategy and digital transformation in content industries. He helped oversee the design and creation of HBS Online’s digital learning platforms, and created one of its first online courses. Professor Anand is a two-time winner of the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in the MBA program and a recipient of the Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching at HBS. He is a recipient of the Greenhill Award for outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School.
Mary Godfrey is the Production Manager at HarvardX, where she leads a team of videographers and editors designing and developing innovative media for online learning. In addition, she is an Ed.M candidate in the Technology, Innovation, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has also served as a Teaching Assistant for Designing Educational Media, a course offered through the Division of Continuing Education. Prior to joining HarvardX, she received an M.A. in journalism from New York University and was a producer for ABC News World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer where she collaborated with senior correspondents and editorial staff to write and produce compelling and accurate global news and enterprise stories.
Daniel Spratt, MD is a physician who currently teaches as a Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology within the Tufts University School of Medicine. He also teaches courses in Evolutionary Reproductive Biology and Human Endocrine Physiology at the Harvard Extension School. Dr. Spratt specializes in Reproductive Endocrinology and works with a spectrum of patients from adolescence through menopause including women, men and transgender patients. He works closely with residents and students mentoring them in reproductive endocrinology as well as their scholarly activities including research projects. Dr. Spratt is based at Maine Medical Center in Portland Maine which is part of the Tufts system and also frequently teaches in Cambridge as well as Tufts Boston where he is involved in curriculum development and innovation as a member of the Tufts University School of Medicine Curriculum Committee.
Kristin Lofblad Sullivan (facilitator) is Senior Director of Educational Technology at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Public Leadership Credential, HKS’s recently launched online initiative. Previous to HKS, Kristin led Harvard’s Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) program, which led the roll-out of Canvas learning management system across Harvard schools, developed tools in support of pedagogical innovation, developed the process to extract data from Canvas for educational research, and cultivated University-wide communities of practice. Prior to TLT, Kristin served for 8 years as Head of Academic Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Previous to Harvard, she was Assistant Director of the Curriculum Innovation and Technology Group at Babson College and designed and developed online college courses for KaplanCollege.com. Kristin holds a BA from Connecticut College, an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and an EdM from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her functional background is in teaching and learning, and her professional focus is educational technology strategy and leadership.
Teddy Svoronos is a Lecturer of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he teaches courses in using statistical methods to improve public policy. His primary interest lies in the use of technology to replicate the dynamics of small classes on a large scale. To this end, Teddy develops fully online courses and blended learning modules that he uses to teach residential students, as well as civil servants abroad. Teddy is a Faculty Lead for the Evidence for Decisions area of HKS’ online Public Leadership Credential. He is also a co-founder of Teachly, a web application focused on creating effective and inclusive learning environments. Teddy received his Ph.D. in Health Policy from Harvard University and his Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University.
Making Peer Learning Accessible: Tools and Practices
Gabe Abrams is a senior software engineer in the Division of Continuing Education. Gabe spends half his time with the DCE Teaching and Learning Team identifying common struggles that affect courses, then spends the other half of his time with the DCE Development Team building tools to address those challenges. From administrative tools like SwipeIn attendance and a Harvard EdTech App Store to impact-driven tools for making grading more fair or helping students build peer networks, Gabe is thrilled to be working on so many projects with so many brilliant people.
Amy Deschenes is the Head of UX & Digital Accessibility at Harvard Library. She received an MS in Library Science from Simmons College. Her primary role is to improve the experience of using Harvard Library websites and search tools. She also works on library initiatives and campus-wide efforts related to digital accessibility. She oversees the User Research Center, Harvard’s premier usability and digital accessibility testing lab.
Kerry Foley is the Manager of Online Course Development at Harvard Extension School. She and her team support faculty in designing innovative and useful learning experiences for their Extension School courses. Kerry earned an undergraduate degree in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and spent many years working in the field of video production before completing a graduate degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her coursework focused on cognitive development, informal learning, and designing and producing media for learning.
Making Peer Learning Effective: What Does the Research Say?
Odile Harter (facilitator) is a Research and Pedagogy Librarian in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where she serves as library liaison to the departments of English, Comparative Literature, and Romance Languages and Literatures. She is also a program coordinator for Unabridged: A Master Class in Library Research.
Manja Klemenčič researches, teaches, advises and consults in the area of sociology and politics of higher education and international and comparative higher education. She is Lecturer in Sociology offering higher education courses at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University and Lecturer in General Education offering GENED1039 Higher Education: Students, Institutions, and Controversies. Her 10 years of research on student agency and actorhood in higher education is now culminating into a monograph Student Power in Higher Education. The book corrects the mainstream line of inquiry in the sociology of higher education on college impact on students. Together with Julie Reuben and Luke Menand, Manja co-chairs the Mahindra Center Seminar Series at Harvard University entitled: Universities: Past, Present, and Future. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Higher Education, Co-Editor of the Bloomsbury book series Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education, Co-Editor of the Routledge Handbook on Student-Centered Learning and Instruction in Higher Education, and Thematic Co-Editor of the Springer Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions.
Peer Learning in the Classroom
Adam Beaver (facilitator) Director of Pedagogy at the Derek Bok Center, provides leadership and strategic direction for the Bok Center’s faculty programming while working closely with faculty and graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, and General Education. Trained as a Renaissance historian, Adam is especially attuned to what we can learn from the deep history of universities, including the different kinds of intellectual practices and communities which have inhabited them. Rather than see recent trends in higher education, from the digital revolution to the shift towards active learning techniques, as moments of rupture which render traditional modes of teaching obsolete, Adam is interested in thinking with teachers about the best way to blend different kinds of techniques and exercises into a bespoke style that works for each individual instructor and course. Before coming to the Bok Center, Adam was an assistant professor of History at Princeton. He received his AB, AM, and Ph.D. from Harvard, as well as his MSt from the University of Oxford.
Timothy O’Brien is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Faculty Chair of the Leadership for the 21st Century program. Tim also teaches three different degree courses: Exercising Leadership – The Politics of Change; Democratic Leadership Skills and Developing People. Tim directs leadership development programs and workshops for state government, multinationals, non-profits, and foundations. In this work, he helps leaders orchestrate systemic interventions and overcome powerful status quos that resist learning, innovation, and adaptation. He also speaks about the challenges of developing leadership capacity alongside management skills. Before joining HKS, Tim ran and participated in experiential leadership learning programs. He was a leadership coach and consultant for INSEAD Business School’s Management Acceleration Program and faculty for the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Programs in Professional Education.
Student Perspectives on Peer Learning: Learners are Teachers, Too
Leena Ambady is a senior in Lowell House from California, studying the History of Science. Outside of school, she spends time volunteering at the Y2Y Homeless Shelter as well as working at the Harvard College Writing Center.
Michael Kochis, EdM, was a member of the first cohort of students to progress through Harvard Medical School’s innovative “Pathways” curriculum, Michael developed an interest in medical education. He was struck by how case-based collaborative learning (CBCL) afforded an opportunity to not just learn the scientific facts but also engage with the interpersonal skills necessary for successful clinical practice. While completing a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he developed an experiential teamwork and leadership skills curriculum to help first-year HMS students make the most of their CBCL activities. He is assisting HMS faculty to implement that program this year while applying for residencies in general surgery.
Julia Losner is a Junior at Harvard College concentrating in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology with a secondary in Music. Currently, she works as an undergraduate researcher in the Whited Lab, where she studies the intersection between regeneration and scarring in axolotl. She has also worked as a Peer Study Leader and Facilitator in Life and Physical Sciences courses at Harvard. In addition, she has served as the Assistant Manager and is currently the Historian of the Radcliffe Choral Society. Away from campus, Julia is a professional actress, having played several featured and background roles in movies and television shows, including HBO’s Crashing and Boardwalk Empire.
Jungyeon Park is a senior at Harvard College pursuing a joint concentration in Chemical and Physical Biology and Computer Science. On campus, she is involved in several organizations that place an emphasis on community, such as the Lowell House Committee and the Peer Advising Fellow Program. Academically, she is interested in understanding the mind and the brain from scientific and societal perspectives.
Sindhumathi Revuluri (facilitator) is Associate Dean of Academic Engagement in the Office of Undergraduate Education at Harvard University. She oversees academic opportunities and resources that support student learning in and out of the classroom, including advising, research and fellowships, career services, international education, accessible education, peer tutoring, and other learning supports. She was formerly a faculty member in the Department of Music at Harvard where her research and teaching focused on music and empire, from the 19th century to the present, and on critical pedagogies.
Najya Williams was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and is a Senior at Harvard College studying Sociology as a Pre-Med student. A published author and devoted scholar, Najya has consistently committed herself to academic excellence, community involvement, and social activism. She is an alumna of The George Washington University, where she devoted a year and a half to a sociological research study that analyzed the language used by community service organizations to describe the communities they serve, which was subsequently published in Penn State Berks’ Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning and Community-Based Research in January 2016. During the 2016-17 school year, Najya was honored by The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations for her empowerment efforts in the Black student community on and off the stage as a student activist and spoken word artist. Moreover, she spent two years in leadership with the Harvard Black Students Association and remains active as a peer mentor and advisor across cultural communities and within the Black in STEM population.
Maxwell M. Yorkofsky is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research explores how school systems, and the educators who inhabit them, make sense of and respond to reforms related to deeper learning and continuous improvement.
Creative Partnerships in Learning
Robyn Gittleman was an Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Director of the Experimental College (ExCollege) at Tufts University for over forty years. She retired from the position in December 2015. Founded in 1964, the ExCollege was the first of its kind. Students design and teach courses, serve on the governing board, evaluate course proposals, interview prospective visiting lecturers, select courses to be offered, and more. Gittleman was “instrumental” in the development and evolution of the ExCollege, she was the driving force behind the permanent inclusion of the ExCollege as a department in 1979.
Rakesh Khurana, Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, professor of sociology and organizational behavior at Harvard University, and faculty dean of Cabot House, became dean of Harvard College on July 1, 2014. A distinguished scholar of organizational behavior and leadership, Khurana has written extensively about the CEO labor market and business education. He has also co-edited “The Handbook for Leadership Theory and Practice” and “The Handbook for Teaching Leadership,” seminal texts on leadership theory and pedagogical practice. He has been recognized for his commitment to pedagogy, twice earning the Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching. Khurana received his B.S. from Cornell University and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife Stephanie and has three children.