Faculty members from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics departments across campus are invited to sign up for an ongoing professional development workshop series, which is funded by National Science Foundation. The workshop series is to be offered in spring 2018.

These workshops, which have already been attended by more than 100 faculty members from a wide variety of departments across campus, introduce participants to instructional practices proven to enhance student learning in various class sizes and levels.

The upcoming workshops will address the instructional strategy known as Peer Instruction. The goal of peer instruction is to help faculty develop an active learning environment for students in their classrooms, increasing student engagement and comprehension without having to completely revamp the focus of classroom content. Although these practices originated in physics, their effectiveness has been demonstrated throughout the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, and for various class sizes and levels. Over the course of the workshop series, participants will learn how to implement this strategy effectively within their individual classroom contexts.

Each workshop will take place every other week at a time determined by participant availability. In total, the workshop will consist of eight 90-minute meetings.

Earlier implementations of these workshops have been extremely well received: over 90 percent of workshop alumni plan on implementing peer instruction within their future classes, and over 95 percent would recommend the workshop to their colleagues.

Registration will close Sept. 22. Faculty can register online.

For more information, contact Marilyne Stains at mstains2@unl.edu or Robert Erdmann at rerdmann@unl.edu.