Kevin Shea, Smith College
Host: Prof. Dudley
Professor of ChemistrySmith College
As a beginning faculty member, I taught classes much like I had been taught, mostly traditional lecture with questions answered by individual students. Professional development opportunities through the teaching and learning center at Smith and national organizations like PKAL and AAC&U helped me understand the value of student engagement inside and outside of class. Over the past 10 years, I have transformed my classroom into one that helps students prepare for class, prioritizes student-student interactions, enables all students to participate, and engages introductory students in the primary chemical literature. I will discuss my use of high impact practices with examples including creating videos for flipped classes, active learning strategies for lecture, and classroom response systems. I will also discuss the impact of a culture of student-centered instruction on the chemistry department at Smith.