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CELT Sessions Inspire and Instruct Educators

Educators from CSU, Chico, Butte College, and around the North State participated Sept. 18-19 in the Ninth Annual Conference on Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). Following are highlights of just a few of the 43 sessions.

The Butte Creek Ecological Reserve: A Resource for the Whole Community

"There's a place here for everyone," declared Jeff Mott, Bidwell Environmental Institute Reserve manager, to a busload of multidisciplinary participants on a field trip to the university's 93-acre Butte Creek Ecological Reserve on Honey Run Road.

Encountering a stately great egret at the edge of a pond and traversing a native plant garden reclaimed from the former gravel mine inspired participants to consider ways to share this resource with their students.

Suggestions included bringing art and English students to draw and write in peaceful surroundings, political science students to learn about the need for environmental legislation, and future teachers to learn how to lead a field trip.

Educating Students for Life in a Global Society: The Study Abroad Experience

Excited students vied to show CELT participants who had the best experience studying abroad.

"The most amazing thing that happened to me was seeing things about my culture I've never seen before," declared senior Jessica Taber.

"I was afraid to be so far away from my family -- and Mexican food," revealed Michelle Ventura. "But I learned so much about myself in Spain. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

"I had the greatest professors ever -- so skilled, so specialized, and always available to students," said Ryan Nunez, who studied in Torino, Italy.

Professor Susan Place, Graduate, International, and Sponsored Programs, outlined three types of study-abroad programs: the CSU International Programs, which she called the "classic junior year abroad program"; the University Studies Abroad Consortium, offering a semester or year abroad; and departmental programs. Humanities and Fine Arts offers a London Semester. Latin American Studies offers a Cultural Immersion Program in Merida, Mexico, with 10 weeks of academic study in Chico and six weeks of work experience in Mexico. The College of Business sponsors a three-week international business program in Guadalajara.

Last semester, students had the unique experience of being abroad during the Iraq War buildup and action. Nunez called being in Italy "a big eye-opener to the world's perspective on the U.S."

Making Multicultural Education a Reality: A Collaborative Effort

Returning after small-group breakout sessions, participants fairly bubbled over with ideas for a proposed weekly series of Conversations on Diversity.

The first question generated -- "How can faculty and students learn to be sensitive?" -- was labeled a "monster topic" by moderator Carol Burr, Multicultural and Gender Studies. Other suggested topics included bicultural living, faculty rights in multicultural classes, cross-cultural conflict resolution, and attracting and keeping students and faculty of color.

The Conversations on Diversity series will be held noon-1 p.m. Wednesdays in University Center 109. For start date, contact Burr at x5249 or cburr@csuchico.edu.

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

Encouraged by Greg Tropea, Philosophy, to "work the critical thinking muscle," participants from a variety of disciplines pondered techniques for incorporating critical thinking into their classes.

They eagerly accepted an Analytical Writing Skills Rubric for student self-assessment (from Inadequate to Polished), which Tropea urged them to "spread far and wide and modify freely."

Dennis Rothermel, Undergraduate Education, explored 13 critical thinking competencies, such as recognizing misleading uses of language and identifying relevant claims.

In a sample oral case discussion, participants were encouraged to ask questions to reveal twisted logic, strange beliefs and assumptions, and unsuccessful reasoning strategies. This technique can be used across disciplines, Tropea said.

Materials for this session can be viewed at www.csuchico.edu/phil/gtropea_mat/CELT2003.html.

Francine Gair