Teaching & Learning Conference

7th Annual SUNY Fredonia

Teaching & Learning Conference

Save the Date! August 19, 2013

"Innovative Learning Environments"

Registration and Conference Program will be available soon!

This year's Teaching & Learning conference will focus on a variety of vital themes under the umbrella of teaching and learning within innovative learning environments. Recent scholarship has challenged educators to think outside of the traditional classroom environment and to re-imagine education within a multiplicity of new and innovative settings (Darling-Hammond, 2011; Delpit, 2012). While many educators have readily accepted this new and vibrant mission, institutions of higher learning can be notoriously averse to change. (Schrecker, 2010).

From Tahrir Square to Zucotti Park, events around the world disseminated through manifold new media platforms have brought the expansive, democratic aims of global youth movements home to Western New York (Giroux, 2013, Mason, 2012). Rethinking the curriculum in response to these events begins with understanding the value of learning experiences that take place outside the classroom in a way that will captivate the minds of diverse learners. For example, engaging students in service learning projects in the local and wider community can serve both the goals of rigorous content acquisition as well as those of democratic, citizenship education (Wade, 2007). New technologies, wisely used, offer students new opportunities to explore performance-based learning and offer educators new means of doing organic, authentic assessment (Swan & Hofer, 2009). Finally, students who are immersed in alternative learning spaces are more likely to see themselves as responsible members within sustainable communities of the future (McKibben, 2010).

About the Keynote: 

Our keynote speaker this year is Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, the Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Ladson-Billings' area of expertise focuses culturally relevant pedagogy, and her research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African-American students. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and former editor of the American Educational Research Journal. 

Read more about Dr. Ladson-Billings and her work.

Conference Tracks:

            - Forging Links Between Local and Global Communities

            - Using Performance as a Pedagogical Tool

            - Diverse Students and Learning Strategies

            - Re-thinking the Curriculum of Higher Education

            - Teaching Content through Service Learning

            - Technology Inside and Outside the Classroom

            - The Science of Responsible and Sustainable Practices

We look forward to an exciting day of discussions among faculty about the ways in which to best incorporate these themes in their teaching practices. The most promising outcome of the 2013 SUNY Fredonia Teaching & Learning Conference will be the connections created between practitioners who can help support long-term efforts to improve students' experiences within democratic learning communities.

For more information regarding the Teaching & Learning Conference, please contact: tlc-grp@fredonia.edu