Nine faculty named TALE Teaching Excellence Fellows

Nine Bloomsburg University faculty achieved the status of the TALE Teaching Excellence Academy Fellows this January.

The Academy is dedicated to supporting fellows (re)design a course based upon the following two principles: backward design and learner-centered teaching. Backward course design is a method of designing an educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing instructional methods and forms of assessment. Participating faculty participated in ten 90-minute discussion sessions in January that supplemented assigned readings.

Outside meeting times, fellows were asked to apply the principles to their course (re)design by completing a three-stage worksheet and writing a reflection piece. Fellows are also urged to promote backward design and learner-centered principles to their colleagues when opportunities arise.

New Teaching Excellence Academy Fellows are:

• Rodger Benefiel, sociology, social work, and criminal justice
• Ingrid Everett, teaching and learning
• Subhadra Ganguli, economics
• Brooke Hansen, psychology
• Amarilis Hidalgo de Jesus, languages and cultures
• Dan McCurry, chemistry and biochemistry
• Mykola Polyuha, languages and cultures
• Jennifer Whisner, environmental, geographical, and geological sciences
• Rebecca Willoughby, student success

They join more than 70 BU faculty who have taken advantage of the Academy since 2011.