Numerous studies in the last few decades have examined how physical and biological scientists make discoveries and face challenges in their labs. A new collection of essays and original research -- Social Knowledge in the Making (University of Chicago Press) -- applies this sort of analysis to the social sciences, exploring the process of creation in very different disciplines. Chapters in the volume cover such topics as peer review, academic conferences, interdisciplinary work and institutional review boards. The Faculty Learning Communities are entering the start-up phase. The leadership teams have been empowered and the communities will begin to meet very soon. There is still a small window of opportunity to participate this academic year. Contact the facilitator or co-facilitator of the FLC you are interested in joining now. Micheal Winerip wrote a very interesting article about the topic of college readiness. He highlights a new program implemented by the community college system in New York City that focuses on improving the math, reading and writing abilities of their freshmen. The intense semester long program called START has proven to be effective. A recent article in the Austin Statesman notes that University of Texas researchers have found that about 70 percent of new public high school principals in Texas leave their jobs within the first five years. Only about half of new principals stay on the job at least three years, education researchers found. And principals in high-poverty schools are leaving the soonest. Everyone should be familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy. What you may not be as familiar with is Dee Fink's taxonomy that can be used specifically to redesign a course. Carolyn Fallahi, Laura Levine, Joan Nicoll-Senft, Jack Tessier, Cheryl Watson, and Rebecca Wood have written a terrific article describing how a course redesign project turned into a writing group and has continued to provide new opportunities for its participants. They write, "We now always begin our course design by asking three questions: What do we want students to retain from this course? How can we make this learning personal for the student? and How can we make this a human experience that will make them care about the material?"

The initial notice on Diane Halpern's visit on November 10 and 11 has certainly created a sensation. Registration is brisk but there is room for more. If you would like to attend her interactive sessions, register now. She will provide ideas and suggestions that can be used to improve the learning environment in your classroom and you will earn valuable points for the Faculty Development Program. The field of cognitive science has exploded during the last two decades. The connection between the brain and how we learn is constantly evolving. We have learned many things and still have a long way to go. What has emerged is that lecture and testing for recall does not provide the best opportunity for students to learn. As we continue to implement our Quality Enhancement Plan, especially in the core courses (although it is hoped that everyone will adopt the new methods), CT+LE stands ready to help you with course redesign. Ken Bain, in his book What the Best College Teachers Do, writes, "Part of being a good teacher (not all) is knowing that you always have something new to learn...and that there is no single "best way" to teach." We have recommended the book many times and the ACES Fellows are reading it as part of their year-long experience. It is available at the MJGL for those who are looking for a quick (178 pages) read that is guaranteed to improve your teaching. John Lombardi wrote an op-ed piece for his blog about some of our favorite people--librarians. He writes, "Some believe the search engine is the new daemon of relevance and selection, capable of sorting the important from the ephemeral, but our librarians know that search without purpose or criteria produces more chaff than wheat. We can Google for a zillion hits in seconds, but as our librarians remind us, most of those results are irrelevant or worse, plain wrong." In a different vein, if you are looking for a little levity, check out Gina Barreca's op-ed piece on student's propensity to divulge too much information when they are trying to explain their inability to finish required work on time. She writes, "Please, dear student, resist the urge to tell me that you might be late to class because your fraternity or sorority has a 'really, really big meeting.' That is so entirely none of my business, I cannot even begin to explain to you how bizarre it seems that you should think I’d answer with anything but '???'”

By now you may have heard that President Simmons has requested that a Freshman Seminar Course (FSC) be implemented at LU by the fall of 2012. The FSC Implementation Committee met for the first time on Friday and quickly organized into five sub-committees: curriculum design and structure; marketing, advertising, and web presence; open house, orientation, and recruitment; assessment; and campus relations. The Implementation Committee of twenty-two members, led by Dr. Oney Fitzpatrick, is committed to creating a freshmen year course that provides student with the skills that will increase their satisfaction with the college experience while improving our retention and graduation rates. As we know, the attrition issue is everyone's responsibility at LU and the Implementation Committee is looking for assistance from anyone who is interested in student success. We will continue to update you on the progress of this initiative. Please save the dates of November 10 and 11 for the visit of Dr. Diane Halpern. She will deliver two interactive workshops designed to help you move to the next level as an instructor. Her critical thinking session will prepare you for the new requirements of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board requiring assessment of this essential skill. In addition, Dr. Halpern will deliver a session on the science of learning designed to solidify the link between you and your students. Now that we are in week nine of your learner-centered class, your students should be able to understand the facts and principles and interpret the material as well as be able to solve problems and apply concepts and principles to new situations. They should also be able to recognize unstated assumptions or logical fallacies and have the ability to distinguish between facts and inferences. They should be able to integrate learning from different areas and solve problems by creative and critical thinking and their judgement and assessment skills should be well developed. The preceding statements are built using Bloom's Taxonomy. Your learning outcomes should be very similar to these statements infused with your disciplinary expectations. Do your students constantly prod you to reveal your political ideology? Do they say that you are biased? Billie Hara wrote an interesting op-ed piece on this topic for Inside Higher Ed that we encourage you to read.

Should students be allowed back in class after they have been kicked out for disruptive behavior pending a hearing? That is the question Dean Dad asks in his blog today. He says, "Learning to manage difficult students is part of teaching. But some students are really far beyond what a reasonable person should have to deal with, even if they aren’t technically criminal. They need to be removed if the class is going to work." The call for proposals for the 2011 Social Media Conference at Tarleton State is now available. The conference will occur on December 2 and the proposals are due by October 14. The event is being coordinated by the Texas Social Media Research Institute. The next opportunity to join the LU journaling group is October 24. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher seminar will be held at 3:00 PM in room 622 MJGL. You can indicate your attendance now by contacting CT+LE or calling 8426. One of the main reasons that millennial students are dropping out of college is related to economic factors. Many say that the lack of need-based financial support leads them to take a break from college in order to work and build up their reserves. Stephen DesJardins and Brian McCall have written an interesting article, Stimulating the Effects of Financial Aid Packages on College Student Stopout, Reenrollment Spells, and Graduation Chances, which appeared in the Review of Higher Education in the summer of 2010. DesJardins and McCall discovered that students "who experience a stopout are more likely to experience subsequent spells of non-enrollment and that this pattern of enrollment behavior is very detrimental to a student's chances of graduation." They suggest that institutions should consider strategies that reduce stopouts to increase their graduation rates. If you are still interested in joining a FLC for AY 2011-12, you should contact the CT+LE now. Take a look at the four FLC and see if you are interested in becoming a member of what promises to be a very exciting and stimulating experience.

The next step in the Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) process is training for the leadership teams of each group. That is scheduled to occur next week. After that, each group will gather to discuss its goals and outcomes. We will be creating a webpage for each FLC on the CT+LE main site. It will include the leadership and membership of each FLC as well as ongoing activities, meetings, and other relevant information. If you have not joined a FLC but would like to do so, the opportunity is still open. Simply contact the CT+LE and we will make sure you are included. The four FLC for Academic Year 2011-12 are Active Research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Creating an Online Course of Substance, High School to College Transition, and Sustainability Across the Curriculum. RosEvaluation Conference 2012 has released their call for proposals. This year's conference, Assessment for Program and Institutional Accreditation, will be held April 1-3, 2012 in Terre Haute, Indiana. The conference emphasizes concrete, effective and efficient solutions to assessment and evaluation challenges. There is still time to register for the free webinar being offered by the University of North Texas, Effective Teaching-How to Know it When You See it! The webinar will start at 1:00 PM on Friday, October 14. Now that we are in the seventh week of classes at LU, have you taken the time to gauge the climate of your classroom? Most scientists would recommend you use the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) developed by R, H. Moos. You can learn more about it from a terrific article from the Journal of College Student Development, volume 35. It is not available online but the MJGL does have the hard copy of the journal. While you are there, come on up to the sixth floor of MJGL and visit us in CT+LE. The word of the week is polymath and here is the word used in a sentence. Our faculty at LU is made up of many polymaths, working in all kinds of creative and scientific fields.