Faculty Attend Training Workshops
Training workshops planned during intersession include the Political Dialogue Facilitation Training Workshop on Jan. 25 and the Portfolio and Capstone Assessment Workshop on Jan. 26.Before the spring semester begins, dozens of University faculty members will attend workshops that address the facilitation of political dialogue and portfolio and capstone course assessment.
On Thursday, Jan. 25, more than 40 University faculty and staff members will attend a Political Dialogue Facilitation Training Workshop. The training is part of an ongoing “Bursting our Political Bubbles” civic engagement initiative, which began as a pilot program during the spring 2017 semester during which the University, along with area colleges, ran student political dialogue sessions aimed at addressing political polarization. This workshop is a follow-up to those events to provide training for use in upcoming University student “Dialogue across Differences” sessions, planned for Mar. 26, Apr. 9 and Apr. 25, as well as for courses and co-curricular offerings where dialogue around current public affairs or political issues would be relevant. The training will be facilitated by the nonprofit organization Essential Partners and will include training in the principles of Ignatian dialogue, which will be presented by The Jesuit Center.
The political dialogue civic engagement initiative is sponsored by The Jesuit Center together with The Ellacuría Initiative, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Political Science Department, with additional support from the Office of Community and Government Relations, the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Provost’s Office, the Division of Student Formation and Campus Life and faculty from various academic departments.
Faculty members may also attend the Portfolio and Capstone Assessment Workshop on Friday, Jan. 26. The daylong workshop, offered by the University’s Office of Educational Assessment and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, will examine: best practices for incorporating portfolios and/or capstone work as a teaching-learning strategy; the identification of common competencies to be assessed across portfolios and/or capstone assignments in various disciplines; and the development of rubrics for scoring and grading a portfolio and/or capstone assignments, among other topics.
