JPI
JPI update: Construction of resource guides is underway – please check the JCCTL Teaching & Mentoring Resources page for updates, or contact JCCTL staff directly. Thank you for your interest!
We are excited to invite you to JPI 2023 on Monday, August 14th (full day) and Tuesday, August 15th (morning only) – our fourth summer Pedagogy Institute!
As every year, we have planned JPI around urgent issues and challenges we face in our teaching through the dual lens of effectiveness and efficiency: Does it work? Can I execute this plan, given my resources?
What feels most urgent right now to many of us is generative AI (genAI). What we are learning is that the work of preventing genAI from short-circuiting learning lies not just in articulating an AI policy—although you need one!—but also in doing something we all already do: helping students see purpose in and feel supported in their learning. This year’s dynamic and interactive sessions center student learning and support and either engage directly with genAI, or focus on strategies like creativity, universal design, and peer mentoring.
All Gettysburg College employees are welcome to attend, and we ask that you RSVP through the link provided to you in the Digests and the JCCTL mailer. This will help us select the correct rooms and order sufficient quantities of food.
Session details and what to expect are stated below, and we’ll continue to remind and update you as we approach August 14th.
See you at JPI! On behalf of the JPI team,
Josef Brandauer
Director, JCCTL
| Time | Session 1 | Session 2 |
| 8 – 9 | Breakfast: CUB | |
| 9 – 10:20 | Kauffman: Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom (#1) | Wagner: Transforming your Classroom with Creativity (#1) |
| 10:30 – 11:50 | Wagner: Transforming your Classroom with Creativity (#2) | Kauffman: Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom (#2) |
| 12 – 1 | Lunch: Musselman Library | |
| 1 – 1:50 | Forbes and Cushing-Daniels: GenAI for Good | |
| 2 – 2:50 | Murphy: Backward Design in action | Kennedy: Mastery-based pedagogy |
| 3 – 3:50 | Hoover: Supporting students with disabilities | Berenson, O’Hara: Work effectively with your PLA |
| 4 – 5 | Reception: Musselman Library | |
Monday sessions:
Out of the Box: Transforming your Classroom with Creativity |
Josh Wagner, Manager, Innovation and Creativity Lab – Educational Technology
As the educational landscape continues to evolve, hands-on experiential learning opportunities can be a great tool in preparing students for the challenges of the future.
Design thinking, a human-centered problem-solving approach, offers a refreshing perspective to educators in any field seeking to enhance student engagement and develop their students’ critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and practical skills!
Join us in the Innovation and Creativity lab for a morning of fun and engaging activities, while learning how others have partnered with the lab to incorporate subject relevant activities in their courses.
From gAI to gEI: Generating Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom
Chris Kauffman, Professor Theatre Arts
Ever feel like you are on stage as a teacher or doing a presentation? Want to learn about techniques that actors use for relaxation, reading the room, and being present in the moment? This workshop uses fun and engaging exercises on active listening, sharing control of the narrative, and emotional regulation to move toward personal balance and meaningful engagement in and out of the classroom.
Backward Design in action
Kelli Murphy, Educational Technology
Students – especially those who are not yet familiar with higher education structures – benefit from clarity and transparency in their learning environments. One place where transparency is particularly important is in your course’s design on your learning management system and elsewhere.
This session’s goal is to demonstrate what it looks like when Backward Design, a framework that treats the goal of instruction as facilitating student learning rather than merely “covering content,” is clearly visible in your course. We will compare an original version of a course page with concrete changes that were made in order to ensure the Backward Design framework is fully transparent to students.
Mastery grading: a strategy to promote student growth and enhance the value of instructor feedback
Ben Kennedy, Mathematics
Mastery grading (a.k.a. specifications grading) is a course strategy where students are assessed on learning goals repeatedly until they demonstrate full proficiency. This strategy can help students by incentivizing a growth mindset and giving them time to develop a superior command of the material. It can help course instructors by eliminating elaborate partial credit schemes and promoting specific and actionable feedback. Professor Kennedy will lead a discussion of how mastery grading can be partially or fully implemented in various courses and describe the experience he has had with the strategy in recent math courses.
genAI for Good
Melissa Forbes, English/Writing Center + Brendan Cushing-Daniels
How might genAI technologies actually help students learn? What are creative ways to incorporate them into assignments and activities? Bringing together colleagues from across campus, this panel focuses on genAI’s opportunities rather than its threats and offers concrete ideas for incorporating it into your teaching practice.
Working Effectively with PLAs
Kathy Berenson, Psychology, and Bill O’Hara, Sunderman Conservatory of Music
How can Peer Learning Associates support your teaching and your students? This session offers concrete suggestions for working effectively with PLAs and helping them assist your students and support your course’s learning outcomes. You will hear about upcoming initiatives aimed at further developing PLAs at Gettysburg College. Finally, the workshop will also include a discussion and brainstorming period for faculty to ask questions, exchange ideas, and provide feedback about PLAs at Gettysburg. By attending this session, you will gain useful tools to foster successful partnerships with your PLAs, leading to improved engagement and outcomes for your students.
Accommodations and Beyond
Theresa Hoover, Assistant Dean for Student Accessibility
The driving questions of this session are 1) what are things I can do in my classroom to accommodate students in support of the integrity of the learning experience, and 2) is there a point where an “accommodation” causes negative unintended consequences? In this session led by Assistant Dean of Student Accessibility, Theresa Hoover, participants will learn about how to effectively support students with and without official accommodations without burning themselves out along the way.
Tuesday AM Session:
genAI open workshops: assignment redesign
Divided according to assignment type and other topics, these open workshops offer opportunity to revisit assignment learning goals in the face of genAI and begin making changes as appropriate. Sessions will include time for individual work and small group conversations, as well as feedback on your assignment redesign efforts.
