By UW-Stout News Bureau
Two UW-Stout faculty members, Kate Edenborg and Jim Handley, have been named Wisconsin Teaching Fellows for the 2015-16 academic year.
The Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program is sponsored by the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development. It honors experienced and early career educators and recognizes their excellence in teaching and research.
Each participant completes a year-long Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research project, with dissemination of results as an essential part of the process. Participants then serve as a model and mentor in their discipline and on their campus, leading efforts to advance the practice of teaching through scholarly inquiry into student learning.
Funding also is provided by the Provost’s Office at UW-Stout.
Edenborg, an assistant professor, has been teaching in the English and philosophy department since fall 2012. Her project revolves around the situation teachers face when providing electronic feedback on writing projects and complex assignments.
“It can be disheartening to discover that documents that we spent hours on were never viewed,” Edenborg said.
She hopes to develop a more efficient system for giving feedback “to those who will use it.”
Edenborg said she plans to survey students “to get a sense of what they consider to be valuable feedback and, more importantly, to learn what type of feedback moves them to action, such as revising a paper or making corrections. We assume students prefer individualized, tailored feedback, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll use the feedback.”
Handley has been a lecturer in the social science department since September 2008. His project concerns assessing the efficacy of the Question Formulation Technique for developing students’ ability to identify the root causes of violence and oppression and to develop skills necessary to change those conditions.
In his introduction to Applied Peace Studies class, Handley will measure students’ ability to formulate, refine, categorize and prioritize meaningful questions based on a supplied topic; their ability to engage in critical reflection; and the likelihood, by measuring motivation level, a student will engage in individual or collective action to bring about positive social change.
Edenborg and Handley will participate in Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars events throughout the academic year.