Teaching workshop for Thai faculty underway this week at CTLT

Twenty-five faculty members from Khon Kaen University in Thailand are attending a three-day workshop, Research–Based Teaching and Learning Innovations and Faculty Mentoring Strategies, at the Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology this week, from August 30 to September 1.

The group is participating in a variety of activities designed to help them increase their understanding of active learning, cooperative and collaborative learning, and peer mentoring.  The goal of the workshop is to prepare these 25 faculty members to serve as peer mentors for other members of the Khon Kaen faculty who want to integrate innovative teaching strategies into their teaching.

Members of the CTLT program staff, who are modeling active, collaborative and cooperative teaching strategies, as well as a variety of peer mentoring strategies, are facilitating the workshop.  "This is an exciting opportunity for us to work closely with an impressive group of international faculty," said Patrick O'Sullivan, CTLT's director. "I suspect we will learn as much from them as they will learn from us. And this experience will help CTLT's ability to support faculty's work preparing our students for today's interconnected globe."

In fact, the CTLT staff has already learned a great deal. “We’ve tried to prepare ourselves by reading about Thai culture and consulting with an Illinois State faculty member from Thailand,” said CTLT associate director, Claire Lamonica.  “Our hope is that we’ll be prepared to help the group think carefully about how these strategies are or are not a good fit for their classrooms and culture.  That way they’ll be better prepared to help their colleagues overcome some of the challenges of these approaches to teaching and learning.”    

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