Workshops and breakout sessions
Workshops
Distinguished faculty across Temple who have completed our Provost’s Teaching Academy will be facilitating 60-minute, interactive workshops on day 1 of the conference. The workshop topics will build on the theme of the conference and on the topics presented by our keynote and plenary speakers. In the workshops, you will have the chance to take a deeper dive into select topics and apply what you have learned to your own courses.
Wednesday, January 7th, Workshops
11:00am - 12:00pm & 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Fail Better: Turning Mistakes into Meaningful Learning
Bryan Satalino
Design and Illustration, Tyler School of Art and Architecture
Temple University
About this Workshop
Fear of failure and anxiety about academic performance are real and measurable in higher ed contexts. However, providing opportunities for students to get it wrong early and often can help students handle failure reflectively—and recognize failure not as a taboo but as a learning experience. In this workshop, faculty will reframe student “failure” as a necessary and instructive part of the learning process and leave with concrete ways to integrate reflective failure into their teaching.
Belonging in the Classroom: Inclusive Practices for Military-Connected Students
Mike Opferman
Physics, College of Science and Technology
Temple University
About this Workshop
Traditionally, courses are designed so that if students fail an assessment they must simply accept the failing grade and move on to the next topic. Our goal should be for students to learn as much as possible by the end of the course, not by some arbitrary exam date, so why don’t we give students more of an opportunity to fail, learn from it, improve, and then get graded on what they finally learn in the end? In this workshop we will explore the advantages (and dangers) of letting students fail and will discuss some strategies we can use to incorporate learning from failure into our courses.
Success through Social Connection: Effective Faculty and Student Mentoring for Belonging and Engagement
Linn Posey-Maddox and Sonai Chaudhuri
Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies, College of Education and Human Development
Temple University
About this Workshop
How can mentoring meaningfully help both students and faculty thrive? How can our mentoring relationships, whether with peers or with students, deepen intellectual engagement and foster growth? Building on Dr. Eyler’s concept of social pedagogies that learning happens best through relationships and collaboration, this interactive session explores how mentoring can spark engagement, growth, and connection. Together, we’ll examine the value of mentoring among faculty and between faculty and students, discuss issues of equity, and introduce the concept of reverse mentoring. You’ll have a chance to reflect on your own mentoring experiences and leave with practical tools and strategies for building inclusive, effective mentoring relationships that support learning and success for everyone involved.
Authentic Learning: The Curious Case of You
Nyron Crawford
Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
Temple University
About this Workshop
Authentic learning experiences are helped by doses of realism. In addition to application, and more than just prior knowledge, students search for relevance in what they’re learning. A “truly authentic learning experience,” according to Joshua Eyler in How Humans Learn, must have “as much fidelity as possible to what students will encounter outside of school in terms of tools, complexity, cognitive functioning, and interactions with people.” How can we, as instructors, optimize course content on these terms? What kinds of learning activities are mirrored by real-world contexts and/or have high travel to real a real-world setting? This session will explore instructional methods, by modeling classroom activities and discussing others, that help develop effective, authentic learning. Three approaches explored, among many others, are simulations, as well as problem-and-case-based learning, each of which help students locating themselves in their learning.
Meeting the Needs of Our Students: Why Academic Rigor and Caring are Not Mutually Exclusive
Steph Delane Doktor
Music Studies, Boyer College of Music and Dance
Temple University
About this Workshop
Faculty are often taught to divorce emotion from cognition, feeling from knowing, to craft courses rigorously focused on learning outcomes and professional preparation. Pedagogies of care, however, have productively challenged assumptions about the relationship between emotional connections with students and the intellectual rigor of courses. In this workshop, faculty will discover how to center care for students to create deep learning experiences. Drawing on Joshua Eyler’s argument that “cognition and emotion are integrated in the brain,” the workshop gives participants concrete ways to support students emotionally while maintaining the high standards of their course’s learning objectives.
Curiosity as a Bridge: Connecting Students to Learning Success
Divita Singh
Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy
Temple University
About this Workshop
Curiosity is more than a spark of interest—it’s the engine that drives learning, motivation, and persistence. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore how curiosity connects students to meaning, belonging, and academic success. Through reflection, discussion, and hands-on design, we’ll examine the science behind curiosity, identify common barriers that can stifle it, and develop practical strategies to intentionally foster curiosity in our classrooms and student support spaces. Join us to discover how nurturing curiosity helps us “keep the promise” of building academic bridges that empower every student to thrive.
Breakout Sessions
These peer-reviewed 45-minute interactive sessions generally include a “mini-lecture” format with activities and demonstrations of teaching methods, as well as guided discussions about the topic at hand. Choose one morning and one afternoon session to attend.
Thursday, January 8th, Morning Breakout Sessions
11:00am - 11:45am
Let’s Do This Together! Modeling Authentic Collaboration with Intentional Co-Teaching
Magdalena Maczynska
Department of English and Philosophy, Teaching and Learning Center
Drexel University
Katie Sullivan Barak
Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Pennoni Honors College
Drexel University
About this Breakout Session
Co-teaching (whether for one term, one class meeting, or something in between) allows educators to compare notes, articulate the assumptions underpinning their teaching practice, model successful collaboration, and overcome “pedagogical solitude”. This co-taught session offers strategies for initiating and sustaining intentional (and joyous!) long- or short-term co-teaching relationships
Belonging in the Classroom: Inclusive Practices for Military-Connected Students
Jennifer Johnson
Associate Dean of Student Success, College of Education and Human Development: Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies
Temple University
Kristie Furiosi
Assistant Director, Military and Veteran Services
Temple University
About this Breakout Session
Military-connected students face transitions, hidden injuries, and caregiving demands that hinder belonging. Drawing on teaching-and-learning research and *Marching to College* (Henderson et al., 2025), this session offers evidence-based strategies to help faculty create inclusive classrooms that support all learners, including those who may not self-identify.
Mayors, Tutors, and Letters, Oh My! Creating Peer-To-Peer Buy-In
Erica Henn
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Temple University
About this Breakout Session
This breakout session will share three methods of peer-centric engagement: having a class mayor, designating peer tutors, and having students write letters to future students who will take the course the next semester. Attendees will brainstorm actionable strategies for implementation and usage in their own courses.
Teaching Good Citizenship Across Disciplines
Joanna Kenty
Editor
The Renovator
About this Breakout Session
To engage and empower students as learners, we need to engage and empower them as people. In coursework, they can develop knowledge and skills that they’ll take into their lives as citizens of a democracy. In this workshop, we’ll reflect and plan together to cultivate good citizenship across disciplines.
Bringing Humanity to Health Care Education
Shelly Lewis
Co-Director of Clinical Education, Physical Therapy
Thomas Jefferson University
About this Breakout Session
This interactive session will give attendees a basic understanding of the Health Humanities and examples of how they can be used in the classroom in a short timeframe. Additionally, the workshop will provide attendees with resources and strategies to implement Health Humanities in their classrooms without extensive training.
Thursday, January 8th, Afternoon Breakout Sessions
1:00pm - 1:45pm
Triangulating Feedback: Using Multi-Point Evaluations to Strengthen the Student Learning Climate
Yasmene Kimble
Assessment Specialist, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
Stony Brook University
About this Breakout Session
This session presents a 3-group case study demonstrating how combining end of course evaluations with a mid-semester evaluation and three short student experience surveys yields actionable data. Learn to use this triangulated feedback focused on instructor support and climate to make timely pedagogical corrections, keeping the promise of academic excellence for diverse students.
CONNECT-STEM: Transforming STEM Teaching through Learning Sciences and Compassionate Pedagogy
Shelia Tabanli
Department of Mathematics
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Sharron Crane
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
About this Breakout Session
This session introduces CONNECT-STEM, an award-winning faculty community that integrates the learning sciences with student-centered pedagogy. Grounded in the RR2PG framework (reducing the research-to-practice gap in teaching) and the 3C Pedagogical Model (Compassionate Teaching in a Connected Community through Cognitive Apprenticeship), participants will engage with asset-based and research-informed strategies.
Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education: Centering Equity in Higher Education
Luca Poxon
College of Education and Human Development
Temple University
Juliet Curci
Assistant Dean of College Access and Persistence; Founding Director of CREATE
Temple University
About this Breakout Session
This session explores culturally relevant and sustaining education (CRSE), a research-backed framework for equity. Drawing on the experiences of members of a multi-institutional community of practice, we explore the tenets of CRSE, evidence of its benefits for students, and strategies for its implementation in the higher education classroom.
Circles in the College Classroom? Restorative Practices for Higher Education
Sarah Burgess
College of Education and Human Development
Temple University
About this Breakout Session
In an era of mental health concerns and political volatility, it is imperative that faculty prioritize community building. Restorative Practices can contribute to faculty’s approaches to building communities that encourage belonging and lead to active social and cognitive engagement. Participants in this session will learn central tenets of Restorative Practice theory, and practical strategies for effective, meaningful application in a university setting.
Teaching & Learning Focused Research: Ensuring Our Pedagogy Cultivates Student Success
Lauren Johnson
College of Public Health, Nursing
Temple University
Susan Kilroy
College of Public Health, Nursing
Temple University
About this Breakout Session
This breakout session demonstrates how simulation-based education and the 5D’s Framework (Distract, Delay, Delegate, Direct, Document) teach students to recognize and respond to bias, racism, and inequities. Faculty will participate in a live simulation and debrief, gaining practical strategies to integrate advocacy-focused, experiential learning into their own courses.
Multimodal Newspaper Projects in ESL: Digital Literacy, Interviews, and Peer Feedback
Junghee Kim
Department of ESL, Languages, and Cultures
Middlesex College
About this Breakout Session
This session introduces an engaging ESL classroom project in which students create their own newspapers using Canva. Through 5W1H-based research, interviews, quizzes, and peer feedback, learners develop reading, writing, and speaking skills while connecting textbook themes to authentic, real-world communication. Additionally, the project introduces students to new digital tools, fostering tech-savvy skills.