Speakers
Dr. Marcus Johnson
Motivation and Rejuvenation with Rigor + Care for Teaching Excellence
Dr. Marcus Johnson (Virginia Tech) looks forward to delivering his keynote at Temple University’s 2023 Annual Faculty Conference, with a focus on the benefits and limitations of motivation strategies and applying them with both rigor and care in mind for post-pandemic teaching excellence. Bridging theory, research, practice, and experiences, Dr. Johnson will present on and engage attendees in conversations about the value of diverse motivational principles and practices; the conditions that best suit different motivation strategies; as well as reflections on applying motivation strategies in both rigorous and caring manners to rejuvenate our students and ourselves post-pandemic.
Dr. Marcus Johnson is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Research in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. He joined the Virginia Tech faculty following his decade-plus tenure at the University of Cincinnati, where he was the proud recipient of the University’s Faculty Exemplary Service Award and inductee of the Academy of Fellows for Teaching & Learning. Identifying as a Developmental and Educational Psychologist, Dr. Johnson’s scholarship concerning “motivation in education,” has included investigations of traditional and nontraditional college students’ motivations, the use of motivational strategies that enhance cognitive engagement and learning, and the effect of policies and practices on both student and faculty motivation. Nationally, Dr. Johnson has served on the American Psychological Association’s Council of Representatives, is an Associate Editor for the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology, and has previously co-chaired the faculty mentoring program for the American Educational Research Association’s Division for Learning & Instruction. Dr. Johnson earned his PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and for over a decade he has enjoyed teaching various courses in higher education, from Human Development to Human Learning, and from Educational Assessment to Research Methods. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Johnson had taught high school science in diverse settings.
Dr. Derek Bruff
Intentional Tech: Reconnecting Our Students to Learning
Seeing distant family during weekly Zoom calls. Playing board games online with friends. Sharing a new paper with colleagues on LinkedIn. Technology can do many things, not all of them helpful for human flourishing, but it can connect us in ways that are meaningful and affirming. As instructors, we can harness technology to turn our courses into learning communities, to empower our students to do creative work, and to connect our students with authentic audiences for that work. In this keynote, we will explore teaching principles and practices to help us make intentional and effective use of technology to foster deep learning in our students during a time when engaging those students is extra challenging.
Derek Bruff is an educator, author, and higher ed consultant. He directed the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching for more than a decade, where he helped faculty and other instructors develop foundational teaching skills and explore new ideas in teaching, and he’s given talks on teaching and learning at dozens of colleges and universities. Bruff has written two books, Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching (West Virginia University Press, 2019) and Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments (Jossey-Bass, 2009). He writes a weekly newsletter called Intentional Teaching. Bruff has a PhD in mathematics and has taught math courses at Vanderbilt and Harvard University.
