TEACHx 2025: Full Schedule

1:00pm CDT

Restorative Justice in Teaching: Self-Determination Theory and Assessment

Wednesday May 21, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm CDT

Restorative justice (RJ) as a style of teaching and learning emphasizes the practical importance of centering students' basic psychological needs. In the language of self-determination theory (SDT), basic psychological needs in education amounts to developing student autonomy, student relatedness, and student competence, the satisfaction of which is a reliable predictor of student success. This session will 1) introduce a conceptual alignment of RJ & SDT as motivational approaches to classroom learning and 2) review some recent RJ & SDT research and assessment models for higher education.

Speakers

Joe Rice

Criminology Instructor, DePaul University

Joe Rice is a Criminology Instructor at DePaul University, a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) at Cook County Jail, and U.S. Army veteran. His teaching philosophy and clinical approach are rooted in the ancient wisdom tradition of restorative justice, with a focus on the sacred practice... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm CDT
Lake Room

Workshop

Subject Student Success and Assessment

3:40pm CDT

See All of Me: ePortfolios for Adult Learners

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:40pm - 4:25pm CDT

Rock Room

Adult learners returning to undergraduate education often have nonlinear pathways and may struggle to articulate how their experiences align with future goals. To support these students, Northwestern University's School of Professional Studies incorporates ePortfolio completion in their capstone course, fostering self-awareness and professional readiness.

A successful ePortfolio strategy starts by understanding the student's current identity and future aspirations post-graduation. This approach enables learners to delve into their learning experiences, reflect on the methods they employ, and apply knowledge practically. The process of creating an ePortfolio is emphasized as being just as crucial as the final product.

Presenters will cover strategies and challenges associated with adult learners' ePortfolios. They will share best practices from both faculty and student perspectives and involve participants in discussions on integrating ePortfolios within their own programs.

Speakers

Reba-Anna Lee

Assistant Dean, Distance Learning, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies

Susan Wesner

Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:40pm - 4:25pm CDT
Rock Room

Interactive Presentation

Subject Student Success and Assessment

8:30am CDT

Self-Efficacy and Student Learning

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:30am - 9:15am CDT

Wildcat Room

Can a student's belief affect their behavior and learning? Research supports that self-efficacy can predict performance and account for poor performance when students have the required skills needed to learn. In this presentation, we will evaluate and explore our own self-efficacy as well as gain a general understanding of the impact of self-efficacy on learning. Then, we will discuss ways that we, as professors, administrators, parents, teachers, aunts, uncles, and others, can increase the development of belief in oneself and others. Lastly, we will work on setting two concrete goals with an action plan to implement steps to reach those goals. If a person's belief, or self-efficacy, that they can succeed influences learning, we must implement strategies to build self-efficacy.

Speakers

Susan Schulhof

Assistant Professor, National Louis University

Susan Schulhof is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education. She has been working in the Early Childhood Education field since 2001 with previous experience in Elementary Education and Social Work. In addition to teaching and leading others, she was an Assessor and Training... Read More →

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:30am - 9:15am CDT
Wildcat Room

Interactive Presentation

Subject Student Success and Assessment

10:45am CDT

From Plato to Pixar: Using Storytelling Frameworks to Drive Engagement

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT

Northwestern Room

From Succession to Squid Game, from Game of Thrones to Severance, we live in a culture saturated with stories. As educators, technologists, and researchers, we're frequently told that using stories will keep our audiences engaged when we need to convey information in a presentation or instructional-based format. How do we do that, though? We're not all natural-born storytellers, but there are effective, powerful frameworks that can help us tell compelling stories regardless of the subject.

After reviewing the four cornerstones of narrative, we'll cover two key frameworks for engagement through storytelling: Campbell's Hero's Journey and the Pixar Storytelling Framework. Participants will take what they have learned about the Pixar storytelling framework and apply it to a segment of content from their own area of expertise. After a brief working period, participants will be asked to share their work with the session audience for feedback. Each participant will leave with the experience of applied knowledge and be better able to tell stories in their own higher education environments.

Speakers

Brian Klaas

Instructor, Johns Hopkins University

Brian Klaas is the Assistant Director for Technology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Teaching and Learning. He also has a faculty appointment in the School's R3 Center for Innovation in Science Education. He teaches graduate level courses on communications... Read More →

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT
Northwestern Room

Interactive Presentation

Subject Student Success and Assessment

10:45am CDT

Celebrating Pedagogical Innovation: Insights from Award-Winning Educators

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT

Lake Room

Join us for an insightful and multi-disciplinary panel discussion featuring winners of Northwestern’s University Teaching Awards, who exemplify excellence in undergraduate classroom teaching. Following Bowen’s keynote, we will delve further into the student-instructor connection. Panelists will describe their commitment to fostering student belonging and success. We will explore how these educators are leveraging innovative technologies, creating immersive learning experiences, and honing students’ critical thinking to grapple with wicked problems. Additionally, the panel will discuss effective strategies for driving meaningful assessment and student success. We will close the conversation with reflections on the importance of safeguarding instructor vitality and questions from the audience. Hosted by the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching and moderated by Senior Director, Jennifer Keys.

Moderators

Jennifer Keys

Senior Director, Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching

Speakers

Mei-Ling Hopgood

William F. Thomas Professor, Northwestern University

Mei-Ling Hopgood is a freelance journalist and author of Lucky Girl and How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm. She has been a recipient of the National Headliner Best in Show, ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and several other investigative and enterprise... Read More →

Barbara Butts

Associate Professor of Instruction, Theatre, Northwestern University

Ilya Mikhelson

Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction, Northwestern University

Michael Beltran

Director of 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping Lab Senior Lecturer Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Lecturer, Northwestern University

Lilah Shapiro

Assistant Professor of Instruction, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT
Lake Room

Panel Discussion

Subject Student Success and Assessment

10:45am CDT

Using Data-Driven Teaching to Drive Assessment Design and Student Success

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT

Big Ten Room

Reflective, data-driven teaching practices help instructors answer the question, "How do I know if what I'm doing in the classroom is working?" Importantly, engaging in reflective cycles of teaching, collecting data, and making changes based upon data (see Brookfield, 2017) can inform assessment design and strategies for student success.

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence's Action Research Scholars program at the University of Illinois Chicago builds capacity for instructors to systematically investigate the efficacy of their teaching. The program uses a scaffolded approach grounded in an ethos of care for instructor well-being by providing training, connections to campus experts, and space for dialogue and community with peers across disciplines. The program culminates in an IRB approved research plan, data collection, and dissemination of findings.

During the session, participants will hear from instructors who have completed the program. Moderators will ask panelists about their research questions, study design, and findings; issues of power and marginalization that they navigated; challenges they faced; and the impact of their study on their assessments and students' learning experience. Moderators will lead participants through a reflective teaching exercise in which participants will brainstorm with colleagues about strategies to implement data-driven teaching in their contexts.

Moderators

Crystal Tse

Associate Director for Faculty Engagement in Action Research, University of Illinois Chicago

Speakers

Trischa Duke

Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois Chicago

Tara Driscoll

Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago

April Andry Rahman

Assistant Director of Education Research / Adjunct Instructor, University of Illinois Chicago / Chicago State University

I'm an educational developer in the University of Illinois Chicago's Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence and adjunct faculty in the Nontraditional Degree Programs at Chicago State University. I bridge teaching and research with Black feminist homeplace pedagogies that... Read More →

Laura Thorp

Clinical Associate Professor, University of Illinois Chicago

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT
Big Ten Room

Panel Discussion

Subject Student Success and Assessment

10:45am CDT

What is “Good” Writing?: Perspectives from The Writing Place

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT

Wildcat Room

The Writing Place is Northwestern's peer-to-peer writing center. This presentation will synthesize the research and experience of Writing Place tutors and administrators to explore the question, "What is 'good' writing?" The first 10 minutes of the session will introduce existing scholarly conversations on the teaching of writing and writing assessment as presented through the lens of writing center studies. Writing centers operate within interstitial spaces of the university, providing one-on-one feedback on student writing at a remove from the hierarchies of the classroom. Students trained to work at the Writing Place sometimes experience a disconnect between the theoretical tutoring philosophies that they learn during their tutor instruction and the real-life expectations of faculty. Our 25-minute moderated panel discussion will dig into topics such as linguistic diversity, the pressures of writing assessment on the student writing experience, and assumed conventions of "good" writing from the perspective of the writing center tutors and administrators. In the last 10 minutes, panelists will lead small break-out group conversations with the audience.

Moderators

Meaghan Fritz

Assistant Professor of Instruction, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

Meaghan Fritz received her PhD in English in 2018 from Northwestern University, where she specialized in nineteenth-century American women’s literature. She teaches College Seminars, First-Year Writing Seminars, Practical Rhetoric, and Writing and Speaking in Business in the Weinberg... Read More →

Speakers

Elizabeth Lenaghan

Professor of Instruction, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

Amelia Hurley

Student and Undergraduate Writing Consultant at the Main Library Writing Place, School of Education and Social Policy

Thursday May 22, 2025 10:45am - 11:30am CDT
Wildcat Room

Panel Discussion

Subject Student Success and Assessment

TEACHx 2025

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