Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
Career moves in educational development
Career Moves in Educational DevelopmentHow does one move from faculty member to faculty developer? What are the pathways into professional roles at centers for teaching and learning? And why are educational developers so important to higher education with This week on the Intentional Teaching podcast, I talk with Leslie Cramblet Alvarez and Chris Hakala about their book Understanding Educational Developers: Tales from the Center and about the state of the field of educational development in 2025. Leslie is assistant vice provost and director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Denver. Chris is director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship and professor of psychology at Springfield College. Leslie and Chris share their own stories of moving into first faculty and then faculty development roles, and we talk about that faculty-to-faculty-developer pathway as a common but not universal way into the field. They make a strong pitch for the value of centers for teaching and learning during this challenging time for higher ed, and they offer advice for faculty considering a move into a faculty development role, as well as for those of us current working at CTLs trying to plan our careers. You can listen to my conversation with Leslie Cramblet Alvarez and Chris Hakala here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your favorite podcast app. Research Student Perspectives on AIOne of my co-authors on the forthcoming Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching, Annette Vee, is leading an online workshop next week sharing some of her strategies for better understanding how students use and think about generative AI. It's a free workshop hosted by Norton, and it's scheduled for Tuesday, November 11th, at 2pm Central. How Are Students Using AI? A Research Toolkit for Faculty
When creating your plan for if and when to use AI in your course, it’s easy to forget one important perspective—that of students. Annette Vee (University of Pittsburgh) will share a research kit that faculty and institutions can use to learn more how their students are currently using AI and incorporate that into their course planning.
Here's what Annette posted about the workshop: "There's a lot of data out there now on student uses of AI, but the best data is *your* data. Join the workshop to get access to survey questions, study methodologies and ideas for learning more about your students and AI!" I would totally attend, but I'll be flying to Virginia for my fall visit to UVA! But I hope you can make it. You can register for the free workshop here. Thanks for reading!If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to a colleague who might like it! That's one of the best ways you can support the work I'm doing here at Intentional Teaching. Or consider subscribing to the Intentional Teaching podcast. For just $3 US per month, you can help defray production costs for the podcast and newsletter and you get access to subscriber-only podcast bonus episodes. |
Intentional Teaching with Derek Bruff
Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
How well do you know the law as it applies to teaching? This week on the podcast, I talk with Kent Kauffman, author of Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues College Faculty Need to Know. I invited him on the show because of all the stories we've seen in the last year about college and university faculty being accused by students of teaching something the student didn't the instructor should be teaching. These incidents have a lot of instructors worried about teaching controversial...
Learning How to Learn (with AI, Actually) I wrote the first draft of the “Using AI as a Tutor” chapter in the forthcoming Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching, co-authored with Annette Vee and Marc Watkins. I pitched this chapter for the book because I was brought into the author team as the “STEM guy,” that is, a co-author who could bring some STEM education perspectives to the work, and because the number one use case of generative AI in STEM education that I hear about is students turning to...
Reimagining Grading with Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley This past December, I had the honor of being a guest on the Grading Podcast ("reimagining grading as a tool for student success") hosted by Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley. We had such a great conversation that I thought I would return the favor and invite Sharona and Boz on my podcast. Sharona Krinsky is the executive director of the Center for Grading Reform, a non-profit that hosts an annual conference on grading, among other...