2021 E.C. Moore

E.C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching

The 2021 E.C. Moore Symposium on Excellence in Teaching brings together stakeholders in the higher education community across Indiana to examine teaching excellence and innovative pedagogies that encourage student learning. 

The E.C. Moore Symposium will be held in a virtual format on Friday, March 5, 2021, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. via Zoom.

The symposium is open to all faculty and instructional staff, regardless of appointment type, institution, or organization. Professional staff who provide support for the teaching and learning mission of the campuses (e.g., instructional designers, IT professionals) are also welcome to attend.

The symposium will feature two invited speakers and include concurrent sessions and TED-like talks.

Keynote by Kimberly Tanner, PhD

Talk Matters: Exploring Instructor Talk – Non-Content Classroom Language that May Mediate Student Inclusion, Engagement, and Learning

Through the language they use, instructors create classroom environments that have the potential to impact learning by affecting student motivation, resistance, belonging, and self-efficacy. Despite the critical importance of instructor language to the student experience, few instructors have focused on the non-content language being used in classrooms. We have systematically investigated this “Instructor Talk,” namely all the instructor language used in class sessions that is not directly related to course content. What types of language are instructors using that might promote a positive learning environment? A negative learning environment? And how do undergraduate students perceive samples of this instructor language? In this interactive session, participants will engage with colleagues in reflecting on their own memories of Instructor Talk, categorizing multiple samples of Instructor Talk, exploring student perceptions of Instructor Talk, and strategizing about how increased attention to Instructor Talk could support them in to creating inclusive learning environments.

Plenary by Elizabeth Goering, PhD

Thinking in Metaphor; Learning through Story: An Exploration of Figurative Thought & Narrative in Active Learning across Disciplines

Cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson observes that we, as human beings, are unique in that we “think in metaphor and learn through story.”  Indeed, metaphor and story are powerful meaning-making tools that allow us to structure experience, see the familiar in a new light, and make sense of the unfamiliar.  No longer solely the purview of the Liberal Arts, the value of metaphor and narrative increasingly is being recognized in a variety of fields, including STEM disciplines, the health sciences, and business, making this topic a fitting focus for this multidisciplinary context. In this interactive session, we will explore several strategies for utilizing metaphor and story as active learning tools, ranging from smaller learning activities that can be integrated into face-to-face or virtual classrooms to strategies such as ePortfolio that can be used to tell more sustained narratives over the course of an entire semester or even a program of study.