Aligning for Learning: Strategies for Teaching Effectiveness (JB - Anker)

Aligning for Learning offers faculty, instructional developers, administrators, and researchers a clear model through which to approach the complexities of effective teaching and learning. The alignment model is the culmination of 20 years of research done by Donald Wulff and others at the Center for Instructional Development and Research at the University of Washington. It helps instructors incorporate instructional components and communication strategies into a representation of teaching effectiveness related to rapport, structure, engagement, and interaction, in an effort to align themselves, their content, and their students in a consistent learning goal.

This book combines the alignment model with the contributors’ years of experience as instructors, instructional developers, and administrators to produce a practical volume on teaching and learning that contains ideas applicable to a variety of institutions and instructional settings.

Divided into five parts, this book

• Explains the alignment model as a tool to teaching effectiveness
• Addresses the importance of inclusive teaching and learning, the use of the alignment model in designing courses, the use of assessment in support of alignment, and alignment issues in evaluation
• Illustrates the application of alignment in various instructional contexts, such as large classes, team teaching, and mentoring
• Demonstrates how the alignment model can be used to advance the scholarship of teaching and learning and its role in faculty reward systems
• Provides key considerations in the application of alignment and some thoughts on the future of the alignment model

Donald H. Wulff is director of the Center of instructional Development and Research, associate dean in the Graduate School, and affiliate graduate faculty in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. For more than 25 years, Don has taught, consulted, and published widely about issues of teaching and learning in higher education. His most recent publication is Paths to the Professoriate: Strategies for Enriching the Preparation of Future Faculty (Jossey-Bass, 2004), which he co-edited with Ann E. Austin of Michigan State University. He has served in national leadership positions for educational organizations and on various editorial review boards for higher education publications. Don received his undergraduate degree from Montana State University, his M.A. from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in instructional communication from the University of Washington.

Wayne H. Jacobson is associate director of the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington. He provides leadership for CIDR's day-to-day operations, teaches graduate school courses on teaching and l earning in higher education, and consults with department sand faculty in mathematics, Science, and engineering. Wayne has more than 20 years of teaching and consulting experience in higher education in the U.S. and Asia. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Minnesota. He has also received a master's degree in counseling psych9logy and a Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Karen Freisem is a senior consultant at the Center for Instructional development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington, where she works primarily with the mathematics, science, and engineering departments. She consults with faculty and graduate teaching assistants, designs and facilitates workshops, and assists departments in planning and implementing curriculum and program assessment. For 10 years before joining CIDR in 1986, Karen developed curriculum and taught in a variety of settings. Her current research interests focus on student perceptions of effective instruction in large classes. She has served as chair fo the International Teaching Assistants Interest Section of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). Karen received her M.A. in Slavic linguistics and her M.A.T. in English from the University of Washington.

Deborah H. Hatch is a senior consultant at the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington, where she has worked with faculty and graduate students on teaching and learning issues since 1987. In addition to her work at CIDR, she taught for 15 years in the University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Writing Program, an experience that made her particularly aware of the role of disciplinary contents in student writing. her publications and presentations are in the areas of student writing, teaching portfolios, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She teaches a graduate school course on teaching and learning in higher education and regularly contributes her expertise to university curriculum committees and task forces. Deborah received her B.A. from Swathmore College and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Massachusetts.

Margaret Lawrence is a senior consultant at the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington. She is also the designer of and instructor for training courses in China-America Personnel Service's Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program. She has been teaching for 20 years and has been a consultant at CIDR for the last 14 of those years. In her role at CIDR, she works with faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and departmental administrators in the foreign language, humanities, and social sciences departments. Her recent research has focused on student interpretations of student ratings form items and the implications of those interpretations for faculty practice. Margaret received her B.A. and her M.A. in English from the University of Oregon.

Lana Rae Lenz is a senior consultant and coordinator for program development at the center for Instructional Development and Research at the University of Washington. In her consulting, she assists administrators, faculty, and teaching assistants with the design, implementation, and assessment of courses and instructional programs, primarily n the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In her coordinator role, she assumes leadership for the development and implementation of special projects undertaken by CIDR as a part of its mission within the university. For 37 years she has been actively involved in teaching, training, and consulting for community professionals in all levels of education and in business, media, mental health, and public service. Lana Rae received her B.A. in English and education and her M.A. in speech communication.