CELT Releases Second Volume of Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

The University of Kentucky's Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) has released the second volume of its online journal, Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning, an open access journal showcasing the observations and reflections of UK instructors. 

Greater Faculties features a series of essays, interviews and reviews that aim to create a culture of teaching excellence at UK while also serving as a resource to educators from all institutions of higher education to aid in the improvement of teaching and learning. Throughout the journal, authors provide practical lessons regarding opportunities and obstacles facing educators today in higher education.

"Teaching is a profoundly intellectual project involving continual inquiry, reflection and improvement. Greater Faculties was founded with this conviction, and with the aim to share the insights and voices of UK educators at a time when we face many opportunities — and challenges — for the teaching mission of colleges and universities," said Trey Conatser, associate director of CELT. "The pieces that we publish aim to provoke thought on questions that matter, to discuss teaching and learning in energizing, empowering ways, and to suggest flexible takeaways for enhancing our own teaching practices and the learning environments for all students."

The journal seeks to match the quality of its authors’ contributions with a quality of design and production, as well as with a sustainable, open platform that maximizes public access to the material. CELT is grateful to collaborate with UK Libraries to make Greater Faculties available to the public, and editors of UK-based journals are encouraged to contact Adrian Ho at adrian.ho@uky.edu to find out more about UK Libraries’ free journal publishing services.

Features in Greater Faculties, Vol. 2 include:

• In "Ten First Years," Assistant Professor of Biology Jennifer Osterhage distills a decade of teaching first-year students into several deceptively simple messages that open up complex inquiries about our roles as teachers and what it means for students to learn.
• In "On Rapport," Associate Professor of Instructional Communication Brandi Frisby discusses research-based approaches for instructors to build meaningful connections with students to increase engagement, academic performance and enjoyment of the class environment.
• In "The Limits of Pedagogy," Kelsey Moore, a doctoral candidate in instructional communication, draws from adult learning theories and research in order to challenge the assumptions we may make about our students and to provide a better framework for supporting their learning experiences.
• In "Teaching STEM for the Public Good," Rita Basuray, a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences, reviews her experiences at a conference on incorporating civic engagement in STEM classes and suggests ways that instructors might begin to integrate this work into their own teaching.
• In "The Future of the History of Design,"CELT speaks with School of Interiors faculty members Patrick Lee Lucas and Helen Turner about their efforts to reimagine the historical survey course and infuse hybrid course design with place-based learning and high levels of student engagement.
• In "Why Ask Why?", a team of librarians — Beth Kraemer, Beth Fuchs, Jennifer Hootman and Debbie Sharp — review Ian Leslie's "Curious" and explore the opportunities and challenges that curiosity poses as a core value for teaching and learning at this moment in higher education.