Planning has begun for the next United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS), which will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, from May 16–18, 2013, and hosted by the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE). Members of the USCOTS ’13 program committee are seeking ideas for active, participant-focused breakout sessions addressing the conference theme, “Making Change Happen.”
Change can be difficult, but also exhilarating, scary, but also liberating. Previous USCOTS sessions have advocated various types of changes in teaching statistics likely to produce enhanced student learning. Conference participants often become excited about visionary ideas presented, but struggle to follow through and affect sustained changes at their home institutions. USCOTS ’13 will address the goal of making change happen.
This conference is designed to model good teaching in its sessions, social activities, and hallways. As with previous USCOTS, it will consist of plenary sessions, breakout sessions, and “poster and beyond” sessions. These will address how to make change happen in four main areas: curriculum, pedagogy, resources, and educational research.
Thus, members of the USCOTS program committee are requesting proposals for 80-minute breakout sessions that relate directly to the conference theme and focus on actively engaging participants. It is not appropriate for a breakout session to consist primarily of a presentation.
To propose a breakout session, send a description to Allan Rossman, program chair, at arossman@calpoly.edu by November 10. Your proposal of no more than 1,000 words must include the following:
- Title for proposed session
- Names, email addresses, and brief biographical sketches for all leaders of the session
- Description of how the session relates to the conference theme
- Explanation of how the session will actively engage participants
- Discussion of how participants will be able to implement ideas presented in the session
Proposals will be reviewed by members of the USCOTS ’13 program committee and notifications will be made by January 15, 2013. Proposals for “poster and beyond” sessions will be solicited at a later date; those proposals will be due on February 1, 2013.
Conference sessions will consider many types and aspects of change, including the following:
- Changing an individual class, course, or program in terms of content, technology, or assessments
- Changing pedagogical methods used to promote student learning
- Changing resources or delivery systems used to teach statistics
- Collaborating to make change happen
- Overcoming resistance to change
- Evaluating the impact of change
More information can be found at the CAUSE website.
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