The Value of SITS
Reflections of the SITS 2006 participants.
Participant 1:
My most favorite thing about SITS is the opportunity to practice teaching. I plan to deliberately pursue some new types of interaction with students. The interaction with other faculty is essential to the long-term growth of our division, and is something that we have too little of during the school year. Because of our intense work loads during school, SITS is the only outlet we have for this interaction.
Participant 2:
This was my second summer. I really enjoyed it, again! The emphasis this second year was the teacher in the classroom. I learned a lot about Socratic questioning and want to use it in my target course. It is an excellent way to engage the students. Just simply asking questions of students, rather than just lecturing all the time, is a great way to get feedback from students.
Participant 3:
Interacting with colleagues in multiple departments about teaching and philosophical issues was a tremendous blessing and was both intellectually and spiritually stimulating. Sharing perspectives and reflecting on issues helps me to see things in ways I've never before considered. During the school year we don't have time to stop and do this.
Participant 4:
Because of SITS, I now see that engaging the student with probing questions is an important part of the lecture. I practiced some of these suggestions in my teaching sessions in SITS and will continue to develop these in the future. SITS also gave me the opportunity to practice teaching on a nonmathematical, conceptual level. This is also helpful even for more advanced classes where students need an intuitive feel for the material in order to solve the problems.
Participant 5:
To me, SITS has been a tremendous help and encouragement for aiding me in my teaching responsibilities. What has been most rewarding to me these last two years was having significant blocks of time in close proximity. Without the work spent on my target course last summer, it would have been much more traditional in nature, without using as much instrumentation, and without using conceptual and principle approaches as much.
Participant 6:
It definitely is helpful to have peers to discuss various aspects of your discipline. It helps to clarify thinking. It is very encouraging to have time, more than just a few days, to prepare for a course. The structure of SITS helps to keep one on task. The Bible integration lectures were great!
Participant 7:
While as faculty we tend to be preoccupied with content, I was struck by my responsibility to disciple my students to help them to think biblically about my area of science. Interaction with my fellow science faculty helped to further clarify my thinking. Challenging presentations by SITS faculty addressed substantive issues in teaching that we all face and provided both guidance and an opportunity to reflectively discuss the issues and the solutions.