June 3, 2015
Architecture professor conducts workshop at national teaching conference
Mick Charney, associate professor of architecture and university distinguished teaching scholar, presented "Doodling and Drabbling: Enhancing Deep Learning in Your Classroom Too" at the 12th annual Teaching Professor Conference May 29-31 in Atlanta.
Charney's workshop demonstrated a variety of methods by which short but meaningful writing assignments can be introduced into even the largest classes in ways that enhance deep learning. Low-stakes exercises such as hint fiction pieces, six-word memoirs, drabbles, collaborative word clouds, and vivid grammar doodled quizzes improve students' long-term retention of course content while doubling as antidotes to millennials' distractedness. And yet they take little time in class, are easily assessed, leverage students' innate creative urges, and engage even the most jaded students.