The Teaching and Learning Center and the Academic Senate held the 2nd Annual Teaching Week at UC Santa Cruz.
Teaching Symposium
Over 100 people attended UCSC’s inaugural Teaching Symposium held in the Cultural Center at Merrill College. The event started with TLC Faculty Director Robin Dunkin welcoming everyone and giving the land acknowledgment, and then Professor Alegra Eroy-Reveles, Distinguished Teaching Award 2022-23 recipient, spoke a few words to help kick off the event. Fourteen faculty and graduate students presented speed talks on innovative approaches they’ve taken with their teaching. Additionally, we had almost 40 faculty, postdocs and graduate students sharing posters and 3 sharing digital presentations.
Teaching in the Age of Generative AI
How is artificial intelligence showing up in UCSC classrooms, and how are educators preparing students to think critically about AI? These questions and many others were explored through short presentations by faculty and graduate student leaders, and in a panel discussion on the future of computer science education in a time when AI has made writing code more accessible to people who are not necessarily trained in computer science.
Presentations included teaching professor Heather Shearer on how she’s engaging her students with using generative AI as a catalyst for students to practice with rhetorical concepts and questions. Graduate student Lance Mendoza presented the results of a survey on how graduate students are engaging with AI technologies, and professor Luca de Alfaro shared how he is using AI to provide immediate feedback on student coding assignments. The event was recorded, and the UCSC community is invited to attend the Teaching and Learning Center’s Learning Community on AI in the spring quarter.
Distinguished Teaching Award
On Thursday, Distinguished Teaching Award 2022-23 recipient Alegra Eroy-Reveles joined friends and colleagues, Dr. Mica Estrada of UCSF, Yuliana Ortega of UCSC and Dr. Yvonne Rodriguez of The Surge Institute who facilitated the conversation.
COT Chair Elisabeth Cameron and Graduate Student Assembly representative Nathan McGregor opened the event. CPVEC Lori Kletzer provided warm remarks acknowledging the many personal and professional experiences of Eroy-Reveles including her commitment toward increasing the performance and retention of historically underrepresented students in STEM courses and majors.
Eroy-Reveles and her colleagues had illuminating dialogues regarding their unique histories and relationships with academia and how they have navigated the many paradoxes of joining “soul and role” in teaching and mentoring, while also balancing life as Latina mothers. Sara Sanchez, the GANAS Graduate Program Director for UCSC Hispanic-Serving Institution Initiatives reflected, “It [the panel] was very powerful, inspiring, real, and special to my own identity and development as a leader and whole person.” To watch this dynamic and engaging discussion, use this link.
In keeping with the enthusiasm for teaching and learning on our campus, we look forward to the annual TLC Convocation being held this year on Thursday, April 25.
