Office of the
Provost

Provost

Conferences

Home / Faculty Excellence / Teaching / FaCET / Conferences
FaCET hosts a conference at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters on topics of interest to UMKC faculty

FaCET Spring 2020 Conference

Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost ot Poverty, Racism, and other "Differentisms"

A Workshop With Dr. Cia Verschelden, Ed.D.

Cia Verschelden is the Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Malcolm X College. Most recently, she was the Executive Director of Institutional Assessment at University of Central Oklahoma. At UCO, she taught in sociology and in the first-year program; at Kansas State University, where she was on the faculty for 21 years, she taught social welfare and social policy, women’s studies, and nonviolence studies. Cia has a B.S. in psychology from Kansas State University, an M.S.W. from The University of Connecticut, and an Ed.D. from Harvard University. Her book, Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization, was published in 2017.

Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Time: 8:30 aM-12:00 PM

Location: Kauffman Foundation Conference Center

4801 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO

or

Livestream will be available

Register

Bandwidth concept – scarcity steals mental bandwidth

The cognitive resources for learning of many of our students have been and are being diminished by the negative effects of persistent economic insecurity and discrimination and hostility against non-majority groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity, and other aspects of difference. Recognizing that these students are no different than their peers in terms of cognitive capacity, we can implement strategies and interventions – in and outside the classroom - that show promise in helping students regain the cognitive resources to be successful in college.
 
Participants will understand that:

  • Multitasking isn't’t a thing: attentional resources.
  • Persistent economic insecurity – scarcity - depletes mental bandwidth.
  • There are many other kinds of scarcity - respect, dignity, safety, belonging, etc.
  • Psycho-social underminers, including stereotype/identity threat, belongingness uncertainty, microaggressions, vicarious racism, and adverse childhood experiences, result in diminished bandwidth for our students.

We will learn about and practice several interventions designed to help students recover bandwidth, beginning with a strengths perspective about what skills and abilities they are bringing to the table – “funds of knowledge.” The interventions include values affirmation, connecting the known to the unknown, growth mindset and neurobics, and high-hope syllabi.

Participants will:

  • Understand that students have “funds of knowledge” and that beginning with those strengths will help them recover bandwidth and increase the likelihood of academic success.
  • Understand that there are evidence-based interventions that show promise in helping students regain bandwidth.
  • Practice interventions and reflect on them related to their potential use in the classroom and in other settings with students.
Register

Keynote Presentations and Other Resources

FaCET conference keynote presentations and other resources are archived online

FaCET Conferences

Carol Geary Schneider, Ph.D. and president emerita of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, will speak at the FaCET conference. Under Schneider’s leadership, the Liberal Education and American’s Promise (LEAP) program was initiated. She will focus on initiatives that engage the students and provide a 21st century college education.

This day-long workshop will be led by Dr. Cathy Buyarski, the Executive Director for Student Success Initiatives and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. Within these roles, Dr. Buyarski provides leadership and oversight for academic advising, career development, student employment, new student orientation, learning assistance, TRiO programs, and scholarship programs for students from at-risk backgrounds. With a background in student affairs and student development, Cathy has significant experience in building programs that support retention and student success. She holds a master’s degree in college student development from Oklahoma State University and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation focused on collaboration between academic and student affairs as a way to enhance student learning. The workshop will focus on the varied uses of ePortfolios for assessment of course objectives, indicators of competency-based learning, and determining the achievement of course learning outcomes. The workshop will be hands-on and allow you to explore ePortfolios and determine their effectiveness for your courses.

Dr. Kinzie received her PhD in higher education, with a minor in women’s studies, from Indiana University. Her research interests include college choice, first year student development, teaching and learning, and access and equity. Presently, she serves as the Associate Director for the Center for Postsecondary Research and The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute. The focus for this day is understanding the NSSE data and how to use these data to enhance learning, increase student engagement, and improve undergraduate education. Specifically, the focus will include differences in student engagement by gender, race-ethnicity, and first generation college status. Additionally, knowing how to assess the impact of programs aimed at improving student success, such as learning communities, undergraduate research, and service learning, will be discussed.

Keynote speaker David Chase - Knowing About Learning: Assessment Design and Practice

The keynote Speaker, Dee Fink, will lecture on “5 High- Impact Teaching Practices” and “Designing Courses for Significant Learning.”

This fall the symposium is open to both faculty and GTAs. A full day of workshops has been planned, with some sessions repeated in the morning and afternoon to allow for flexibility of schedule in the last week before the fall semester begins.

The Pedagogy of Civic and Community Engagement.

Stellar Student Support: Enhancing Learning Through Supplemental Instruction, General Education and Online Education. Keynote given by Dr. Saundra McGuire, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Learning and Teaching at the Louisiana State University.

Herb Childress will speak on “Wicked Problems,” followed by an engaging discussion on both the problems and solutions to them. His talk will cover why we need a more interdisciplinary approach to modern issues.