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Invitation

QEP's FACT Institute on August 10th

The QEP's 4th Annual Faculty Approaches to Critical Thinking (FACT) Institute will take place on Wednesday, August 10th.


The University of Mississippi’s 4th Annual Faculty Approaches to Critical Thinking (FACT) Institute will be held on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. The location is TBD at this point, but we will share information about that as soon as it is available.

The FACT Institute is an important part of the University of Mississippi’s ThinkForward Quality Enhancement Plan. This workshop is the fourth in an annual series of summer workshops dedicated to exploring the role of critical thinking in higher education, our university, and our classrooms. The FACT Institute plays a critical role in strengthening our approaches to teaching for critical thinking.

The theme for the 2022 FACT Institute is "Using Inclusive Teaching Practices to Improve Critical Thinking in the Classroom." Centering our work on this topic allows us to explore productive intersections between our university's investment in enhancing students' critical thinking skills and our ongoing efforts to develop more inclusive pedagogies and learning environments.

This year's FACT Institute will feature a keynote and workshop from Dr. Chavella Pittman, Professor of Sociology at Dominican University and a highly regarded expert on inclusive teaching practices, as well as a panel of UM faculty who will discuss the redesign projects they completed using funding from QEP grants.

During the event, opportunities for upcoming grants for enhancing critical thinking pedagogy will be introduced. In particular, attendees of the FACT Institute will be eligible to submit a proposal for a FACT grant, which provides $4000 for individuals (more for departmental teams) to redesign a lower-division course or courses they will be teaching in Spring 2023. Redesigns should include, but are not limited to, course outcomes, assignments, and teaching methods, with an eye toward revising these elements to enhance critical thinking. Participants must attend the FACT Institute in order to be eligible for this opportunity.

During the 2021-22 academic year, 15 colleagues from 8 different departments across the university received FACT grants, either as individuals or part of departmental teams, to redesign courses to enhance critical thinking.

RSVP for the 2021 FACT Institute here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepw4fucT4z-k9F1F5qDRy7mba3TUC3DyKCglKvxM1nZCcsSw/viewform
 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send them to Josh Eyler at jreyler@olemiss.edu.