Undergraduate students (from left) Michael Murphy, Connor Powell, Daniel Espinoza-Gonzalez and Shanyese Trujillo present at the roundtable presentation "Promising Practices for Partnering with Students in SOTL: Lessons Learned at Western Washington University" at the ISSOTL conference on Saturday Oct. 24. Photo courtesy of William Lay | WWU

"Engaging Student Voices in the Study of Teaching and Learning"

Joyce Hammond (Anthropology), William Lay (Education) and Carmen Werder (TLA/Communication) traveled with five students to the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Colloquium Oct. 21 and the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference Oct. 22 to 25 at Indiana University in Bloomington. With the three faculty members were graduate student Megan Otis (Anthropology) and undergraduate students Michael Murphy (Human Services), Shanyese Trujillo, Daniel Espinoza-Gonazalez and Connor Powell (the latter three planning on Education).

At the CASTL Colloquium, the WWU team, along with colleagues from North Seattle Community College, Illinois State University, Elon University and California State University-Long Beach, presented a plenary dialogue session and later a poster about their involvement in the CASTL Student Voices Institutional Leadership Group. At the ISSOTL Conference, the WWU team gave a featured roundtable presentation titled "Promising Practices for Partnering with Students in SOTL: Lessons Learned at Western Washington University."

At the conference, Stylus Publishing unveiled the new book "Engaging Student Voices in the Study of Teaching and Learning," which is co-edited by Werder and Otis and features four chapters co-authored by Werder and Otis along with WWU faculty members Hammond, Lay, Deborah Currier (Theater Arts) and Jane Verner (Human Services), as well as current student Michael Murphy, Fairhaven alumnus Erik Skogsberg and Communication alumni Cora Thomas and Luke Ware. This book represents the culmination of the work done by the CASTL Student Voices Institutional Leadership Group, which Werder has coordinated and Western has headed up for the past six years.