Date: February 8, 2013 -- 5:30-8pm
February 9, 2013 -- 9:15-4:00pm
St. John’s University’s
Institute for Core Studies & The Department of Theology & Religious Studies
Invite you to a
Reacting to the Past Workshop!
February 8-9, 2012
Some things you can only learn through direct experience.
Come join fellow faculty in exploring this exciting, compelling, and interactive pedagogy!
“Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) is a form of active and highly engaged interdisciplinary teaching/learning where students drive discussions, present oral arguments, and write papers, coached and advised by professors. The process involves role playing simulations informed by critical texts in complex contexts. Along the way they hone their critical thinking and research skills, are challenged in their writing and oral presentation abilities, work in groups, and gain an appreciation for the contingency of many important events and ideas.
In 2004 RTTP won the Theodore Hesburgh Award in teaching for pedagogical innovation and today it is used in more than 200 schools in the US and abroad in a wide range of disciplines from freshman seminars to core curriculum to disciplinary courses in a variety of subjects including: history, science, philosophy, and theology.
Join us February 8 (5:30-8pm) and 9 (9:15-4:00) to learn how to teach with this method by playing a compact version of the game The Threshold of Democracy: Athens 403 BC, designed and written by Josiah Ober, Stanford University, and Mark Carnes, Barnard College.
Our workshop will allow you to get a feel for what it is like to teach with this pedagogy, as well as provide time for an introductory overview and question/answer periods with experienced faculty and with students who have been in classes that have used Reacting.
You need not teach any subject related to this game to join us; there are many games covering a wide range of topics. Because it can be very difficult to teach “Reacting” without experiencing the dynamics of a game, we hope this workshop will give participants a sense of the problems and possibilities related to this innovative teaching method. The game itself should nonetheless appeal to a wide range of disciplines, as well as provide a good introduction to the pedagogy.
Spaces are limited and all participants will be actively involved in the simulation. Please register by emailing Paula Lazrus Lazrusp@stjohns.edu, or Monserrat Ocampo-Washburn ocampom@stjohns.edu
no later than Monday Jan 28th as we need to send you materials via interoffice mail so you can prepare. Additional information about the “Reacting to the Past” project can also be found online at http://www.barnard.edu/reacting.