September 29, 2025 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: This hybrid event will be held in person in 117 Dwinelle Hall (Academic Innovation Studio) and also on Zoom.
Register to receive the Zoom link and calendar invitation.
Intended Audience: Faculty, Instructors, Graduate Student Instructors, Academic Support Staff
A recent study at the UC Davis campus found that a reflective writing assignment coupled with exam corrections might improve student learning. Using structural equation modeling, we found potentially causal evidence in an authentic classroom setting that a single metacognitive intervention led to a 5-percentage-point improvement in exam performance—with effects lasting weeks beyond the intervention.
But this presentation isn't just about one study—it's about transforming your teaching frustrations into scientific contributions. Every classroom challenge you face is a potential research question waiting to be explored. The key distinction? Moving beyond idiosyncratic fixes that work only in your specific context to developing theoretically-grounded interventions that advance our scientific understanding of learning.
The SoTL Alchemy Process:
- Identify a genuine teaching challenge in your courses
- Connect your proposed solution to established theories of teaching and learning
- Evaluate your instructional innovation with rigorous methods
- Contribute generalizable findings to the scientific conversation
In this interactive seminar, you will be challenged to identify challenges in your classrooms that you might tackle with a SoTL approach.
Key takeaways for attendees:
- Identify challenges in your classrooms that you might tackle with a SoTL approach
- Build knowledge of SoTL themes and learning science
- Distinguish between program evaluation and scholarly research
- Ground classroom innovations in learning science theory for broader impact
Come prepared to think critically about your own teaching challenges and leave with concrete strategies for turning those everyday pedagogical problems into publishable research that advances both your career and the science of learning.
This research seminar is sponsored by the Presidential Chair Fund, which supports expanding scholarship of teaching and learning to benefit undergraduate students across campus.
Light refreshments will be served for in-person attendees.
This session will run for 60 minutes.
➡️Register for this event here!⬅️
Registrants will be sent a Zoom link and bCal invite as the workshop date draws near.
***Registration for this session will close one hour before the session***
Facilitator:
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Dr. Melissa E. Ko is the Assessment & Curriculum Design Specialist at the Center for Teaching & Learning . Dr. Ko was trained as a computational cancer biologist having received her SB from MIT and her PhD from Stanford University. She pivoted into an education-focused career through several teaching roles at Stanford and other local institutions, before focusing on partnering with instructors to provide effective and inclusive learning experiences informed by data. |
Guest Speaker:
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Victoria Cross is an Associate Professor of Teaching Psychology at the University of California, Davis. She teaches large-enrollment, lower-division courses (e.g., Introduction to Research Methods), writing-intensive, upper-division courses (e.g., Cognitive Development), and graduate seminars (e.g., Teaching of Psychology). She earned her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests include instructional policies and classroom activities that promote metacognition and student agency. |