Iowa State’s five Master Teachers are sharing their expertise with fellow faculty members.

A faculty forum and dinner in the Campanile Room Monday night allowed faculty to meet the LAS Master Teachers, learn from their experiences in teaching and introduce the LAS Master Teacher Workshops.

Last fall, students and faculty nominated five LAS Master Teachers: Jim Colbert, associate professor of botany; Steve Kawaler, professor of physics and astronomy; Ron Peters, professor of psychology; Wolfgang Kliemann, associate dean of mathematics; and Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism and mass communication.

Mack said the group started working together by visiting each other’s classes, meeting monthly, discussing teaching techniques, looking at syllabi and exchanging reading materials.

“We want to create a group of people that want to learn from each other,” she said.

Corly Brooke, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), said officials wanted to put together some kind of program to help the entire university.

The program is focusing now on the large-classroom approach, and the concerns that go along with teaching successfully to larger classes.

“Large lectures are going to continue being part of university life for the foreseeable future,” Mack said.

Four workshops will be provided for faculty members to enhance their teaching approaches, and the forum held Monday night gave “little tiny tastes” of each workshop from the presenters, Brooke said.

Colbert, instructor for Biology 202, will be leading a workshop March 30 titled “Using Technology to Increase Interaction with students.”

He will discuss the topic of students posting questions on ClassNet. He said the students will have an opportunity to ask questions in a non-threatening situation.

“This is not only interaction with instructor and students, but students and students,” he said.

Kawaler, instructor for Astronomy 120, and Peters, instructor for Psychology 101, will lead a workshop April 6 about “PowerPoint and Anti-PowerPoint.”

“Effective things that I do are typically other people’s ideas,” Kawaler said. “It is important to learn from others’ mistakes and listen to the students’ opinions.”

Peters said there are many different ways to be successful at teaching.

“I’ve got a whole field to work with,” he said. “I have 2,500 [students] that I can hook or loose. I have to present information that’s going to excite them and really turn them on.”

April 13 will feature Kliemann’s workshop, “Teaching Large Lectures in the Mathematical Sciences.”

Last semester, the university did random studies of exact class comparisons between small and large lectures. The findings reported very few differences.

“We want to make sure [teachers] know what they’re getting into,” said Kliemann, instructor for Math 166.

Mack, instructor for Journalism 101 and 460, will be giving the last workshop April 20, titled “Choosing Your Words — Vocabulary, Critical Thinking and Humor in the Large Lecture.”

She said it is important to think in terms of the students’ perspective.

“I think if you can be applicable to students, your teaching is better and their learning is better,” she said.

The overall response to the night was remarkable, Brooke said.

“It’s heartening for me to see this many faculty on this 70-degree night to hear from their colleagues to become better teachers and enhance their teaching,” she said.