What happens when you approach teaching as intellectual problem solving?

Meet Professor Laura Mitchell, the newly appointed Director of Pedagogical Development in the School of Humanities

What happens when you approach teaching as intellectual problem solving, applying the same rigorous analytical tools that you’ve developed through scholarly research? As a historian and teacher of courses about African pasts, Professor Laura Mitchell has long been interested in better understanding how to support quick acclimatization in class. In other words, how can you help a group of students who haven’t yet encountered the basic geography of the African continent to get a handle on hundreds of years of history among thousands of clearly identifiable communities—in ten weeks? 

Using inquiry-based teaching methods proved to be a lever that opened even more lines of questioning, leading Mitchell into her new role as Director of Pedagogical Development in the School of Humanities. To learn more, please check out the SOH faculty learning community or Gradlab for graduate pedagogy initiatives.  If you have questions about teaching or ideas for programming, please get in touch with Prof. Mitchell.