NeMLA 2025-Fringe Benefits: Leveraging Revolutionary Teaching Models to Transform Education
After working in alternative or hybrid spaces throughout the pandemic, the return of educators and students to the “traditional” classroom has brought its own unique challenges and frustrations both for students and instructors. Learners who previously participated in fully remote classes are expected to integrate smoothly into synchronous in-person courses with little guidance or preparation. Instructors are offered little guidance in easing the transition for students and are often already stretched thin themselves. In light of these circumstances, educators must reevaluate what teaching methods and structures might best serve students and instructors in a technological and AI-driven era. Teachers are uniquely poised to challenge instructional expectations and pave revolutionary ways forward that offer students varied ways of learning and interacting in the classroom.
Some of the ongoing revolutions in higher ed involve hybrid classrooms, co-teaching, labor-based grading, and flipped classrooms. Reimagining what education looks like involves subverting classroom and teaching norms and redefining classroom spaces. How can educators evolve with the changing landscape? How can we include students in their own education? How can revolutionary ideas offer new perspectives? What are the risks and rewards of this educational evolution? How can we decrease instructor workloads without sacrificing rigor and while increasing student engagement? What can we gain by truly approaching teaching as learning?
We welcome abstracts that discuss any aspects of revolutionary teaching structures in relation to students, instructors, classrooms, curricular development, etc. We encourage experimental ideas, ideas in development, and submissions from early-career instructors or graduate students.
The deadline to submit an abstract to this roundtable has been extended to October 15, 2024: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21139
NeMLA (https://www.nemla.org) will take place on March 6–9, 2025, in Philadelphia, PA. Any questions or inquiries can be sent to Rachel McKinley (rmmckinley@alaska.edu) or Julia Rutherford (jrutherford@alaska.edu).