HILT Announces Fall 2015 Spark Grants

Awardees: Jon Hanson and Jacob Lipton (HLS)

Summary: Awardees will develop, expand, and improve a new approach to legal education (and higher education generally) that is more problem-oriented, team-driven, and experiential than are traditional and conventional pedagogical methods.

Read moreabout Bottom-up pedagogy

Awardee: Marshall Thomas (HMS), Selen Turkay (CADM-VPAL), and Michael Parker (HMS)

Summary: Awardees will explore the best-performing sequences of instructional materials in both controlled studies and in the context of real online courses.

Read moreabout Bridging education research and practice using online learning modules

Awardee: Irwin Shapiro and Anna Yermakova (FAS)

Summary: Awardees will investigate whether embodied class exercises, relevant to the material being taught, yield greater understanding and retention of this material compared to teaching that relies solely on demonstrations.

Read moreabout Embodied learning investigation

Awardees: Marcus Mello and Lindsay Woodson (GSD)

Summary: Awardees will explore the “hackathon” as a participatory learning and engagement strategy to bring together members of the Harvard community and beyond.

Read moreabout Understanding how hackathon methodology drive participatory design pedagogy

Awardees: Susanne Jakob and William Anderson (FAS)

Summary: Awardees will administer a survey to Harvard College graduates to analyze the long-term retention of the concepts and abilities taught in a gateway science course.

Read moreabout Analyzing long-term retention of information in science gateway course

Awardees: Kristen Goodell (HMS), Barbara Ogur (HMS-CHA), Sara Fazio (HMS-BIDMC), Barbara Gottlieb (HSPH/HMS-BWH), Valeria Pazo (HMS-BWH), Colleen Farrell (HMS), and Lydia Flier (HMS)

Summary: Awardees will pilot an advanced elective in primary care medicine and teaching, where senior medical students tutor junior medical students in clinical skills, with assessment of its benefits to both students enrolled in the elective and the junior students they tutor.

Read moreabout Elective in primary care medicine and teaching

Awardees: Erin Baumann, Carolyn Wood, and Allison Pingree (HKS)

Summary: Awardees will conduct and analyze the data of faculty interviews to surface best practices in teaching team management, with particular attention to the role of teaching fellows in the development of high-intensity experiential learning environments. Read more