About Virginia S. Lee, Ph.D.
Virginia Lee is a specialist in teaching, learning and assessment in higher education, with a particular focus on Inquiry-Based Learning. She is the editor of Teaching and Learning through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors (Stylus; 2004) that documents the inquiry-guided learning initiative at NC State, which she led. She has served in faculty development leadership positions at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, and has just been named 2008 President of the world’s foremost organization for university teaching and learning, the Professional & Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. She presents internationally, publishes widely on teaching and learning in higher education, and serves on the editorial boards of prominent faculty development journals such as Innovative Higher Education, The Journal of Faculty Development, and To Improve the Academy. She received her Ph.D. from UNC– Chapel Hill; M.B.A. from Stern School, NYU; and B.A. cum laude from Smith College. She currently heads her own consulting firm specializing in teaching and learning in higher education, based in Durham, NC.
The Power of Questions as Drivers of Learning and Transformation
Often colleges and universities make a sharp distinction between teaching and research: in their mission statements, in their preparation of graduate students for their future role as faculty members, and in the ways they evaluate and reward faculty. According to the 1998 Boyer report, Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities, however, “The ecology of the university depends on a deep and abiding understanding that inquiry, investigation, and discovery are the heart of the enterprise, whether in funded research projects or in undergraduate classrooms or graduate apprenticeships.” In fact, the ability to ask good questions and both find and develop well-supported answers is a hallmark of a sophisticated learner as well as a good researcher. As students progress through their academic programs, they become more adept at the kinds of questions and methods of seeking answers appropriate to their chosen major and discipline.
This session will explore three ways of using questions as guides for learning and transformation. Using a combination of brief presentation, discussion, and individual and group reflective exercises, participants will leave being able to justify the pedagogical use of questions and describe three ways of using questions as a way to guide learning and having explored specific ways they can incorporate these questioning strategies in their own courses.