One of the first things any budding faculty member learns about is "learning style." We have been told by both colleagues and educational development professionals that we should match our teaching styles to the learning styles of our students. This matching would necessitate understanding learning styles, measuring them, and discovering what teaching methods would appeal to the learning styles of our students.

But wait a minute, can we prove that this matching actually results in better learning by our students?

These two articles explore exactly that question. David Glenn writes an introductory piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In that piece, he refers to the work of Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork published in the Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Read them and then decide. Better yet, read them and have a discussion with your colleagues.

Permission for Educational Use, Psychological Science in the Public Interest; It is APS policy not to charge any kind of reprint or copyright fee or to require any kind of permission for the use of any APS journal article for any teaching, classroom, or educational activity, provided that no resale occurs.

Year after year, we have high quality applications to our Small Grants Programs. The effort put into the applications clearly shows in some innovative, long reaching projects. This year we received outstanding applications, just like we've come to expect. This year, just like every other year, the selection committee found it difficult to choose the recipients. After much discussion and deliberation, the committee chose eight of the twenty projects. The applicants receiving funding are:

• Helena Carvahlo (PI), Crystal West, Necrisha Roach, & Wendy Calchary - Physiology and Biophysics
• Meghan Gough - The Wilder School
• Penny Reynolds - Emergency Medicine
• Brigitte Sicat (PI), Christine Huynh, Sallie Mayer, & Rita Willett - Pharmacy and Internal Medicine
• Ryan Smith - History
• Jeffrey South - Mass Communications
• Dewey Taylor (PI) & Richard Hammack - Mathematics
• Vamsi Yadavalli - Chemical & Life Science Engineering

Congratulations to the awardees and a sincere thank you to all that applied. Your dedication to teaching was clearly reflected in each and every application.

This episode of the CTE's Teaching and Learning podcast series features a conversation with Dr. Lynda Gillespie, Director of Technology for Chesterfield County Public Schools and adjunct professor for the VCU School of Education, and Dr. Britt Watwood from the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence. Lynda and Britt co-taught an online graduate course this Fall semester, and in this podcast, they reflect on that experience. Britt had previously developed this course and taught it online, while Lynda was new to the online teaching experience. In the course of the conversation we explore online teaching and learning, the virtual mentoring process, and the lessons learned from 15 weeks of interaction with students online.

You can listen to or download the episode below:

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CoTeachOnline.mp3

This episode of the CTE's Teaching and Learning podcast series features a conversation with Dr. Teresa Carter from the VCU School of Education, and Bud Deihl from the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence. The podcast begins with an introduction to the process of digital storytelling, and an introduction to the CTE's digital storytelling program. In the course of the conversation we explore digital storytelling as both a means for supporting reflective practice as well as for creating compelling learning materials.

You can listen to or download the episode below:

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DigitalStoryTelling.mp3

This article is part of our Monthly Article Series. In this article, Marie Sontag, from the Union Middle School in San Jose, CA., proposes that our students learn differently because of the integration of technology in their lives. She presents a new learning theory, the social-connectedness and cognitive-connectedness schemata (SCCS) theory, that integrates key elements of other learning theories with gaming elements in a structure designed to facilitate student engagement.

The article can be found here.