| Programs / Formats / Descriptions
I am dedicated to helping faculty and staff better understand and improve their skills in working with students for learning, development, persistence and workplace readiness. While I make my literature available and offer links to other resources (see the Learning Resources page) I am most effective when offering programs and workshops at schools and conferences. I have visited community and technical colleges, universities, private and professional schools from Massachusetts to California, Minnesota to Texas, and in Canada, as well as presenting at conferences across the country.
I often present to the entire faculty, staff and administration of colleges, and have offered workshops to faculty, student services, enrollment management, strategic planning and every campus area from admissions to alumni. Each of my programs is customized to meet the needs of your school; student population, mission, and size. Conference and meeting programs have been offered to faculty discipline groups, student affairs generalist and specialist groups, business and administrative groups.
My two most popular programs for colleges are Generation NeXt Comes to College- Understanding Today's Learners and the follow-up workshop for faculty on Teaching Today's Learners. I am time flexible from a 40 minute keynote to three hour sessions. So many schools have invited me to present the Generation NeXt program, then asked me back for the Teaching workshop, that I now offer both in one day of up to six hours of program time.
Below is a typical brochure description for the Generation NeXt Comes to College- Understanding Today's Learners program.
Today’s learners are different. Our traditionally aged students have characteristics and expectations that present unique challenges to those of us charged with teaching, serving and supervising them through their college/ university experience. Their issues with academic preparation, responsibility and self-esteem, consumer expectations, use of technology and styles of interacting can impact, and interfere with, their learning, persistence and academic success at school, and workplace readiness and success. There is fairly compelling evidence that they are not responding particularly well to traditional instruction in traditional academic settings in terms of learning outcomes and workplace readiness.
This program will help faculty and staff understand the social, personal and academic traits and preferences our students bring to college, how these characteristics impact learning, persistence and success, and how we can best help all of our students reach their educational and personal goals in the new educational landscape
Teaching Today's Learners is my follow-up for faculty; a workshop on practical skills for facilitating meaningful student learning in and out of the classroom. This active session describes, illustrates and allows participants to experience and make plans to apply concrete and immediately useful methods to increase student engagement, activity, responsibility for their own learning, and personal ownership of class goals and desired outcomes. See my Data / Feedback page for outcome numbers on this session- 84% of attending faculty report that they intend to use more active learning techniques!
For meetings and conferences I generally offer a keynote/ plenary session of at least an hour, and follow-up workshop or break-out session. I have also offered half-day conference and pre-conference sessions, and full-day faculty trainings. There is so much variation in meeting needs and schedules I encourage you to contact me at mark@taylorprograms.com or call 501 626-5889 to discuss your program needs.
Program Descrptions
Innovating the College Classroom
Though much recent buzz has centered around the impact of “disruptive innovations” on the higher education landscape, little attention has been directed toward the impact and application of these change forces to actual instruction. This program overviews the disruptive processes in postsecondary education, and addresses our opportunities to reinvent and transform college instruction for improved learning outcomes.
Teaching the Underprepared Student
With as many as half of high school graduates requiring remedial academic work when they enter college (with many needing deep remediation in math, reading and language skills) and the skills gaps in non-traditional returning students who may be long separated from academics, colleges struggle to bring underprepared students to successful academically outcomes. This program addresses the issues of the underprepared student in academic competence and confidence, and provides guidance to faculty, and others on campus, to help them persist, learn, and graduate.
Managing the Multigenerational Classroom
Today’s live and on-line classes can be a mix of students from at least three generational cohorts; more mature Baby Boomers, re-careering Generation Xers, and our traditionally aged, digital Generation NeXters. With wildly varying past experiences, academic expectations and learning goals, it can be challenging for faculty to offer each cohort their most effective learning environment and activities. This program describes the traits, learning preferences and needs of each group, and offers a model of instruction proven to help all learners be successful.
Flipping the Classroom
Inverting, or flipping, a class involves moving the introduction to content and skills out of class to free class time for students to be active in solidifying knowledge, practicing skills and reaching higher level learning outcomes through planned in-class activities. This program places the flipped classroom in the learning model, and offers techniques to improve student compliance, responsibility for their own learning, and learning outcomes.
Creating Professionals- Pedagogies of Formation
How do you take a normal person and, in the course of their education, turn them into a professional with the necessary knowledge base, functional skill set and set of values that will enable them able to perform effectively and adaptively over the course of a career? This program describes a pedagogy of formation designed to impact students in deep and lasting ways to prepare them for the professional workplace, and is applicable to any professional occupation, from nursing, medicine and other health care professions to law, teaching and technical fields.
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