Breakout Sessions for Saturday, November 14, 2026

Oakton College is implementing a three year NSF ITYC initiative in collaboration with Northeastern Illinois University and Chicago State University to strengthen STEM pathways through a Learning Assistant (LA) program. This poster will showcase the ongoing NSF funded project, now in its second year, presenting findings from three terms (Spring 2025, Fall 2025, and Spring 2026) which has used a mixed method approach.

Please be welcomed into this workshop where we will explore caregiving through a new lens. Inspired by the book Creating Moments of Joy, we will begin with a personal video and then reflect on how we might reimagine and redefine relationships, needs, and expectations as caregivers—both for ourselves and for the people we care for, with time set aside for journaling, discussion, and small group activities. During this time, we will also explore the intersection of two identities, caregiver and professional, as we reenvision caregiving as a strength in the workplace. Lead your own transformation with more possibilities for connecting with your loved one and be part of the shift in workplace culture where caregiving is recognized, valued, and supported.

Faculty-student mentoring is widely cited as a lever for improving STEM student outcomes, yet much of the “what works” literature comes from formal mentoring programs or graduate-level advising rather than naturally occurring, one-on-one pairings between an instructor and an undergraduate student. This session examines one such case: an instructor and her only student in a mathematics teacher-preparation course for prospective secondary teachers, who worked closely together over a single semester. That student went on to pass the state licensure content exam that many candidates do not clear on their first attempt.

Presenting together as mentor and mentee, we use Nora and Crisp’s (2007) four-dimension framework — psychosocial support, academic guidance, goal-setting, and role-modeling. Because the mentoring literature is overwhelmingly written from the mentor’s or institution’s perspective, we give particular attention to the mentee’s own account of what mattered most and least to him.

To surface that gap directly, both mentor and mentee independently completed the instrument from Nora and Crisp: the mentee answering from the perspective of “how well did my mentor do,” and the mentor answering from the perspective of “how effective do I feel my mentoring was.” We present results side by side and use the points where they diverge as the anchor for discussion — what each of us noticed, valued, or missed that the other didn’t. Rather than present findings, we invite attendees into a structured discussion: how does this framework — and the gaps between our two perspectives — compare to their own experiences mentoring, or being mentored?

LAs can be incorporated into a learning environment to facilitate productive interactions with students in- or outside of the classroom. In this session we will provide some background on how the Pedagogy Course and Weekly Preparation Sessions inform LA Practice in the active learning classroom. We provide examples of how LAs can support a variety of learning spaces including lecture, discussion, laboratory, as well as synchronous and asynchronous online. . Participants will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to incorporating LAs into their course(s) based on their own course(s) structures, goals, and needs as well as share how LAs and other peer instructors currently support courses at their own institutions.

Why do capable students sometimes struggle to meet expectations that seem obvious to instructors? Often, the challenge is not motivation but clarity. In this session, instructors will investigate how unspoken assumptions and aspects of the hidden curriculum can lead to student confusion and frustration. Using the updated Northwestern Principles of Inclusive Teaching (2026) as a framework, participants will identify potential sources of confusion in their own courses and learn practical, evidence-based strategies to increase transparency, foster connection, and support student achievement.

This session combines a brief research-informed presentation with guided reflection, small group engagement, facilitated discussion, and course design activities. Participants will contribute examples from their own teaching contexts, analyze common challenges related to the hidden curriculum, and reflect on strategies for increasing clarity and transparency in their courses. Interaction is built throughout the session through collective analysis of participant-generated examples, and individual planning exercises that connect session concepts directly to participants' teaching practice.