Wolfgangsee Lake and Village of St. Wolfgang, Austria
“FROM HERE TO THERE: POSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS”
Congratulations to doctoral student, Daria Pizzuto, in presenting “Engage Your Students in Learning: Exploring Evidence-Based Strategies” at the EAIR Annual Academic Forum at the Danube University Krems, Austria this past summer.
Daria’s presentation used a student engagement study to expand and find four evidence-based strategies that foster student engagement. “It was an honor to represent Seton Hall at an international conference, especially that there were not many American universities represented,” says Daria. “My presentation and paper were very well received… Some participants were quite intrigued. I later found out that European universities do not generally employ active learning strategies but utilize classic lecture-styles of teaching.”
The Danube University, Krems, Austria
Daria started this journey in February, 2015 after she had read an article that was presented at the forum. Each year, the forum takes place in different cities across Europe. Daria’s interest in the forum led her to research EAIR online, which further prompted her to write and submit a proposal for presenting. In April 2015, she learned her proposal had been accepted for presentation in Austria.
“I think my program at Seton Hall really made a difference. As tough as it gets sometimes, they teach us to deal with rejection and to continuously seek such opportunities out. Also, Seton Hall courses have prepared me to participate in an amiable debate for the sake of academic inquiry. Lastly, taking initiative to choose your own topic during my doctoral classes has helped me greatly. I could stand my ground and do my own research on this scholarly paper,” says Daria.
EAIR Forum: Krems, Austria
The presentation which Daria provided was based on an academic paper that will eventually be published by EAIR in a few months. Daria says “I hope my audience took away one major message, which was that the time of student engagement has surely come and days of lecturing in front of the class are over. Participants had follow up questions and were curious thus prompting a very stimulating discussion.”
Daria has several takeaways from her experience abroad: “As a doctoral student, you have to actively seek out the opportunities if you’d like to participate in similar conferences. Sometimes they’ll say no, but sometimes they’ll say yes. European higher education is experiencing very similar problems that American higher education is struggling with: accreditation and ratings, teaching efficacy, PhD completion rates, inclusion and diversity, gender and teacher evaluation, and finding student engagement strategies that work.”
If you are interested in submitting your proposals, Daria suggests:
- The EAIR 2016 Annual Academic Forum- Birmingham, UK. End of August, 2016
- Going Global, Tuesday 3 May 2016 to Thursday 5 May 2016, Cape Town, South Africa
Daria recently presented a successful professional development workshop on October 6 at 6:30 p.m. in 223 Jubilee Hall. The event was sponsored by Kappa Delta Pi, of which Daria is Chapter President.