The Master Class Series is an initiative of The Center for Teaching Excellence to provide specialized instruction to faculty members on a specific pedagogy. The Master Class Series is designed to bring faculty and instructors together who are interested in exploring ways to advance their teaching or learning new methods in a specific area. The Master Class is led by a “Master Instructor” who has been identified as an expert on the topic.
Each semester a new Master Class Series topic is offered. The topic for the Fall 2021 Master Class is “Tweaking to Improve Planning and Assessment of Student Learning” facilitated by “Master Instructor” Nate Carnes, Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence
Master Class Series Requirements
Faculty and instructors must apply for consideration for the Master Class Series. Faculty and instructors who are accepted into the Master Class Series must agree to attend prescheduled Master Class session. The Master Class Series is scheduled in advance and is listed below. To receive a Master Class certificate of completion, faculty and instructors must attend all three sessions.
Master Class participants are expected participate in each session by engaging in seminar discussion, group discussion and completing assignments. Accepted faculty and instructors will be provided a letter of intent once they are accepted into the Master Class. The master class series will be offered virtually and is accessible through Blackboard Collaborate. The Blackboard Collaborate link will be provided to master class participants.
Any faculty member at USC-Columbia, Palmetto College regional campuses or USC Schools of Medicine (Greenville and Columbia) are eligible to apply for the Master Class Series. This program is not open to graduate students nor adjunct instructors.
Master Class Applications for Fall 2021 are no longer being accepted. Check back to
apply for the Spring 2022 Cohort.
Master Class Series Fall 2021 : Tweaking to Improve Planning and Assessment of Student Learning
Fall 2021 Schedule
Planning and Assessing: What it Entails
Thursday, October 28, 2021 – 2:50 pm – 4:05 pm
During the first session, we will start with a short history of objectives in education, acknowledging the lack of understanding of objectives in terms of intended student learning until Bloom’s Taxonomy came into existence. Through brief presentations of learning outcomes embedded within our own syllabi, we will engage in discussions and reflections that lead to views of our existing knowledge and practices as they relate to planning and assessment of student learning. These interactions will establish baselines for growth.
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: What It Is and Isn’t
Thursday, November 18, 2021 - 2:50 pm – 4:05 pm
An Internet search for the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and ways in which it is depicted yields a wide variety of models and diagrams. Drawing from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Anderson et al, 2000), we will view/review the vision that Bloom’s former doctoral students had for revising the original taxonomy. With this knowledge, we will evaluate the various models and illustrations that populate the Internet and assess the accuracies of their depictions. Also, we will discuss the implications that the revised Bloom’s taxonomy has for how we plan for learning outcomes in our respective courses.
Applications of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Thursday, December 9, 2021 – 2:50 pm – 4:05 pm
In this session, we will engage in a practice session of writing learning outcomes and apply the use of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy as an analytic tool, giving careful attention to the matrix that we received during the second session. Its purpose does not serve as an aid for writing learning outcomes, but to analyze objectives once they are written. In the spirit of a learning celebration, we will reflect on our experiences throughout this Master Class Series with a focus on how we might get better at communicating our expectations for learning in our respective courses. We will end by revisiting baselines that we set in Session I, citing insights that we have made to better articulate expectations for learning.
About the Facilitator
Nate Carnes is the Associate Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and an associate professor in the College of Education. Among his several education affiliations, he is a former board member and an active member of the Association for Science Teacher Education, a non-profit professional organization composed of over 500 members across the United States and countries around the globe. His teaching performances, that span more than 40 years, have resulted in awards and citations of teaching excellence at the University of South Carolina, state, regional and international levels. Carnes has interacted with Dr. Lorin Anderson, a Carolina Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former student of Benjamin Bloom, on several occasions to gain a deeper understanding of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy.