Bentley Learning and Teaching Colloquium

Students spend years learning that there is one right answer and that failing to find the one right answer results in lower grades and fewer opportunities.  As a result, college students in general, and our students in particular, are often reluctant to take risks, to step out of their comfort zone and try new things. What can we do to counter this and encourage students to be willing, or even eager, to fail?

This session brings together faculty members who actively use Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance student learning and foster critical thinking, as well as those exploring its potential in higher education. The session will begin with 2-3 faculty sharing real-world examples of how GenAI promotes engagement and skill development in their classrooms. Participants will gain practical tips and strategies for structuring assessments designed to reduce academic integrity concerns. Attendees will also get a glimpse into the daily routines of faculty who leverage AI, with live demonstrations of Microsoft Copilot showing how it can enrich instructional approaches. 

The session will conclude with an interactive segment featuring experiments, Q&A, and actionable ideas. Faculty from the AI Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will share specific examples and suggestions for integrating Copilot into courses, including low-risk experiments that count for 2–5% of a course grade. Whether you’re an AI skeptic or adopter, this session offers practical, experience-informed takeaways to inspire and guide your teaching practice.

This session will examine what meaningful student engagement looks like for Gen Z and emerging Gen Alpha learners, drawing on learning science that distinguishes engagement from “participation” and emphasizes cognitive and social-emotional dimensions of learning. Together, we will share and explore active, community‑building pedagogies to foster deeper learning and durable skills like curiosity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Faculty will connect shifting trends in student behavior and expectations with active learning strategies that intentionally cultivate engagement and build transformative capacities across different disciplines.

In an era of deep polarization, university faculty face the immense emotional labor of teaching while navigating politically charged classroom dynamics. This workshop provides a supportive space for educators to process these challenges and develop resilient pedagogical strategies. Participants will explore facilitation techniques, moving from heated "hot moments" to transformative learning; boundary setting, managing personal well-being while maintaining an inclusive, respectful environment; and conflict prevention, setting classroom environment standards in advance to guide students through divisive topics.

As student mental health concerns increasingly appear, faculty are often required to respond to difficult situations in real time while maintaining a supportive learning environment for all students. This interactive workshop introduces practical strategies for recognizing and responding to different levels of student distress or disruptive behavior. Through reflection, discussion, and case-based scenarios, participants will explore how such situations affect both instructors and classmates and practice using clear, supportive language in the moment. Faculty will leave the session with concrete strategies, communication tools, and shared insights to help them feel more prepared and confident when challenging moments arise.

Have you ever wondered how your teaching strategies impact your students after they graduate? Join us for a special session where Bentley alumni return to share how their classroom experiences have shaped their personal and professional lives. Hear firsthand feedback on the teaching methods that made a lasting impression and learn how the lessons they learned in your classrooms continue to influence their careers today. We'll have a few questions to kick things off, but we also encourage you to bring your own questions to the discussion.

Distractions in our classrooms and in our students' lives are omnipresent and intensifying. The solution doesn't lie in banning technologies, which are useful and even necessary for many of our students. Instead, we can remind ourselves of the power of attention to support both learning and well-being, and design our courses and class sessions to cultivate, support, and reward student attention to the course material and to one another. This interactive presentation will share both foundational research on attention and concrete strategies to create an attention-infused teaching approach.