Dr. Susan Hrach
Director, Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
Columbus State University, Georgia
Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 10 am–11 am
Embodied Learning Strategies to Create Human Connection and Engagement
Recent headlines suggest we are currently experiencing a "stunning" level of student disconnection and disengagement. What can we do to motivate students and ourselves to re-engage in learning? Learning demands physical energy that the body supplies for optimal brain function. We are wired for social connection and to think while moving. In this interactive session participants will experience embodied learning strategies first-hand; from the research in my book, Minding Bodies: How physical space, sensation, and movement affect learning, I will share what science is discovering about the effect of the built environment and movement on cognitive performance.
Short bio
Dr. Susan Hrach is the author of Minding Bodies: how physical space, sensation, and movement affect learning (WVU Press, 2021). She serves as director of the Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and professor of English at Columbus State University in Georgia. Recognized for her commitment to global education by the University System of Georgia with the 2013 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, she has recently served as a scholar for the USG’s Executive Leadership Institute.
Longer Bio
Dr. Susan Hrach ("rock") is the author of Minding Bodies: how physical space, sensation, and movement affect learning (WVU Press, 2021). She has taught at Centenary College of Louisiana, the University of Alabama, and the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned her PhD in English. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, she spent a year abroad at the Universität Innsbruck, Austria, which continues to inform her teaching of world literature in translation and teaching abroad in England and Italy. For the past 9 years, she has served as director of the Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and professor of English at Columbus State University in Georgia. Recognized for her commitment to global education by the University System of Georgia with the 2013 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, she has recently served as a scholar for the USG’s Executive Leadership Institute.
Book
Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning
Podcast in Pedagogies of Care
Noticing as the First Step
References and Notes
see Collective Note-Taking Document
