Heather Pelzel

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UW-Whitewater

Professor of Biology
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow, 2014-15
Co-Director, Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars, 2019-2026

The Transformative Power of WTFS: A Personal Journey

How I Found WTFS

My introduction to the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars Program (WTFS) began by happy accident. As a new faculty member, I was seeking opportunities to enhance my teaching and research and was invited to attend Faculty College as a last-minute replacement for a colleague. I was familiar with the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) through training in my graduate program, but I didn’t know WTFS existed until I learned about it at that first Faculty College. WTFS, with its focus on SoTL and improving pedagogy, seemed like the perfect fit for my interests and goals.

Before joining WTFS, I had already taken some initial steps in SoTL through participation in faculty development workshops at UW-Whitewater, and I had even conducted a small-scale research project on the impact of the C.R.E.A.T.E. pedagogical framework on my students’ understanding of a key concept in microbiology.  However, I felt that my SoTL journey was still in its early stages. I was searching for a more structured and supportive environment to deepen my understanding of SoTL and to develop my research skills.

My Year as a Fellow

The year following that first Faculty College, I applied to be a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow representing UW-Whitewater and was selected as a group of three from my university. My year as a WTFS fellow was a transformative experience. The program offered a unique blend of community, intellectual stimulation, and practical training. I was fortunate to connect with a diverse group of faculty members from various disciplines, all passionate about improving teaching and learning. Through regular meetings and workshops, we engaged in thought-provoking discussions, shared our experiences, and provided feedback on each other’s work. The Summer Institute session with Dr. J P Leary from UW-Green Bay was particularly enlightening as his discussion on the community-centeredness of Indigenous learning and knowledge became the foundation for my peer-led team learning project.

During my fellowship year, I embarked on a research project that focused on the impact of group work and peer-led instruction on student learning in my 200-level course. Through this project, I learned valuable lessons about research design, data collection, and analysis. I also gained a deeper understanding of the complexities of establishing a classroom culture that supports community building and accountability for me and my students.

The focus on community building was also fostered throughout my experience as a WTFS participant. The program provided a safe space for me to share my ideas, ask questions, and receive constructive criticism. Through David Voelker’s guidance, I learned the importance of listening to learn and understand rather than listening to respond. The connections I made with my WTFS colleagues have continued to be a source of support and inspiration, particularly the connections made with others at my university.

Impact of My Year as a WTFS Participant

My year as a WTFS fellow had a profound impact on my identity as a scholar. I developed a stronger sense of myself as a researcher and a teacher-scholar. I also gained more confidence in my ability to conduct high-quality research and experience sharing my findings with the broader academic community outside of my home discipline. I started seeking out opportunities to present my research at a broader variety of conferences, to collaborate with others interested in critically examining their pedagogy and their students’ learning, and to participate in a broad range of professional development workshops.

As I continued to grow into my identity as a SoTL scholar, I sought out opportunities to lead professional development sessions through book groups and workshops to excite others to challenge traditional ways of teaching and learning by examining innovative and effective approaches. This eventually led to my appointment as a Faculty Fellow and then director of the LEARN Center at UW-Whitewater. In the same year that I became the director of the LEARN Center, I was also selected as the next co-director of WTFS. This new role allowed me to give back to the program that had so profoundly impacted my career.

Looking Behind the WTFS Curtain

As a co-director, I gained a unique perspective on the inner workings of WTFS. I saw firsthand the dedication and hard work that went into creating a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment for the participants. There are challenges and opportunities associated with running a successful professional development program, and the adjustments made to maintain the program through the COVID-19 pandemic were some of the biggest to manage.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to rethink our approach to the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program. We had to quickly adapt to online modalities, redesigning our sessions to accommodate remote participation. While it wasn’t possible to truly replicate the in-person experience, we were able to experiment with new formats for collaboration and learning while finding new ways to build a community through an online format.

As we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, we realized a need to adjust to the changing needs of our WTFS participants and the evolving landscape of higher education. With encouragement from the OPID executive board, we initiated a redesign of the WTFS program to incorporate new pedagogical approaches, emerging technologies, and a greater focus on equity and social justice. This led to removing the requirement to enter with a tentative project to allow for the organic creation of projects that are informed by the Faculty College and Summer Institute sessions, new types of SoTL questions, new types of data, and a more interactive format for the project presentations at the Spring Conference.

Ongoing Impact of WTFS on My Career and Teaching Approaches

WTFS has had a lasting impact on my career and teaching approaches. I continue to refine my identity as a scholar, engaging in research that informs my teaching practice and contributes to the field of SoTL. I have also started to form my niche in the international SoTL and professional development communities with my professional partner and co-director, Dr. Valerie Barske. We have presented our work as WTFS co-directors to highlight the unique and amazing program that is the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program to encourage others to build their own programs and champion SoTL at their universities, colleges, and systems.

On a local level, I have leveraged my involvement with WTFS and my knowledge of SoTL and pedagogical approaches to engage with faculty and staff across my home institution, UW-Whitewater, and my department, Biology, and encourage them to strengthen their positions as teacher-scholars. I have encouraged campus colleagues to engage with OPID through Spring Conference, Faculty College, and online webinars, to dive into the SoTL literature to discover both new approaches and refinements for their current praxis, and to become true SoTL participants by sharing their work publicly on campus, in their discipline, throughout the state, and beyond.

To echo the words first shared by the Board of Regents in 1894 in the first articulation of what provides the basis for the Wisconsin Idea, “Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.” I believe that SoTL is the pathway to continue this “fearless sifting and winnowing” to inquiry and truth finding into the improvement of student learning and their learning experience.

Looking to the future, I am excited to continue my journey as a teacher-scholar. As I begin my transition out of the role of WTFS co-director, I am grateful for the opportunities and support I received from the WTFS community. I am committed to staying engaged in SoTL work and continuing to advocate for WTFS and similar programs within the Universities of Wisconsin and beyond our state borders, and I am honored to be a part of this amazing community of educators.

Biography:

Heather Pelzel is a Professor of Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where she teaches courses in cell biology, microbiology, and public health. She was a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow in 2014-2015 with a project that focused on the use of Team-Based Learning to improve student success in a mid-level required course for Biology majors, and she has been a WTFS co-director since 2019. At UW-W, Heather has been a LEARN Center Faculty Fellow and Director, a Teaching Scholar, a departmental Master Advisor, and is now a department Chair. Heather is also a SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) Ambassador and offers workshops and training opportunities for those interested in incorporating the SENCER ideals and pedagogy into their curriculum. Heather is also involved with the Tiny Earth project, which focuses on course-based undergraduate research experiences to search for antibiotic-producing bacteria in the soil. Heather’s pedagogical approaches center around the use of complex problems and real data to increase student engagement and learning. Heather is also a proponent of alternative grading and utilizes a variety of approaches in her courses.

Recommended Organizations for SoTL and Scholarly Teaching:

Recommended Journals:

Recommended Books:

  • Ambrose, Susan A., et al. How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Jossey-Bass, 2010.
  • Artze-Vega, Isis, Flower Darby, Bryan Dewsbury, and Mays Imad. The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2023
  • Bain, Ken.  What the Best College Teachers Do. Harvard Univ. Press, 2004
  • Blum, Susan D. (ed.). Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to do Instead). West Virginia University Press. 2020.
  • Cavanagh, Sarah Rose. The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. West Virginia University Press. 2016.
  • Felder, Richard M. and Rebecca Brent. Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass, 2016.
  • Gannon, Kevin M. Radical Hope. A Teaching Manifesto. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020.
  • Handlesman, Jo, et al. Scientific Teaching. W.H. Freeman and Co., 2007.
  • Kundu, Anindya. Agency: Looking Beyond Grit to Close the Opporunity Gap. Teachers College Press. 2020.
  • Lang, James M. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass, 2016.
  • McGuire, Saundra Yancy. Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Stylus Publishing, 2015.
  • Larkin, Douglas B, et al. Deep Knowledge: Learning to Teach Science for Understanding and Equity. Teachers College Press, 2013.
  • Schwartz, Harriet L. Connected Teaching. Stylus Publishing, 2019.