Prof. Thomas Begins Work on Carnegie Project

Prof. Alice Thomas began an examination of her teaching this summer as a part of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). A major initiative of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, CASTL is interested in work that explores not only the teacher’s practice but also the character and depth of student learning that results from that practice. Prof. Thomas was selected to participate in the Pew National Fellowship Program for Carnegie Scholars, a part of CASTL.

Working to adapt law school doctrinal teaching to theories about how people learn, Prof. Thomas will assess how people construct new meanings by integrating newly acquired information into their current knowledge base. She plans to survey entering first-year students in her contracts class, and examine contract textbooks and the work of other teachers to discern commonly held beliefs about contracting practices. She can then build lesson modules around these concepts and build learning links between old and new knowledge. Her final step is to co-develop a tool with Columbia University teaching professionals that gauges student understanding of different but related concepts.

Thomas is one of 31 college and university faculty members chosen to participate in this year’s program. The program brings together outstanding faculty—more than 120 of them over the four years of the project—committed to investigating and documenting significant issues and challenges in the teaching of their fields.

Scholars are chosen on the basis of their work and a project proposal which adheres to the guiding principles that the work should be public, susceptible to critical review and evaluation, and accessible for exchange and use by other members of one’s scholarly community.

"The work of the Carnegie Scholar is essential because teaching tends to be a private act, limited to the teacher and students; it is rarely evaluated by professional peers," said Carnegie Foundation President Lee S. Shulman. "This work allows knowledge to be shared and used by others."

The project pays a $6000 stipend to the scholar and covers on-site costs of a summer residence with the Carnegie Foundation and interim meetings. Campuses cover travel expenses. Participants for the 2001-2002 year of the program were selected from the following fields: biological sciences, communications, economics, education and teacher education, engineering, language, literature, health sciences, law, philosophy, physics, psychology, religious studies, and interdisciplinary fields.

Fun And Fellowship

Prof. Thomas enjoys bocce with fellow Carnegie Fellows

Apparently Prof. Alice Thomas also managed to have a little fun while attending the Carnegie Fellows program this summer. According to "A little bocce with your linguine?," a June 29 article by Jordan Robertson in the San Francisco Chronicle, Prof. Thomas got a chance to hang out one night after a hard day's work at Campo di Bocce, a restaurant in Los Gatos, Calif., where the 31 fellows played bocce ball. Here's an excerpt from the article:

It was a highly intellectual group, specializing in law, biology and communication studies, among other fields. But [Campo di Bocce's General Manager Joe Morelli] was going to introduce them to something that most in the group had never seen before: a restaurant with bocce ball courts.

Created in 1997 by Saratoga businessman Tom Albanese, Campo di Bocce allows patrons to feast on upscale Italian dining while playing one of the Old World's most revered games.

The goal of the game, which is usually played in teams of four, is to roll a bocce ball down the court, placing it as close as possible to a smaller ball called a pallino. Points are awarded based on the accuracy of the rolls. ...

Marcia Babb is a project manager for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which brought the professors to the restaurant. She mingled inside with foundation co-workers as the professors played their first bocce games on either side of her.

"Our days of meetings are so intense," Babb, who organized the event, said. "They're talking about how to make their teaching better. We wanted an unusual activity that they could have fun with, and they're having a wonderful time. And the food is great!"

Alice Thomas, a law professor from the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, says she picked up the game quickly because she is a golfer and understands the concept of aiming a small ball toward a small target. Between rolls in her first game, Thomas, 37, stopped at a snack table, filling her wine glass with Merlot and her plate with calamari and bruschetta.

"This is fascinating," she said. "This is completely foreign to the East Coast. I'm thinking, 'Can I start one of these restaurants on the East Coast?'"

Many traditional bocce leagues forbid women and children from playing. A cross-section of ethnicities is scarce as well: Most of the players are Italian. At Campo di Bocce, however, diversity is encouraged and almost unavoidable, said Thomas, who is African American.

"It's good when cultures come in contact with each other," she said. "We break down barriers that have been there so long, and we bring the old-timers along."

View the complete article from the San Francisco Chronicle

[Article excerpted with permission.]