ACUE Focus: Katie Carr

More than 153 UA - Pulaski Technical College faculty have improved their teaching practices through a program with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). This rigorous, evidence based, 25-week course engages instructors with independently validated research to improve student achievement and close equity gaps. ACUE Focus is a question and answer series where faculty share their experiences with ACUE.

Katie Carr
Assistant Teaching Professor of Sociology, Dept. of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Education: M.A. University of Alabama - Birmingham

1. What ACUE Cohort were you a part of?

UA-PTC ACUE Cohort D Fall 2020 – Spring 2021

2. What do you teach and how do you think you benefited from the ACUE course?

I teach Introduction to Sociology. ACUE greatly benefited my classes by not only giving me new tools and techniques to facilitate learning, but by also enhancing teaching techniques I was currently using. A lot of these tools and techniques are things that I have seen keep students engaged by tapping into all learning styles and making learning new concepts fun.

3. Best thing you learned from ACUE?

ACUE taught me how to improve my teaching style in ways that helped ensure student learning through assessment and also improved student retention. I enjoyed learning new activities and ways of assessing learning outcomes and advancing the detailed feedback I give to help students improve their performance.

4. Do you think your students benefited from you taking the ACUE course and if so, how?

I do believe that my students benefited from me taking ACUE. I observed positive results when it came to classroom engagement and student performance. Students seemed to learn from the activities and enjoyed coming to class.

5. What was your favorite module in ACUE?

My favorite module in ACUE was using concept maps and other visual tools to assist students in connecting certain concepts and principles and fully understanding the relationships between these.