Teaching + Learning Lab

What Happens in the Classroom is the Main Event
2026-02-24 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
Photo: MIT Image Library

Dr. Carlo Rotella, Professor of English, American Studies, and Journalism at Boston College

Description

What happens in the classroom is getting more, not less, cutting-edge all the time. Face-to-face teaching and learning become rarer and more valuable with each advance in educational technology. At the same time, the higher-ed classroom is a black box in our culture. There’s no lack of strong opinions about what happens or doesn’t happen there, but not enough practical discussion of the details. This talk is about those details, especially the mechanics of classroom citizenship and the importance of building a community of inquiry.

About the Speaker

Dr. Carlo Rotella, Professor of English, American Studies, and Journalism at Boston College

Carlo Rotella is a professor of English, American Studies, and Journalism at Boston College. He writes regularly for the New York Times Magazine — most recently an essay on teaching English in the age of AI — and his work has also appeared in the New Yorker and Best American Essays. A recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, U.S. State Department grants to lecture in China and Bosnia, and the Whiting Writers Award, he has written books about the postindustrial city, boxing, blues, and urban literature and film, among other subjects. His latest book, What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics, is about what happens in the classroom.

Leveraging the Power of Feedback for Student Motivation and Equity: An Evidence-Based and Practical Perspective
2026-03-19 14:00 - 15:00
By Olena/Adobe Stock

Dr. Alison Koenka, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma

Description

Academic feedback–or messages provided to learners about their performance–is a powerful tool that instructors can leverage to boost student learning and motivation and to create more equitable college classrooms. High-quality feedback provides learners with valuable information about their current performance and guidance on how to improve. However, researchers have found that many students fail to engage with feedback or respond negatively to it, especially when it is negative or critical. Subsequently, feedback can either support or hinder students’ learning and motivation, as well as the overall rigor and equity of the classroom environment.

Dr. Alison Koenka will broaden our understanding of feedback, presenting it as a multi-level phenomenon that goes beyond comments on graded assignments. She will share research on how different forms of feedback shape students’ motivation and learning, and how students engage with feedback. The talk will conclude with actionable suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of feedback provided to students and to support students’ engagement with feedback.

About the Speaker

Dr. Alison Koenka is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. She holds a BA in Psychology from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Duke University. Koenka completed her postdoctoral training in Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. Her research explores students’ motivation in STEM across secondary school and higher education settings. Dr. Koenka’s lab pursues these interests through two interrelated lines of inquiry. First, she and her students investigate the motivational consequences of academic feedback, including spontaneous interactions occurring between teachers and students, grades and written feedback, and implicit, enduring feedback that often occurs at curriculum and/or policy levels (e.g., mathematics tracking). Second, her lab conducts work that centers on the motivational experiences of youth from understudied populations. This research has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Koenka was ranked as a top-producing early-career scholar in educational psychology journals from 2015-2021; she was also identified in 2024 as a Top-Cited Global Researcher by Stanford University and Elsevier Repository. Dr. Koenka is the 2025 recipient of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Early Career Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring and is the 2024 recipient of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Pre-Tenure Faculty Award.

Panel Discussion– How AI is Changing Student Learning: Perspectives from MIT Students
2026-04-28 13:00 - 14:00
Moderated by Dr. Lourdes Alemán, in collaboration with MIT Radius

Description

As AI transforms our teaching and learning, it is important to recognize that students’ experiences and attitudes towards AI are not homogeneous. In this panel of MIT students, we will discuss how they use AI tools, the impact of these tools on their learning, and the ethical frameworks and concerns that they bring to their work. This conversation will allow educators to understand students’ perspectives on the motivations, challenges, and expectations shaping AI use today as they navigate these tools in real time.

Student Panel

Felicity Zhou is a 3rd year student with a double major in mathematics with computer science (Course 18-C) and physics (Course 8)

Anne Reidenbach is a 2nd year student with a major in artificial intelligence and decision making (Course 6-4)

Olivia Honeycutt is a senior with a double major in computation and cognition (Course 6-9) and linguistics (Course 24-2)

John Zhang is a graduate student in mechanical engineering

About Radius

Radius partners with students, staff, faculty, and community members who desire to engage effectively in making the world a better place. Our programming sparks lively intellectual conversations, with the commitment go deeper than merely the exchange of ideas. We strive to inspire people to look at the world in a new way, to consider the deeper ethical implications of their actions, and take action to promote justice, dignity and peace.
