Karl
A. Smith is Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Civil
and Mineral Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
Karl’s principal research area is the role of collaboration
and cooperation in learning and design. Karl’s appointment
is currently split between the University of Minnesota and
Michigan State University where he works with faculty in the
Lilly Teaching Fellows Program, the College of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, the College of Natural Science and
the College of Engineering. He has served as
Co-Coordinator for the Bush Faculty Development Program for
Excellence and Diversity in Teaching, and Associate Director
for Education at the Center for Interfacial Engineering at
the University of Minnesota; as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Collaboration for the Advancement of
College Teaching and Learning; and as Chair of the
Educational Research and Methods Division of the American
Society for Engineering Education. Karl was elected a Fellow
of the American Society for Engineering Education in 1998.
He has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Metallurgical
Engineering from Michigan Technological University and a
Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of
Minnesota.
Karl teaches courses on building models to solve problems;
civil engineering systems--decision engineering, network
analysis, linear programming, simulation, and expert
systems--and project management and leadership. He conducts
workshops on active and cooperative learning, problem
formulation and modeling, project management and teamwork,
and building small expert systems.
Karl has published numerous articles on the active learning
strategies of cooperative learning and structured
controversy, knowledge representation and expert systems,
and instructional uses of personal computers. He has
written seven books including How to model it: Problem
solving for the computer age (with A.M. Starfield and
A.L. Bleloch), published by Burgess International in 1994;
Active learning: Cooperation in the college classroom
(with David and Roger Johnson), published by Interaction
Book Company in 1991; Cooperative learning: Increasing
college faculty instructional productivity (with David
and Roger Johnson), published by ASHE-ERIC Reports on
Higher Education in 1991; New
paradigms for college teaching (co-edited with William
Campbell), published by Interaction Book Company in 1997;
Academic controversy: Enriching college instruction with
constructive controversy, (with David and Roger
Johnson), published by ASHE-ERIC Reports on Higher
Education in 1997; Project
management and teamwork published in McGraw-Hill’s BEST
Series in 2000; and Strategies for energizing large
classes: From small groups to learning communities
(with James Cooper and Jean MacGregor) published in Jossey-Bass’s
New Direction for Teaching and Learning
series in 2000.
Selected Publications
Johnson, D.W., R.T. Johnson and K.A. Smith.
“Constructive Controversy: The Power of Intellectual
Conflict.” Change 32, no.1 (2000): 28-37.
Johnson, D.W., R.T. Johnson and K.A. Smith. Active
Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, 2nd
Ed. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company, 1998.
Johnson, D.W., R.T. Johnson and K.A. Smith. “Cooperative
Learning Returns to College: What Evidence Is There That It
Works?” Change 30, no. 4 (1998): 26-35.
Johnson, D.W., R.T. Johnson and K.A. Smith. “Maximizing
Instruction Through Cooperative Learning.” ASEE Prism
7, no. 6 (1998): 24-29.
Campbell, W.E. and K.A. Smith, Eds. New Paradigms for
College Teaching. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company,
1997.
Johnson, D.W., R.T. Johnson and K.A. Smith. “Academic
Controversy: Enriching College Instruction with Constructive
Controversy.” Higher Education Report 25 ASHE-ERIC.
Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, 1997.
Recommended Books on Teaching
and Teaming
Astin, A. W. What
Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993 .
Bennis,
Warren and Patricia Ward Biederman. Organizing Genius:
The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1997 .
Bransford,
John D., Ann L. Brown and Rodney R. Cocking, eds. How
People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000 .
Brown,John
Seely and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000 .
Christensen, C.R., D. A. Garvin, and A. Sweet, eds.
Education for Judgment: The Artistry of Discussion
Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1991 .
Kohl,
Herbert. The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of
Teaching. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1998 .
McKeachie,
Wilbert J. Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory
for College and University Teachers. 9th ed. Lexington, MA:
D.C. Heath, 1994 .
Palmer,
Parker. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape
of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998 .
Schrage, Michael. Shared Minds: The New Technologies of
Collaboration. New York: Random House, 1990 .
Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design.
Alexandria,
VA: ASCD, 1998.
