Transcript Mentoring and Teaching Pat Rogers, Associate Vice President: Teaching and Learning Wilfrid Laurier University Annual Academic Administrators Workshop Balsillie School of International Affairs August 19,

Mentoring and Teaching
Pat Rogers, Associate Vice President: Teaching and Learning
Wilfrid Laurier University
Annual Academic Administrators Workshop
Balsillie School of International Affairs
August 19, 2013
AGENDA
 Role of the chair in encouraging teaching improvement
 Getting started
 Characteristics of good educational practice
 Formative versus summative evaluation
 Teaching improvement options
 What if it all goes wrong?
ROLE OF CHAIR
 Assume leadership for creating a climate that values teaching
 Communicate high expectations for teaching
 Make teaching community property - encourage discussion about
teaching
 Lead the development of and implement a plan for supporting new
colleagues
SETTING THE TONE
 Begin with a conversation among colleagues
 Develop program learning outcomes
 Discuss values and teaching mission, based on student learning
outcomes
 Develop criteria and standards for evaluating teaching performance,
tied to values and mission
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD PRACTICE
 Encourages contact between students and faculty
 Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students
 Encourages active learning
 Gives prompt feedback
 Emphasizes time on task
 Communicates high expectations
 Respects diverse talents and ways of learning
Chickering and Gamson, 1987
QUALITY DIMENSIONS OF HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES

Performance expectations set at appropriately high levels

Significant investment of time and effort by students over an extended
period of time

Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters

Experiences with diversity

Frequent, timely and constructive feedback

Periodic structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning

Opportunities to discover relevance of learning through real-world
applications

Public demonstration of competence
Kuh and O’Donnell, 2013
CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM
PRACTICE
 Preparation and organization
 Content knowledge
 Clarity
 Rapport with students
 Enthusiasm
 Student engagement
Chism, 1999
FORMATIVE VERSUS SUMMATIVE EVALUATION
 Evaluation for summative purposes focuses on information
needed to make personnel decisions (merit, tenure,
promotion, sabbatical)
 Evaluation for formative purposes is designed to help faculty
improve their teaching
FORMATIVE VERSUS SUMMATIVE (CONT.)
 Those who provide formative feedback should not also be summative
evaluators (Centra, 1993a)
 For summative evaluation of teaching to be fair and reliable, data
needs to be gathered:
 from multiple sources (ex. students, peers, self, teaching
contributions beyond the classroom)
 by multiple methods (ex. teaching dossiers, review of course
materials, letters of evaluation, course evaluations, in-class
review,)
 at multiple points in time (ongoing formative feedback and
scheduled summative feedback) (Chism, 1999).
TEACHING IMPROVEMENT- SELF
 Classroom assessment (Angelo, 1993)
 Course buddies
 Student focus groups
 Video-tape teaching/micro-teaching
TEACHING IMPROVEMENT - OTHERS
 Observe a colleague
 Review student ratings/course material with a colleague
 Peer-pairing arrangement with a trusted colleague in the same or
other discipline
 Teaching squares (see EDEV website)
 Consultation with a TSS professional
 Join a learning community
 Course design institute
VALUE OF PEERS AS MENTORS
 Act as a sounding board, help find direction, give insight, provide
constructive specific formative feedback, foster success
 Open to different ideas (don’t know it all)
 Subject matter expertise
 Pedagogical strategies specific to the discipline