Teaching Effectiveness Seminar

Autumn 2006

Coordinators:	Nola-Jean Bamberry	Tara Ceranic
Office:	Lewis 317	Lewis 407
Telephone:	685-9608	616-2115
Email:	bamberry@u.washington.edu	tceranic@u.washington.edu

Meetings: Fridays, 8:30-10:20, Balmer Hall 417

Click Here For Word Version of Seminar Schedule

Click Here For Word Version of Syllabus

This is perhaps the simplest, yet the most profound, truth of all.  The fundamental reason for teaching is to help someone learn something.  Anything you do that contributes to this purpose is skillful teaching, no matter how much it may depart from your traditional expectations about how teachers are supposed to behave.  Anything you do that inhibits learning, no matter how much it exemplifies traditional expectations, should be diminished or stopped.  You have to make a judgment concerning what is realistic in this regard.  For example, even if you feel that examinations inhibit learning, you generally can’t avoid giving them.  But when you reflect on your skill as a teacher, there is only one fundamental question you need to ask:  Are my actions helping students learn?

                                                Stephen D. Brookfield
The Skillful Teacher

The teaching effectiveness seminar has two primary goals. The first is to help you prepare for your teaching assignments. The second is to introduce strategies for continuing to develop as a teacher.  Presenters will offer you numerous practical tips on different teaching approaches and classroom management.  A collection of readings with more tips will complement our sessions and should be a “how-to” reference for you in the future.  We will also introduce you to Business School and campus-wide resources that you will use in teaching.

Two central themes are establishing learning objectives and using “active learning.”  We will use these ideas in various ways because they should be constant companions in your course planning.

Objectives

At the end of this quarter, you should have a syllabus for your first teaching assignment.  Some people in the seminar will begin teaching directly after the seminar, and some will begin later on.  Even if you aren’t teaching winter quarter, you will find that you need the syllabus sooner than it seems during this first quarter.  Base this syllabus on samples you collect, classes you observe, and the strategies we discuss in the seminar.
The learning objectives for our seminar are that you will be able to –

• determine learning objectives and link class session activities to those objectives.
• employ a range of skills that support teaching (developing writing assignments, grading, creating exams, etc.).
• set norms and expectations for a class.
• employ teaching methods suited to your subject matter and goals, for example, lectures, group discussions, exercises, writing assignments, and group projects.
• anticipate and respond to difficult situations that arise in the classroom.
• improve your ability to present in the classroom and in seminars.
• evaluate and develop your teaching ability, considering student learning and student feedback.

One quarter is an INTRODUCTION to these skills.  Depending on the background you bring, most likely you will finish the quarter feeling like you are just beginning to experiment.  To follow up on the seminar, we will have periodic teaching workshops you can attend to refresh your memory of our discussions, extend them, and learn about new areas.

Seminar Description

The seminar meets nine times Fridays; our final session is the last class day.
In the big picture, we follow a plan of establishing the basics for designing a class and then exploring a variety of teaching methods.  Several “how-to’s” are woven throughout, and we wrap up with information you need to start a quarter well along with further teaching resources.

The typical day includes one or more presentations by a group of class members and a guest presentation by one of the Business School’s very successful faculty members.  One student presentation will usually be a lesson on a topic connected to the day’s theme.  This serves several purposes.  You get practice as part of a group designing a lesson that has clear learning objectives and engages the listeners with some form of active learning.  The other class members benefit by learning what you have to teach that day.  You will be an important part of constructing the seminar content.  Finally, this is simply a chance to practice teaching a supportive class of “students” before an actual teaching assignment.

Students from past years have said the seminar should include as much presentation practice as possible, so we have also included short group presentations.  Think of this as a short talk you might give in a seminar setting.  Please have everyone in your group participate so everyone gets some practice that day speaking to an audience.

Our faculty guest speakers will share their tips on particular areas, for example, giving a good lecture.  As they lead sessions, you will also have a chance to see what they do to be award winning teachers.  We will hear from faculty with different personalities and approaches so you can consider what style seems natural for you.  In addition to the faculty, a few of the experienced TAs will share their advice on getting started.
When you are not presenting, please be ready to participate in the lessons other people are teaching or short discussions.  To help each day’s presenters, you will also give brief written feedback on strengths and areas to improve.

Requirements and Other Notes

Attendance: If you have a schedule conflict with one of the seminar sessions, please check in advance with Nola-Jean or Tara. Attending the seminar is part of your RA or TA appointment for Autumn Quarter.

Course Observation:  One of your first assignments is to start observing an experienced instructor teaching the course or quiz section that you will be assigned to in the future.  See what you can learn about the students and the instructor’s approach.  Ask yourself, “What are the most effective things the instructor does?”  We have attached an observation sheet as a guide.

Readings:  Short, online articles are assigned for each seminar meeting.  We will discuss them briefly during our meetings, but you will get the most benefit from these if you keep them as a reference collection for questions that will arise later.  Printing the articles and keeping them in a notebook or folder is an excellent choice since URLs rapidly become outdated.

Teaching Practice and Presentations:  We will give groups topics and supporting materials, along with some guidelines.  In addition to your practice speaking to a group, these form an important part of the seminar.  Peer teaching has been shown to be a very effective method for learning, so we are using this approach to some of the seminar content, as well as bringing in a variety of experienced instructors.  We are happy to meet with you to help as you are creating your lesson or presentation.

Syllabus:  We are asking you to start the quarter by collecting sample syllabi for the class you will be assigned in the future.  Even a quiz section should have a syllabus.  Over the course of the quarter, combine your observations of the class, your review of sample materials, and ideas from the seminar to draft your own syllabus by the end of the quarter.  Also hand in a paragraph explaining how you will try to incorporate active learning in the course.  We will read this note, look at the learning objectives your have chosen, and send an email to the class with excerpts and some comments.  Remember that many of the model syllabi you collect may have poorly defined learning objectives.

Microteaching:  These short, videotaped teaching sessions give you the opportunity to view yourself from the perspective of students. Videotaping may not sound like an attractive way to spend a seminar session, but people come away from this session saying it was extremely useful.  People often comment on its effectiveness two or three quarters later.

SGID:  Mid-Autumn Quarter, we will do a Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) for the seminar. This form of mid-quarter assessment is designed to give an instructor feedback about a course before the quarter ends so the instructor knows what's going well and what could be improved. A consultant from the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) will conduct the SGID. If you are teaching winter quarter, please contact our consultant at the end of fall to schedule an SGID for winter.