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