Faculty
The Teaching and Learning Initiative provides various forums within which faculty members can engage in dialogue about classroom practice. Each opportunity is listed below as a question.
Do you want to...
- Develop, re-examine, or replace a course with input of students and staff?
- Revise an existing course using and/or integrating technology?
- Work with a member of IT on ways of using digital images in teaching?
Apply for a Stipend to Support the Opportunity to Participate in a Faculty Seminar Focused on Exploring Pedagogical Issues
Current Bryn Mawr and Haverford faculty members who wish to spend focused, supported time talking about their pedagogical approaches, reading short articles and book chapters focused on relevant topics, and writing informally (and, if interested, for publication in pedagogical journals in their disciplines) are invited to apply for stipends ($5,000 each) to support this work and to join a Faculty Seminar. The seminar meets once per week and includes weekly posts to a closed blog, work with a Student Consultant (who visits your class each week, takes detailed observation notes focused on pedagogical issues you identify, and then meets with you weekly to discuss what is happening in your class), and discussion based on the weekly posts and classroom visits. The Mellon grant supports 8 stipends per year.
Incoming, tenure-track faculty members are invited to participate in the New Faculty Seminar. The seminar meets once per week and includes weekly posts to a closed blog, work with a Student Consultant (who visits your class each week, takes detailed observation notes focused on pedagogical issues you identify, and then meets with you weekly to discuss what is happening in your class), and discussion based on the weekly posts and classroom visits facilitated by the Coordinator of the TLI. The Provosts’ Offices of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges offer this opportunity and a course release in the first semester that faculty members join the bi-college community.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Comments from participants
"Our forum for discussing pedagogy has been a real asset for me this semester and has forced me think more critically about the classroom and my role in it. Hearing about other members’ experiences also has helped me feel part of a larger group and has given me a wide a range of strategies and ideas." (New Faculty Member, Haverford College)
"The seminar has provided a vehicle for self-reflection and learning on the kind of pedagogy that works for me and my students. However, I feel I’ve gained the most from working with peers who also desire to talk about teaching, and feel their role as teacher is an integral part of their identity. While I didn’t expect this latter part, I’ve been very pleased with the peer-exchange in our group." (New Faculty Member, Bryn Mawr College)
"The seminar has been more than I expected. It has provided me with a valuable opportunity both to reflect on my own experiences and share ideas with my colleagues. Writing weekly memos has been particularly helpful for self-reflection, and so has integrating memos into our discussions." (Fourth-year Faculty Member, Bryn Mawr College)
"The most telling moment for me has been the discovery that although I’d been thinking my pedagogy was discussion-based … and open-ended, in fact I went into most of my classes with an agenda — my agenda — for the entire class, so I was always more in control than I ever let the students be. So this has been an important discovery and has led to crucial adjustments in my pedagogy…. I find my role as facilitator of discussion is far more engaging and effective than my role as opening lecturer, followed by questioner and leader of discussion. I thought I was facilitating discussion effectively in my previous approach to teaching. Now I feel I’m doing it far more honestly and effectively." (Experienced Faculty Member, Haverford College)
Inviting Students to Serve as Consultant in the Classroom
Students are careful observers and, when invited to share their perspectives on teaching and learning, can offer insights on pedagogical approaches and other classroom issues. In response to faculty interest and a growing body of research that argues for the benefits of eliciting and responding to students' perspectives — benefits to teachers and to students — we have created Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT). Through this project, students assume the role of consultant, visit faculty members’ classes, and share their perspectives.
Student Consultants who work with faculty members in the Faculty Seminar visit the faculty member’s class once per week, take detailed observation notes, meet with him or her weekly to share feedback, conduct midcourse feedback [if s/he wishes], visit the Faculty Seminar every two or three weeks (schedule permitting), and meet weekly with all Student Consultants and the Coordinator of the TLI. Students earn $900, working approximately seven hours per week.
A limited number of Student Consultants are available to work with interested faculty members outside of the Faculty Seminar. Students earn a stipend of $250 to work with faculty members for approximately 27 hours at focused moments (beginning, middle, and late in the semester, for instance, when you begin the course, to assess how it is going at the midpoint, and to assess what has been accomplished over the semester; or 1/3 of the way through the course and then 2/3 through). The focus of the work with the Student Consultant is determined by each individual faculty member. Four Student Consultants are available in the Fall-2008 semester and four are available in the Spring-2009 semester.
Comments from Participants
Faculty Perspectives
"There is often a disconnect between what I do and what students see. This experience reinforced two things for me: one is that expectations for students have to be made clear and continually reiterated throughout the class; and the other one is to take the student perspective on what I am doing."
"The student successfully identified things that really did need to be improved upon, suggested ways in which they might be improved, and the next time I had a class it was better. Correlation isn’t causation, but it’s evidence. The students take it seriously and they put thought into it and I find it valuable."
"If there were anything happening in the classroom that I might have missed, it would have come out through this experience. I don’t think there is any other mechanism for that. I would always worry. I would always be wondering, “How is this being received by students?” I feel like this was really good, I can be confident that I know how it’s being received by students. I don’t think I could get that confidence by handing out midterm evaluations or having people do them on line."
"I would definitely do it again. I thought it was really great. It wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t take that much time. It took an extra hour and half, and for what I got out of it, unit pricing was quite high. It doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment. A more involved thing would have given me something different, but even the minimal involvement is so worth the small amount of time you need to invest."
Student Perspectives
"Students are gaining respect for their professors because they are doing this. All three faculty members [I worked with] inspired me with their desire to improve as teachers and their ability to step back and “see” themselves and their practice with the assistance of my notes and the students’ interview notes."
"One of the biggest things I learned is that you can never ever please everyone. Methods that I might dismiss as being baby teaching, like group work, are actually really helpful for some students and I shouldn’t dismiss them. And you know, there are other things that I benefit from that are probably stupid to other people."
"It was so cool to be in a collaborative relationship for the time that I was working with the faculty members. You know, we would talk about the teaching as if we were kind of doing it together almost. It was like, we’re going to work together to make a plan for how to make this class better. It happened with all the faculty members I observed. So I think students often want to be in that role, and sometimes it happens in these magical moments with certain faculty members, but to have a structure that supports and encourages that is really exciting."
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Using Input of Students and Staff to Develop and Re-examine Courses
As fields of study and students’ interests evolve and, in particular, become more interdisciplinary, it is essential to re-imagine individual courses as well as overall departmental offerings. To support either individual or departmental revisions of courses and course offerings, the Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative will work with individual faculty members and/or departments to undertake revisions of courses and departmental listings. Where desirable and appropriate, the Coordinator will put together a team that includes students and staff members from Information Services to help you design courses and create a set of programmatic offerings that are current, meet your needs, and will be likely to succeed in the classroom. As we found with the "Talking Toward Techno-Pedagogy" workshops we facilitated at Bryn Mawr in 1999-2001, students and staff play key roles in helping faculty design effective and engaging courses.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Revising Courses Using Technology
Talking toward Techno-Pedagogy. We can convene a team consisting of a member of the library staff in your division, a member of IT, and a student in your discipline to support you as you revise your course to integrate technology in a pedagogically appropriate way. This approach builds on the model of techno-pedagogy that informed workshops offered at Bryn Mawr College in the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001 and supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Website: Talking toward Techno-Pedagogy
1. Course Reconceptualization During the Semester
Faculty members are invited to work with a team consisting of a Student Consultant (a student experienced in classroom observation and in talking with faculty members about pedagogical issues) and an ETC Assistant (a studetn with technology skills) with support from the Senior Instructional Technologist. The two students attend the faculty member’s course during the semester and focus on how to integrate technology in ways that are pedagogically appropriate — that allow students to engage in more various ways through different media with the faculty member, course content, and one another. The faculty member will have weekly (or bi-weekly) meetings with the students and meetings on an as-needed basis with the Senior Instructional Technologist. The Student Consultants attend weekly reflective meeting with the Coordinator of the TLI and other Student Consultants.
Faculty members have the option of continuing their work in the summer with the support from both the Student Consultant from the TLI and the ETC Assistant (for instance, to develop updated forms of various media for the redesigned course)
2. Course Design or Reconceptualization During the Summer
Faculty members are invited to work with a team consisting of a Student Consultant (a student experienced in classroom observation and in talking with faculty members about pedagogical issues) and an ETC Assistant (a student with technology skills) with support from the Senior Instructional Technologist.
The Coordinator of the TLI and the Senior Instructional Technologist introduce the parameters, resources, and expectations in one or more initial meetings with faculty members in mid-July. Then, the two students will work with several faculty members for a month, mid-July to mid-August (this time frame is open to negotiation), during which they co-design and/or reconceptualize the faculty members’ courses to integrate technology in ways that are pedagogically appropriate — that allow students to engage in more various ways through different media with the faculty member, course content, and one another. The faculty member will work regularly with the students and other faculty members participating in the summer seminar and have meetings on an as-needed basis with the Senior Instructional Technologist.
Faculty members have the option of continuing their work in the fall semester with the support from both the Student Consultant from the TLI and the ETC Assistant.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather or Laura Blankenship
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu or lblanken@brynmawr.edu
Using Digital Images in Teaching
If you want to address questions such as: How do I manage my personal digital image collection? How do I structure meta data? (And indeed, what is meta data?) and How do I transition from analog to digital teaching in the classroom?, then contact the individual listed below.
Contact Name: Nicole Finzer
Contact Email: nfinzer@brynmawr.edu
Visiting Faculty For Teaching and Learning
One of the primary goals of the Teaching and Learning Initiative is to make connections among faculty members interested in developing aspects of their pedagogy. Since the fall of 2006, the Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative has been meeting with individual faculty members to learn about their particular interests in visiting one another's classes and engaging in dialogue about what works and what could be improved in our classrooms. The Coordinator can arrange the following opportunities for interested faculty:
- Invite fellow faculty members to observe your class and see how you approach, lecturing, leading discussions, designing engaging activities or labs, etc.
- Invite fellow faculty members and/or the Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative to observe one or more of your classes and talk with you afterwards about their reactions to the class in general or to particular features of the class you identify.
- Visit fellow faculty members' classes with the primary goal of observing strong teaching skills modeled.
- Visit fellow faculty members' classes and talk with them about what you observe and recommend.
- Participate in a reciprocal class visitation (in which you observe a faculty member's class and s/he observes you in return).
Important: Observations are for learning purposes and in no way formally evaluative (i.e., they will not be used for review, promotion, etc. unless the observed faculty members choose to include them in their dossiers). Observers' perspectives on faculty members' teaching should remain strictly confidential unless the faculty member being observed wishes to share with others what he or she learns through the process. The Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative will request a follow-up meeting with all participating faculty, at which time she will ask a series of questions intended to document and assess the experience. Participants' responses to these questions will also be kept confidential; the Coordinator will ask permission to use any of the responses outside of the immediate context of the meeting
Comments from Participants
"[The conversation with my colleague] made sharper for me challenge of balancing providing framework and letting the students talk [in class discussions]. It made much more vivid for me what the difficulties are in achieving that balance." (Faculty member observed by a colleague)
"I realized watching [my colleague] that the students were letting her do all the work [in class discussion]—posing the discussion questions. Then I gave the discussion questions to students [in my class] and had them lead the discussion. It never would have occurred to me if I hadn’t observed [my colleague] working so hard." (Faculty member observed by a colleague)
"As with any human activity you [as the observer] learn as much as the observed faculty member learns from discussing your observations. It is also reassuring to know that we are all in this together, and it makes teaching feel less lonely and lonesome." (Faculty member who observed another faculty member's class)
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Revising Teaching Based on Student Feedback
It is essential to have opportunities to reflect on, analyze, and consider ways of responding to student feedback received on evaluations. Don’t wait until you are up for review or promotion! If you would like the opportunity to discuss your teaching evaluations with an experienced teacher or with a group of experienced colleagues, we can arrange for individual, confidential conversations or group discussions.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
"Participating in the TLI gave me a sense of students being able and wanting to take certain pedagogical responsibility, and the counter of that is me taking a learning responsibility."
— Faculty Member
"You can either be isolated and safe or you can be vulnerable and connected."
— Faculty Member
"The sense of community in the faculty seminar is extraordinary, and the work that I’ve been doing in and in relation to it has been generative not only for my work in the classroom and with students, but for my own scholarship, in ongoing departmental conversations about revisions to our major, in my work coordinating a concentration."
— Faculty Member
"Instead of keeping teaching such a private activity, I wonder if we can combine our efforts, rather than each of us toiling alone to prepare individual courses. Not a collective activity but a more communal activity."
— Faculty Member
"[Working with a student consultant] gave me a sense of students being able and wanting to take certain pedagogical responsibility, and the counter of that is me taking a learning responsibility."
— Faculty Member