Teaching+minutes+from+2_8

** Teaching **** Working Group ** ** February 8, 2009  **  ·  **  What do faculty do in teaching besides course delivery? **  ·  **  How do we help faculty to learn how to assess their own teaching? **  ·  **  How do “ “ “ “ connect their courses to the larger curriculum? **  ·  **  How do faculty develop curriculum that are coherent and engage students with the overall curricula (articulation). **  ·  **  How to help faculty to teach outside their content area? **  ·  **  Does teaching evaluation become a ‘default’ for assessing teaching quality? Students’ evaluation could be subjective—e.g. those who liked the faculty or got good grades may give high marks to the faculty. **
 * Faculty Development Committee **
 * Present: Kristi Alster; Arthur Eisenkraft; Oscar Gutierrez; Peter Langer; Alexia Pollack; Sascha Sheehan; Segi Stefanos (recorder) **
 * Alexia Pollack was selected to be a Coordinator of the Teaching Working Group. Ellie asked the group to do Step #1-mapping the universe of faculty development—review what exists and what is possible. It was agreed that individuals be selected to contact the colleges to inquire about their teaching and learning, advising—how evaluation occur, what expectations are considered, and what kind of assistance are rendered.  **
 * A discussion ensued about the meaning of teaching and learning and assessment. AFR and student evaluation are the most basic and common measure of teaching and learning, but there are inconsistencies. Faculty development in teaching and learning is focused on class teaching (delivery and strategies). Peer review also provides information of faculty effectiveness in teaching. CIT teaching and learning seminars for faculty are viewed as one way of evaluating faculty’s teaching. CIT model is effective in that it creates accountability, commitment to the group and safe environment. But, course release for CIT engagement requires resources. It was indicated that there are those who want to keep CIT the way it is, but there are other models that can be adopted as well. **
 * The following questions were raised: **
 * A discussion ensued on how to evaluate teaching. Although a review of learning outcomes and materials in the course are some of indicators of effective teaching, it was asserted that teaching is generally viewed as what faculty do, rather than what student are learning; the focus should be on student learning. Further discussion brought forth the following issues: **
 * ** What are the metric of success to evaluate teaching? **
 * ** How do we measure advising and the time spent doing independent study? **
 * ** How do we create an evaluative structure to reward good teaching ad systematize it? **
 * ** How can we support innovative teaching through technology? **
 * ** How do we incorporate electronic teaching portfolio—which is a place where you put all your class material. **
 * Resource: Peter Langer will send out material on evaluation of teaching from COVET (?) report. **
 * Alexia asked what the group wants to get accomplished before the next meeting and how many times to meet? **