Comments from Former Fellows (2005-2006)

Fellows, together with their Mentors:

Alev Erisir, Psychology
Debbie Roach, Biology
Ellen V. Fuller, East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Studies in Women & Gender
Michael Kubovy, Psychology
Nilanga Liyanage, Physics
Bobby Weikle, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Christian W. McMillen, History
David Waldner, Politics
Margarita Nafpaktitis, Slavic Languages & Literatures
Franny Nudelman, English
Hyekyun Rhee, Nursing
Donna Plasket, Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program
Dorothy A. Schafer, Biology
Dennis Proffitt, Psychology

Each paragraph indicates a comments from an individual Fellow. Comments are organized into the following categories:

Reflections on teaching
Interdisciplinary discussions
Intellectual community
Workshops and the retreat
Value of Mentors
Teaching strategies and techniques learned
Overview of the program

NB: Fellows were told that we expect to learn the following information from their reports:

• how you changed or confirmed your teaching approach, philosophy, methods, strategies
• what impact the mentor/protégé relationship had on you
• what workshops or aspects of the program you found most effective
• anything else you gained from participation in the program
• your suggestions for improving the program in the future
• your plans for continued engagement with your teaching

Reflections on teaching:

This UTF year has turned my ideas about teaching upside down! I entered the program with some trepidation because in the past, teaching was something I “got through” somehow. My desire to be an effective instructor was strong, but I had few clearly defined goals for my students, let alone any good notions about how to enable students to achieve them. The “new” perspectives I discovered during the UTF year about our roles in the classroom are not particularly surprising to the many excellent teachers on the UVA faculty. However, for me, the UTF year was invaluable for uncovering a few “seed” ideas about our responsibilities as instructors. Along with the supportive environment for further exploration provided by other fellows, TRC staff, mentors, workshop speakers and fellow faculty who attended these events, these seeds were nurtured and will hopefully lead to several great harvests in the future.

Interdisciplinary discussions:

The retreat allowed the Fellows to get to know one another. This was valuable to me because I often find that random discussions of teaching on grounds degenerate into complaint sessions. As a group of fellows who were “given license” to care abut teaching in more constructive ways, our discussions were far more productive. It also was useful to compare notes with those teaching in very different disciplines—though I am not a scientist, I considered what and how the scientists were teaching in the classroom, and these comparisons strengthened my own sense of how best to manage the social sciences classroom.

Intellectual community:

I appreciate the chance for conversations about teaching at the informal dinner chats with speakers, fellow colleagues and TRC staff . . . . Since we are so often sheltered in our labs or offices, I also appreciate having the opportunity to get to know others at UVA a bit better.

Workshops and the retreat:

Retreat: It was great for getting to know other Fellows, the program, what to expect from the fellowship, and what the fellowship expects from Fellows. I did not realize then how much you relied on those two days for organizing the rest of the year for us, figuring out what we may need, even the things we were not aware of!  Great organizing.
           
I think the most effective part of the fellowship year for me was the retreat. I really enjoyed the discussions, activities and  the company of a group of very nice like-minded people coming from very different areas of expertise.
                       
I learned a tremendous amount from the Teaching Analysis Poll and likely would never have done it had I not been a UTF.  It, like my comments regarding my mentor, let me know that I needed to be more user-friendly in guiding the students through some of the material.  But it also had an unintended effect: several students were impressed that I was interested in improving my teaching.  It seemed that when they learned that I actually cared about them, and how they learn, we connected in some intangible way.
           
Having the chance to ply the Provost and Vice Provost with questions for an hour was something I never would have been able to do without the UTF program, and it was very enlightening (learning more about how things really work around grounds) and gratifying (that they were listening to us).
                       
Attending various workshops offered to UTF fellows in the past year was of a great value not only in obtaining new information but also in being inspired. Some workshops were more effective in provoking thoughts about teaching at the conceptual level , while others were more effective in conveying practical strategies that can be readily utilized in improving classroom teaching.

I found the TRC workshops offered a surprising wealth of information that gave me a broader perspective about teaching.  . . . I definitely look forward to future TRC workshops.

Value of Mentors:

I am so grateful to you for suggesting my mentor. I cannot even describe how much I learned from her! She is a terrific person, and a wonderful mentor. After every time I met with her, I was amazed to notice how skillfully she guided me in evaluating past several weeks of my teaching or the stages of the fellowship. Thank you for the experience of having a real mentor!

I am very lucky to have had my mentor. Not only that he is a great teacher, he has many years of experience teaching highly technical and abstract subjects like the one I am teaching. Therefore, he has a very good idea about the problems  and issues encountered in teaching such subjects and had many very useful suggestions for me; I have adopted many of his suggestions in my classes and have found them very effective. He took the time to come to several of my classes and stayed  there for the whole lecture, and his observations of my teaching and  his comments were extremely useful to me. Most importantly, he observed that I was doing a good job of teaching this difficult abstract subject, and I was conveying the highly technical material in an easy to understand way. This gave me much confidence in my teaching and helped me relax more in the classes. This of course helped me teach better.
           
My mentor urged me to be explicit about lecture themes by simply stating at the beginning and the end where the materials from one day fit into the larger themes of that week or the coming weeks.  Making the connections explicit would help me and the students see where things were going and where they had been.  This is a strikingly simple insight (as many of the best are) but it took him coming to lectures, reading and critiquing my syllabus, and then listening to me explain my rationale for me to see how little thought I had previously given to such matters.

I have been profoundly inspired by my mentor in many aspects. At each session, we discussed a wide range of pedagogical issues—from dealing with individual students to the importance and legitimacy of diversity in academia. Encouragement and support from my mentor have enabled me to be more confident and competent as a teacher.

Teaching strategies and techniques learned:

These are a list of things I would have never thought of doing twelve months ago, and I blame UTF for them:

• I changed my exam style 3 times during the last year.
• I gave mid-semester evaluations.
• I practiced learning the names of all students in my class.
• I fixed my syllabi; finally I think they make sense.
• I used rubrics to grade my term papers.. I decided this would need a bit more work to be useful for me.
• During my yearly national research society meeting last year, first time ever, I walked over to the “Neuroscience Education” poster section, and I found the material presented there very interesting! I add teaching posters in my schedule routinely now.
• I heard myself asking questions like, “Well, how do you assess your teaching outcomes?”!         

I have always liked teaching. However, I think I worried about it too much, I was in the habit of spending too much time preparing for my lectures, then running out of time for my teaching and research activities and getting stressed out at the end. Given this, I found Robert Boice’s  advice on teaching extremely useful; especially Nihil Nimus (moderation) and starting early. Since reading Boice (and our discussion on his book at the retreat) I started having a more relaxed attitude towards teaching, I stopped trying to fit too much material into my lectures and start preparing for a lecture about a week early. Now I feel that I do a much better job teaching and have more time for my research.

Before my fellowship year, I had been skeptical about the idea that learning could be improved through learners’ participation (e.g., group discussion), especially when time and learners’ knowledge base and experiences are limited. Now I am very much convinced that learners’ active participation in the process of learning is indeed a key to the short- and long-term success of their education as they become more effective problem solvers by engaging in strategic thinking processes that they will need for the rest of their lives. I plan to modify my teaching methods such that student participation/involvement can be maximized through group sessions, student presentations, and peer evaluation etc.

Overview of the program:

This was the teaching education I’ve never had, and I knew I needed direly. I am more confident now about how I want to teach and how to do it. UTF made me proud that I am a teacher.
           
I can tell you without reservation that I plan to continue my engagement with teaching!  Another valuable thing that I have learned over the fellowship year is that teaching really does matter at this university.  I know that research is the main engine for tenure and I am fine with that, even welcoming of it, but placing importance on teaching is not mere rhetoric at UVa, and I feel more inspired to keep both aspects of my career going strong.
           
The UTF gave me confidence in my teaching. It also gave me the momentum and the opportunity I needed to make the changed I have been planning to make in my course. The students loved these changes; they were excited by the connections I made between abstract quantum mechanical concepts and real life research examples I introduced into the course; one of the best students in the class ended up joining my research group as an undergraduate research assistant. Above all, the very positive response by the students to all the changes in the course (my teaching style, techniques and course material) paved the way for an All-University Teaching  Award for me. I could not have asked more from my fellowship year.

In a very general sense, I gained from the program something I hoped I would: a sense, for the first time, that others were struggling with, and interesting in tackling, some of the challenges one faces in teaching.

Marva, there really aren’t words to thank you and Michael and everyone else involved in making this a much more meaningful year than it could ever have been without being part of the University Teaching Fellows Program. I’m so grateful!

In sum, students are the center of educational activities taking place in academia, and teaching is a supporting, transitory, yet powerful means in helping students attain and expand their most valuable life-long possession, education. Teaching is the key mediating factor between students’ learning potential and the actual attainment of high quality education. Therefore, the importance of promoting teachers’ quality and capacity to function as the key mediator cannot be overstated in the academic environment.  Coupled with individual teachers’ continual effort for improvement in teaching strategies, therefore, institutional support is essential in helping teachers be better prepared in guiding students to high-quality education. For this reason, I am grateful for the privilege that I have been offered to partake in the university’s such endeavor as the University Teaching Fellows Program.