Comments from Former Fellows (2006-2007)

Fellows, together with their Mentors:

Nisha Botchwey, Urban & Environmental Planning (Architecture)
Lisa Reilly, Architectural History
Irina Mitrea, Mathematics
Milton Adams, Biomedical Engineering
John Nemec, Religious Studies
John O’Brien, English
Todd Scanlon, Environmental Sciences
Dean Harman, Chemistry
Bethany Teachman, Psychology
Debbie Roach, Biology
Fernando Tejedo-Herrero, Spanish, Italian & Portuguese
Ellen Contini-Morava, Anthropology

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
Value of feedback
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:

The visits to my mentor and Fellow teaching partner were excellent occasions to witness effective teaching styles, different than my own. In turn, their visits to my class made me think more deeply about motivating the material that I was teaching and about effectively communicating the essence of what I am doing in terms of teaching and research to someone coming from a different discipline.

The program confirmed my thoughts about teaching in that it reaffirmed the importance of allowing students to approach materials from their own points of view, and in their own ways.  I think the UTF offered good nuts-and-bolts—which is to say practical—suggestions for engaging the students in active learning, so that they may be asked actively to engage the materials not merely in the way the instructor would prefer, but in their own ways and from their respective points of view.     

One of the particularly nice things about the Fellowship’s effect on my teaching is that I am feeling very enthusiastic to get into the classroom and try out some of the ideas and techniques I’ve learned. I think I will be a better teacher because of how it has energized my teaching and made me aware of many of the behaviors I was doing without questioning their effectiveness.  I also have a number of ideas for how the course I have developed over the past year can help to integrate my research and teaching, so I think this will be an exciting development in the coming years.

Participating in the University Teaching Fellowship Program has reinforced and changed a number of aspects related to my teaching. It has confirmed the importance of active student participation to promote a higher quality of learning. Participating in the program has not only reinforced this part of my teaching, but it has also provided me with strategies and techniques to implement it more effectively, for example, how to involve students who may be unwilling to participate in class discussion.

Interdisciplinary discussions:

One of the best aspects about participating in the UTF program this past year was getting to meet other junior faculty members from around Grounds. Academic life at the University is extremely department-oriented, and therefore getting to know others who are faced with similar responsibilities and challenges was a big benefit of the Program.

The chance to connect with junior professors from other disciplines outside mine was really useful.  It highlighted some of the assumptions or biases that guide my teaching (and thinking in general), and was also very nice from a social perspective.  I have a much greater feeling of being part of the University now, rather than solely part of my Department.

One of the most positive aspects of participating in the program has been exchanging teaching experiences with other fellows and mentors from a broad range of schools and colleges at U.Va. Very often we would find ourselves discussing common challenges, and offering possible approaches to grapple with situations such as active student participation, assessment, and testing concerns, or teaching a diverse student body. Participating in those conversations with Fellows and Mentors has allowed me to gain a better understanding of my teaching, and a wider perspective of teaching at U.Va.

Intellectual community:

I have no doubt that my involvement with the other Fellows, and with the various teachers and members of the TRC, had a real impact on my understanding of the larger University community, on the way it operates and must operate, and on my place within it.

One aspect of the program that was most appreciated was the opportunity to meet young faculty from other departments and to develop new friendships.  I will always cherish that.

Workshops and the retreat:

The retreat provided a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the University at large in a relaxed, informal setting, by interacting with people working in other disciplines and to share personal experiences and make new friends.

Judith Regan’s program on public speaking engendered confidence by reassuring one of the existence of a truly performative element of academic life (in particular the presentation of the conference paper.) 

It was also quite informative to meet the Provost for two hours.  It was very generous of the Provost to offer that amount of time to us, and I learned quite a bit about the University and the way it functions (particularly in regard to the distribution of endowment funds).

The retreat format was really well-devised and we accomplished a lot right from the start in terms of becoming familiar with teaching issues faced by everyone in the group. Having this away from Grounds made it easier to get to get to know the other Fellows, which I think is important for maintaining the cohesiveness of the group throughout the year.            

A number of workshops either helped me strengthen some of my teaching practices, or added something new to them:

• Dennis Proffitt’s “Teaching Small Seminars:  Making it Informative, Interactive, and Fun for Both the Students and You” gave me great advice on making students more actively involved in presenting and listening to oral presentations.

• “Connecting Research And Teaching,” a panel discussion with Timothy Beatley, Deborah Roach, and Timothy Wilson, reinforced the idea that bringing research into the classroom may come in different ways, not just in a final project format. Problem-solving exercises, leading discussions, or condensing a reading to one short paragraph are some of the activities in which research skills can be practiced inside the classroom. I brought elements of my current research as part of those activities and, as students engaged in discussion and offered their views on the issue at hand, I gained new ways of looking at my own research.

Value of Mentors:

My Mentor created a private space for me to address teaching and other university issues.  Her experience as a department chair gave her wonderful insights into the politics of teaching and living the life of a tenure-track assistant professor.

To me, the mentor/protégé relationship was the most significant part of the program. My Mentor generously shared with me his expert advice regarding teaching and research issues. This was a tremendous opportunity for me to learn things fast and my interactions with him dramatically accelerated the process of making a teaching or outreach idea a reality. He took an interest and actively supported all my initiatives.

My Mentor did an excellent job of providing me with concrete feedback and suggestions for teaching, but also served as a great resource as a senior woman scientist with whom I could discuss more general issues related to academia.  I have little doubt that we will continue to see one another after the fellowship ends, and I believe developing this relationship has been one of the highlights of the program.

Teaching strategies and techniques learned:

One of the main things I have learned from the UTF Program is not to be afraid to try new teaching ideas in the classroom. I often tend to choose a teaching method or a strategy which I have experience with and which worked well. This year I have discovered that a well-thought new teaching strategy may get at least an equally good response from the students as an old one, thus allowing one to enlarge one’s teaching repertoire. Soon enough, a “new” technique that I tried several times became as comfortable to me as an “old” one and it made me wonder how I could do without it before. It is this growing process as an educator that I gained from the UTF Program.

I have grown to understand the importance of active learning, and have brought this to the classroom by posing “thought” questions to the class that require synthesis of the material. This approach involves students interacting with one another and results in classroom interaction and discussion in a less imposing environment. This method also creates a great opportunity to connect the theoretical material in the class to current topics or “real world” examples.

The introduction to the Classroom Assessment Techniques book provided me with valuable strategies. I have regularly implemented activities such as the “one-sentence summary,” the “one-minute paper,” or a version of the “writing a prospectus” assignment.

I have changed my overall approach to course design. Rather than attempting to structure a course according to a preset group of readings (along with a string of concepts, theories, and approaches to the topic at hand), now I think of specific course goals around a small number of topics or themes as my first step. Then I look for the best readings and activities that will help me attain those goals throughout the semester. This approach has resulted in a more conducive learning atmosphere at a comfortable—yet equally demanding—pace.

Value of feedback:

I was blown away, by my mentor’s critique of my teaching. His assessment was supportive, yet filled with tips for improvement, many of which never would have occurred to me. I remember reading through his summary and feeling encouraged about my abilities as a teacher, in complete agreement with those things he mentioned needing improvement, and motivated to put to work his advice for how I could modify my teaching style.

Overview of the program:

The UTF Program helped me confirm and grow more confident about the core ideas of my teaching philosophy, and I feel that I am a more experienced educator. I have learned and been exposed in the UTF workshops to new teaching methods and assessment techniques, and each UTF activity gave me something concrete to bring in the classroom next day. It is this kind of usefulness that made the Program effective and inspiring for me.
           
I have really enjoyed the Teaching Fellowship, and benefited a lot from the opportunity to learn so many new approaches from not only my mentor, Marva and others at the TRC, but also from the other Fellows.  It was very useful to be challenged to explain why I was testing or lecturing in a certain way.  This process allowed me to recognize some of my less effective teaching behaviors that I had not realized I was doing, and to also become more aware of the assumptions guiding my teaching approach that I had never bothered to question before.

I look forward to working with the TRC in the future as I view developing my teaching skills as an ongoing iterative process.

Thanks to this program I have developed a new perspective of teaching, a framework I will be able to apply when I design courses in years to come.