Comments from Former Fellows (2007-2008)

Fellows, together with their Mentors:

Edward Botchwey, Biomedical Engineering
Michael Palmer, Teaching Resource Center (Chemistry)
Benton Calhoun, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Dana Elzey, Materials Science & Engineering
Clare Kinney, English
Alison J. Murray Levine, French
Steve Arata, English
Amori Yee Mikami, Psychology
Sherwood Frey, Darden
Victoria Olwell, English
Cristina Della Coletta, Spanish, Italian, & Portuguese
Xiaochao Zheng, Physics, 3-4032
Dorothy Schafer, Biology

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
Retention, Quality of Life

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 lessons I take away from my Fellowship year are unfinished, but still very much in process. This year I incorporated much more active / collaborative learning and designed new assignments and forms of assessment in line with my learning objectives.

The main benefit of the UTF Program to me was showing me that I could approach teaching and course design in a methodical, planned fashion. Prior to the UTF, I had received essentially zero training for how to teach, and my approach was ad hoc, based only on observation of my own favorite teachers. While I still feel that observing other teachers is a great way to get ideas, I now feel much more confident about how I can go about applying those ideas to my own teaching, evaluating their efficacy, and adjusting them to fit each particular teaching context.

A great side effect of this benefit is that my enthusiasm about teaching has increased. I learned from many of the people associated with the UTF Program the value of channeling this enthusiasm by continually thinking about teaching and improving at least a little bit every year.

One of the great advantages, and difficulties, with the Fellows Program is that it has sensitized me to the kinds of improvements that could (and in many cases should) be integrated into my teaching.  Time constraints as a junior faculty member, as well as practical limitations including departmental conventions, course sequences, etc…, necessitate a gradual implementation of new approaches, and so I naturally view the knowledge gained as a UTF as the beginning of a long developmental process.  I look forward to continuing a relationship with the TRC through formal workshops, possible grants, and through personal relationships gained with Marva Barnett, Michael Palmer, Freda Fretwell, and a host of faculty who support and rely upon the TRC.  

The UTF Program has led me to revise my teaching philosophy, approach, and methods in fundamental ways . . . . I am reconsidering the way I think about everything I do in all my courses, from conceiving of a course title to writing a syllabus to assigning projects to coming up with class activities. I have a whole new framework within which to make the different pieces of my teaching make sense. All three of the goals I laid out in my application have been addressed this year. Thanks, UTF!

As a result of the UTF Program, my enthusiasm about teaching has only deepened. I continue to maintain the same overarching philosophy about making material life-relevant, and I have become much better at knowing how to do this.

I think more now about what my aims are for student learning, and how my syllabus and my grading/evaluation procedures follow in line with those learning aims.

Interdisciplinary discussions:

I was intellectually stimulated by the problems scientists and engineers had, the ways they approached them, and the connections I found across the disciplines. But then I also LOVED having some fellow humanists who understood similar issues such as class discussion and writing assignments that do not pertain in the same way to the sciences.

A rare opportunity for truly interdisciplinary discussion.

Intellectual community:

OK, crème-de-la-crème: The #1 most effective aspect: The way in which this Program builds community. Let’s face it, we are all going to be thinking about this stuff for most of our careers and now I have a cohort of colleagues I feel I really know quite well, with whom to share ideas, ask them to come to my classes, etc. in the future. I feel much more like part of a larger university project.

I certainly feel that I’ve gained the friendship of colleagues throughout the University and that I now feel part of a much larger community.  Our meeting with Vice Provost Milton Adams was simply the most visible example of how we were introduced to the larger workings of the University as Fellows. 

I gained the most from the assignment to observe others’ teaching, and be observed by others. Not only did it provide me with new ideas for teaching, but also it helped me better understand the classes my Fellowship peers were teaching. I can’t believe I learned something about low-power circuits and I still remember it. And the process was fun!

I have a renewed sense of how important it is to seek out colleagues interested in talking about teaching. It can be weirdly lonely in the classroom, and the TRC has hooked me into a rich, diverse community of other teachers. I see now how much I treasure that!

Workshops and the retreat:

The Wintergreen retreat at the beginning of the year jumpstarted the Program wonderfully for me. What a rare treat it is to take time away from the routines of work and everyday life to really think about something that deserves as much deep thought as teaching does! Besides giving me a real chance to get to know the other Fellows, the retreat permitted the kind of meditative, ruminative conversation that simply can’t happen in a 90-minute meeting on Grounds.

The weekend retreat helped me to know other Fellows and UTF staff, and made it easier for me to converse with them later. I was also surprised and feel somewhat relieved to learn that some of the other Fellows share the same concerns about their teaching, or even about their life.

Value of Mentors:

I am particularly grateful for having had a mentor in a different field but a humanities field, who understands the particular issues related to class discussion and also to writing assignments. We are already planning to keep on meeting after the end of the Fellowship because I think we both benefited, and we have both enjoyed each other’s company. Thanks again for helping me to find him!

My mentor was incredibly dedicated to my course. I believe we met a minimum of twice per month all of summer and fall semester. He came to observe my course every month and his comments were consistently insightful and enriching. I observed his course twice, and he also set me up to observe other professors teaching subject matter matching my own.

My mentor brought her gifts as a teacher and colleague to our relationship. She met with me to go over the syllabus, to discuss my concerns about the class and my pedagogy, and to review her visit to my class. On every occasion, her keen powers of discernment helped me to set priorities and reframed my teaching questions in new, extremely helpful ways.

I find myself grateful for my mentor’s sheer generosity with her time and insights, and grateful to the Program for providing the structure that allowed this mentoring relationship to flourish.

Teaching strategies and techniques learned:

One of the most significant aspects of the Program has been to introduce me to a series of practical teaching resources that I did not realize even existed. Dee Fink’s Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning, Barkley, Cross, and Major’s Collaborative Learning Techniques, and Angelo and Cross’s Classroom Assessment Techniques are all resources to which I will turn for years to come.  None of these resources would have prompted me into action, however, without the direction of the UTF seminars, the compulsion to try them out in the classroom, and the encouragement of my UTF colleagues. 

The techniques and methods I’ve learned this year have condensed a fund of experience from other teachers and researchers, much more than I could ever amass on my own.

From observing others, especially Fellows from a different field such as humanities or history, I was surprised that teaching could be so different, and perhaps, a little enjoyable and even a little too easy. When I taught my course the first time, I spent almost 10 hours to prepare notes for each one-hour lecture. And I am usually the only one talking straight through that hour. But the lectures I observed were all dominated by students’ discussions, and the lecturer was there only to direct the discussion from time to time. By observing them I realized that being a teacher doesn’t have to be so stressful and tiring. And I learned some of the techniques for how to lead a discussion and how to engage students from observations.

Overview of the program:

While there were plenty of times that I felt pressed for time over the course of the year, I never felt that I was wasting my time as a UTF.  Indeed, quite the opposite, I consistently wished for more time to consider and implement many of the suggestions that we were discussing.

Frankly, it’s hard to think of any part of this program I did not find effective!! It was terrific from beginning to end. From the five-hour impromptu discussion of teaching over dinner at the retreat, to the monthly meet-and-share-immediate-problems sessions, to the targeted workshops, to the class visitations, to the “homework” assignments on classroom assessment techniques and collaborative learning, I found everything to be terrifically interesting and engaging and useful. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it’s true.

I am excited to continue teaching the course I re-designed as a Fellow. This course historically gets the lowest student evaluations in the department, probably because of its subject matter. I was proud that my ratings not only beat the department semester average in every category, but were higher than all other times on record that this course had been taught from any instructor. This was the first time I had taught this course, and I am convinced that my student evaluations would not have been nearly as strong without the guidance and inspiration from the UTF Program.

I hope very much to keep in touch with the other Fellows, my mentor, and the TRC. I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this program, and I recommend it highly.

The practical advice, the nuanced conversations with other Fellows and mentors, the workshops, and the sense of community have all given me a sense of fortitude and joy as a teacher.

I’m going to continue using methods I’ve found so successful and experiment with ones I haven’t yet tried. And, I’m going to continue to feel encouraged – in the literal sense of being given the courage – to seek out new methods, talk about them with willing colleagues, and keep developing my pedagogy.

Retention, Quality of LIfe:

Please tell the Provost and all the higher-ups that this program goes far beyond the Fellowship year but is a significant long-term investment in us as teachers. The thoughts and conversations coming out of this program will continue to affect my teaching and my life at the University for many years to come. From the point of view of a faculty member who has taught at three very different institutions, this is by far the strongest feeling I have ever gotten that the institution was supporting me and investing in me. It has greatly affected the quality of my life at U.Va., and I would think that those interested in faculty retention should know that programs like this one make U.Va. “feel” truly different, a place one would want to stay.

The importance of being part of a community of Fellows who all share the same dedication for teaching can not be overstated. They raised my excitement for teaching and kept teaching on my radar. Thus, during non-teaching times I was more likely to get little inspirations, and more likely to remember them to use in my class. Further, I found that most of the other Fellows were dealing with the same joys and struggles as I was. I feel connected to the other members of the Fellowship group and will continue to draw on these ties even in future years. Crucially, this community of other tenure-track faculty also served as a good role model for me in hearing ways to balance a teaching and research identity.