University Teaching Initiative: Past, Present, and Future

A recent result of the University community's ongoing attention to enhancing teaching is the Provost's funding of the Faculty Senate proposal for a University Teaching Initiative (UTI) Program: $100,000 per year for a pilot three-year period (1998-2001). Designed and administered by the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee, the UTI Program funded 39 projects in its first year. During 1999-2000, the UTI Program will support 31 initiatives that support superior teaching innovations.

 On October 1, from 1:00-3:30 in 301 and 308 Wilson Hall, the entire University community is invited to the UTI Forum, designed to enable project directors to share their ideas and accomplishments and to inspire interested colleagues to consider future possibilities for their own departments and schools. For additional examples of the wide range of initiatives supported by UTI, we present a sampling of accomplishments achieved by 1998-99 recipients:

Training Tomorrow's Faculty: A team of faculty from the Math Department used a UTI grant to enhance TA training. Under faculty supervision, several advanced graduate students produced a TA handbook that proved of value to both the department's graduate teachers and visiting faculty. Professor Barbara MacCluer also oversaw a special observation and consulting program for TAs, utilizing personnel trained specially to conduct Teaching Analysis Polls in math classrooms. Those UTI-funded efforts complemented a new graduate seminar dealing with pedagogical and professional issues that the department will continue to offer in the future.

Webbing It: In launching a new survey course required of all English majors, Steve Cushman and Michael Levenson used their UTI grant to create an extensive class website to provide biographical, historical, and cultural material pertinent to the course. Making that data available on-line enabled them to maximize in-class lecture time by concentrating on assigned works; students were expected to know background information for quizzes and other assignments. Cushman and Levenson also utilized the website to call up pertinent material in class, to enhance discussion sections, and to supply additional resources for those interested in further study. With the aid of a 1999-2000 UTI award, they plan to build upon their current work to create an even more robust website.

Speaking Up: Kate Burke of the Drama Department purchased specialized, rare dialect tapes with her UTI grant. Not only can students borrow them for study and performance preparation, but the tapes also provide a valuable record of the spoken voice. Burke plans to build the collection by conducting interviews on her own and by assigning graduate students to tape the many dialects that can be found in Charlottesville's multicultural community. She hopes in the future to digitize the collection, thereby making it widely available via the World Wide Web.

Reaching Out: A large interdisciplinary team, headed by Steve Thornton of the Physics Department, created with UTI funding several new math and science courses. Designed primarily to meet new state teacher licensure requirements, these classes thoroughly ground students in mathematical and scientific concepts. Two capstone courses provide future teachers with a valuable small-group research experience. UTI funds also helped to sponsor a statewide conference of over 200 postsecondary math and science professors in Virginia to discuss how different institutions are planning to meet the new state requirements. The UTI award also demonstrated the University's support for this project, helping Thornton's team secure large course design and implementation grants from the National Science Foundation.

Enhancing Course Sequence Redesign: Cassandra Fraser and Dean Harman of the Chemistry Department used their UTI grant as a component of longer term efforts to restructure and enhance the introductory honors chemistry sequence. Special speakers series gave undergraduates the opportunity to interact with experts from academe and industry. Dr. Fraser also developed new curriculum units that integrated concepts and applications into both lectures and labs. Those initiatives sparked new course improvement ideas that they hope to implement in future semesters and yielded important insights as they continue to develop the overall introductory course sequence.

For more information see the UTI website, or contact William R. Johnson, Chair, Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee (wrj8y@virginia.edu), or Bill McAllister, TRC (982-2815, wbm8n@virginia.edu).