ONGOING SERVICES
Please contact the Center to register or for additional information.
- Observe classes, with consultation before and after the observation.
- Arrange to videotape classes, with the option of follow-up consultation.
- Conduct confidential conversations with members of a class and report back to the instructor.
- Assist in the orientation of new faculty.
- Facilitate partnerships in teaching, with the option of third-party consultation.
- Arrange microteaching sessions, with follow-up discussion.
- Facilitate an on-line discussion about teaching and learning.
This is a voluntary program of classroom observation conducted by pairs of faculty peers over a period of several weeks.
Two professors agree to observe each other’s classes, alternating in the roles of Observer and Teacher. The Teacher will provide the Observer with a description of goals and planned strategies for each class. The Observer will provide a careful and honest description (not evaluation) of what he or she observes, focusing on the agenda the Teacher has provided. Participants, therefore, must agree to brief meetings before observation takes place and to prompt follow-up meetings after a class is observed.
Participants in the program must pledge confidentiality. The data observed and collected belongs exclusively to the participants and may not be used in any formal evaluations of the participants. If the Teacher seeks further discussion of the Observer’s report, he or she may consult confidentially with the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.
This is a voluntary program in which instructors teach a group of 4-6 faculty peers for approximately 10 minutes while being videotaped.
Each professor chooses a short slice of what they plan to do with their students. It could be something they find particularly problematic, it could be a crucial section of the opening or closing day of a course, or it could simply be a typical part of the course on which the instructor would like to get feedback.
When not microteaching themselves, the faculty in the group play the role of students, asking questions and interacting as realistically as possible.
At the end of the microteaching session, the instructor responds to his or her own teaching. Then others in the group point out strengths and follow up with suggestions for possible adaptations. Participants will thus learn, not only from their own microteaching, but also from observing and discussing that of others.
The videos may be reviewed during the follow-up discussion, studied in private by the microteacher, and, if requested, discussed in a later consultation with the director of the Center. Session tapes are for the benefit of those taped and will not be viewed by anyone else without explicit permission. They are not to become part of any formal evaluation procedure.
The Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning will facilitate microteaching sessions and the follow-up discussions.
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Agnes Scott College Center for Teaching and Learning |