2022-2023 Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows
The Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program offers select junior faculty opportunities to enhance their teaching and build courses that foster meaningful student learning. In its 12th year, the program has helped more than 100 faculty from eight colleges and schools consider new practices in their teaching. This Fall, this year’s program includes 9 faculty from 4 schools who will participate in a seminar on teaching and learning focused on course (re)design; classroom visits, followed by discussions with the hosts; dinner discussions with senior faculty and staff guests; and consultations. Meet this year's fellows here.
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Book Profile: Engaged Teaching: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth F. Barkley and Claire Howell Major
This book provides faculty with a dynamic model of what it means to be an engaged teacher along with practical strategies and techniques for putting the model into practice. The authors combine thoughtful summaries of relevant research along with descriptions of promising practices that educators can use right now- and build on. They simultaneously offer a comprehensive but concise survey of theory, research, and practical strategies necessary for improving teaching and learning in higher education. In particular, this text provides instructors with a deeper understanding of the foundations of college teaching, course design, the classroom learning environment, instructional methods, and teaching improvement.
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Soliciting Mid-Semester Feedback from Students
It’s that time of the semester when you may be wondering whether your course is going all that well and you may be curious what students are thinking about it. We at the CFT are here to help you collect just this kind of information and support you as you decide what to do with it. There are a couple of ways you can collect information. First, you could sign up for a mid-semester feedback consultation with the CFT staff who would use a small group analysis (SGA) process to gather student thoughts in your absence. This is not unlike a focus group process, which is described further here, and it only takes twenty minutes of class time. Second, you could collect the information via an anonymous survey that you conduct yourself. If you prefer this option, you might benefit from reading a guide on how to do this by former CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow, Robert Marx, “Soliciting and Utilizing Mid-Semester Feedback.” Whichever method you choose, we are happy to help you make sense of the results and what, if anything, you might like to change in your teaching. If you would like to schedule a mid-semester feedback consultation, please call Juliet Traub (615-322-7290) or write to us here.
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Teaching, Difference, and Power Learning Community: Anti-Racist Teaching
This academic year, the CFT is co-hosting a learning community with Meredyth Wegener (Neuroscience) on anti-racist teaching with the goal of better understanding how higher education systems, teaching and learning practices, and our disciplines can resolve rather than reproduce racial marginalization and exclusion. Discussion will largely focus on the challenges and opportunities white anti-racist educators confront, but all are welcome to attend regardless of identity, discipline, or expertise. The meetings will be grounded in a set of critically reflective writing exercises and dialogues recommended by BARWE (Building Anti-Racist White Educators), yet we hope participants will feel free to co-create learning goals and content as we proceed through the academic year. The topics will we address are open, but will likely include teaching in predominantly white institutions, histories of whiteness, the way social structures of racism impact higher education, inclusive and equitable teaching, practices of interracial partnership, and strategies of teaching about race and racism, among others. Throughout, we hope participants will engage one another in a co-creative, in-person process of open inquiry into their teaching philosophies and strategies, and all the while provide one another with community, accountability, and encouragement. If you are interested in joining the discussions please register for the learning community at this link. If you have any questions, please contact joe.bandy@vanderbilt.edu.
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