Right now, groups across the CU Boulder community are having serious conversations about how to identify and evaluate effective teaching. These conversations are not new, but have been accelerated by increased scholarly activity on the subject, the recent launch of a new FCQ, and the abrupt switch last spring to remote instruction. Doing our work in new ways has been exhausting for many of us, but it has also widened the conversation: What does good teaching look like? How do we know we are serving all of our students equally well? How can we take the time to understand and improve our teaching while also pursuing excellence in research and service?Â
Faculty across the disciplines are questioning assumptions about how knowledge is created and shared, and how students can be engaged in the process of discovery. A compared perceptions of learning to actual achievement for students who observed an entertaining lecture versus students who were exposed to the same content via active learning. It turns out that the students believed they learned more in the passive lecture, but it was the active learning group who actually learned more. How confounding for student evaluations of teaching!
It’s an exciting time because more people are trying innovative teaching strategies, but it can be scary when one-size-fits-all teaching evaluations don’t capture the complexity of this work. The “I know good teaching when I see it” evaluation approach is no longer sufficient to understand the dynamic environments in which faculty operate, and we need a more expansive approach to understand the many ways that faculty facilitate students' learning. I look forward to seeing how the conversation develops through the quality teaching initiatives that are currently underway at CU.
The CTL has a lot of exciting offerings for the campus this semester! We know how full your schedules are, but we hope that you’ll take an hour to hear some new ideas, have some face time with faculty and staff from across the university, and share your own experiences.Â
A faculty member recently said that she had wanted to reach out to us for help, but she thought we were too busy for her. We may look busy, but you are CTL’s number one priority! No question is too big or too small, and we love to hear from you at CTL@colorado.edu.
Stephanie Foster
Assessment Lead
