An integral part of any teacher professional growth process is in participating in teaching triangles or teaching squares. These professional triangles are squares formed with your colleagues are used as a foundation to do some collective reflection and facilitate the visiting of each other's classes, either online or in person. This kind of collaboration allows for informal exploration of teaching practices and provides a non-threatening way of securing feedback so we can improve our practices. If you have never participated in this kind of process before, here is how it is explained at Washington University in St. Louis:
Teaching Triangles is a semester-long, reciprocal classroom observation and reflection program geared towards helping faculty think through their teaching practices in a supportive, structured environment. In Teaching Triangles, faculty observe and are observed by two colleagues. Observations are meant to stimulate personal self-reflection on teaching practice (not meant to provide direct commentary on colleagues’ performances). Participants engage in non-judgmental, formative feedback and discussion throughout the semester with other members of their Triangle following the observations. The CTL forms triangles and provides a structure for observation and reflection. Each Teaching Triangle consists of three faculty members committed to working together on their teaching for the semester. Triangle participants will agree to visit each other’s courses at least once during the semester to observe their colleagues teach. This observation will not be evaluative; direct commentary on colleagues’ performance is not part of this process. Instead, colleagues will write down their observations of the class session, and, following the class, reflect on their own practice having experienced what it’s like to be in another faculty member’s classroom. Following the observation and the initial reflections, triangle colleagues will convene to discuss their teaching, using some guiding questions provided by the CTL. From: https://ctl.wustl.edu/programs/teaching-triangles/#:~:text=In%20Teaching%20Triangles%2C%20faculty%20observe,commentary%20on%20colleagues'%20performances). Bowdoin College also uses teaching triangles and suggests these questions as a conversation/reflection guide: What happens in a teaching triangle? Each teaching triangle consists of three faculty members. After an initial meeting early in the semester to discuss logistics and establish expectations, each triangle member commits to visiting the other members’ classes at least once. Following all the class visits, the triangle reconvenes to reflect on teaching utilizing some of the questions below.
From: https://www.bowdoin.edu/baldwin-center/pdf/teaching-triangles-overview.pdf As you can see, the emphasis is on reflection and exploration not evaluation or judgment. In our NorQuest professional growth process resources there are several documents that might help you to facilitate such discussions and help you gather your thoughts. If you are from a small department or would rather get feedback from someone other than your close colleagues, the Educational Developers are always available to come, visit and chat! Several years ago, we published a blog on how this is done at NorQuest. Here is the link: Arranging a visit with an Educational Developer.
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Merry Christmas and many happy dossiers? It is almost that time! That time for leaving behind your daily teaching commitments and stressors. That time for lazy mornings and a bit slower pace. That time for going into decorating and hyper-baking mode. That time for getting together with family and friends, playing board games, attending services, giving gifts and binging on Christmas specials or watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” just one more time. Or is it? Covid is looking to dampen this Christmas, just a little bit. Instead of going up to the mountains or frequenting the mall, you might find yourself spending more time at home than usual. However, I have a solution! You shouldn’t feel bored, there’s something you can do! Maybe this is the year when you finally pull together your teaching dossier! What is a teaching dossier? Well, it is not the dossier like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service keeps on all of us…. A teaching dossier is a document or an online webpage that contains an instructor’s philosophy, goals, accomplishments, reflections and feedback on teaching. It is a little like a hybrid between your professional growth plan (PGP; remember Halogen?) and your curriculum vitae. Many teaching colleges require their faculty to keep a dossier as part of their growth, supervision and evaluation process. It gives academic leaders (chairs, managers and deans) a muse for ongoing discussions with instructors and professors. At first, teaching dossiers (back in the 1990’s) were 10 to 15 page Word or PDF documents organized much like a report, with headings and appendixes. In 2020, many professional dossiers exist as online webpages, which can be re-visited and updated at any time (which sure helps with version control!). What’s in a teaching dossier? The contents of a teaching dossier depend upon your purpose and your institutional requirements. In colleges and universities that require faculty to maintain dossiers, there are very specific requirements in terms of content and format. NorQuest College does not have any firm requirements but suggests the following:
Of course, depending on who you are and your role and experience, some sections might be a little easier to complete than other sections. Initially, you may not be able to speak to each of these sections. A beginning instructor would be wise to include only the 1) biography, 2) responsibilities, 3) philosophy, 4) teaching approach and examples, 5) service work, and 6) feedback. It takes time to develop enough experience and examples for the other sections (curricula work, scholarship, leadership and awards). Why make a dossier? Well it seems like a lot of work, and it certainly can be. However, making a dossier can be some of the best professional learning you can do. It forces a person to step back and consider why they teach, how they teach and whether the two align (Does your philosophy match with the kinds of activities and assessments you give? Do you practice what you preach?). It also helps in identifying strengths and growth areas by looking at all the evidence (feedback, resources developed, course data). Dossiers can be important touchpoints when:
Where would I start? I will be running the dossier workshop again next week. If you are curious, just sign up and see what it is all about. Alternatively, if you do not have time, just shoot me an email and I will send you more information or we can set up a one-on-one teams chat. Merry Christmas! This will be my last musing before the Christmas break. I hope to resume the musings on January 4. The Future is Now! When I first started teaching, many years ago, the world of teaching was a much different place (I know, I know, but I have changed very little!). I began my career in a small school on the outskirts of Chatham, Ontario. I taught multiple grades in the same classroom (7/8/9 and 9/10) and many of my resources (readers and texts) were from the 1950’s. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I taught typing on the old, manual machines (earplugs anyone?). There were only a couple of computers in the school, and I did not own one at the time. The school had one photocopy machine and it was expensive to use. The copies had a slippery surface and the kids liked to sniff the pages, there was kind of a chemical druggy type smell. Instead, we were encouraged to use the spirit duplicator and recycled green or pink papers, if we wanted to make handouts or worksheets. Spirit duplicators worked by applying alcohol to a carbon sheet and then cranking the drum so that the ink might transfer to individually fed sheets. Unfortunately, it could be a messy process. I often arrived to class with soggy copies and blue fingertips. The recycled paper did not hold up very well, but it was much faster than having students copy notes from the board. We were a little behind the other schools in terms of technology, but we did have cassette players and filmstrip machines. I put these to good use when I was teaching French - dimming the lights and having the all the students “Repetez, après moi!” If I was organized, I could request feature and documentary films from the local school board’s resource center. However, certain resources were popular, and you had to stake your claim well in advance and make sure you were at the right point in your curricula, when the films actually arrived. Our projector was a complicated beast, but you could run the film backward (a frequent request from the students) if you had a bit of time at the end of the period. Now jump forward 40 years. We’ve seen tremendous change. Affordable computers, the availability of resources through the internet, the influx of interactive whiteboards, Wi-Fi, the ever-presence of smartphones, and a constantly changing smorgasbord of learning apps has changed the way we teach and learn. And yet, with all that change in our lifetimes, it was still hard to make the leap to online teaching as a result of Covid. Many of us were stretched in ways we were not prepared for, pushed to learn new technologies and systems in a moment of near crisis, in what I like to call “the great hack of 2020”. That said, times of crisis could sometimes bring forth great leaps of progress. The Second World War necessitated tremendous advances in manufacturing and similarly, our year of Covid has seen tremendous improvements in online conferencing tools and teaching apps. You and I have learned a great deal about engaging and supporting learners in ways that we’ve never learned ourselves, and we continue to learn! In the next couple of weeks we continue on a visioning process for NorQuest, its learners and the people who make the place go (you and me)! There are sessions being offered by both the futurist group and the culture team. I’m very much involved in the Futurist work as a member of the group looking at “the role of faculty” and we will be connecting with you through LRN sessions as well as through presentations to individual faculties and departments. These presentations really won’t be “presentations”, we’re hoping to provide a few things to think about, ask several big questions, gather your thoughts and hopes, and continue to envision and prepare for the future of post-secondary learning. Some questions you might want to consider are:
Have a great week! Jeff The NorQuest Teaching Competencies At NorQuest College we have an agreed upon set of six teaching competencies (quality standards). We have had this list of competencies since 2008, and the list was written after a good deal of research and consultation with both faculty and leadership. Over the years, the competencies have provided: 1) a starting point for supervisory conversations about proficiency and professional growth, 2) a justification for funding requests and changes in roles/responsibilities, 3) a lens for adjudication of the Jaye Fredrickson Award, and 4) an important tool for self-reflection. While some might say our competencies are a bit dated or quibble with the language (For example, choosing to swap out “Evaluation Expert” for “Assessment Expert” to reflect an increased emphasis on formative assessment techniques.), the overall thrust of these competencies and their descriptors is still very sound and worthwhile. At NorQuest College, we would like every instructor/faculty member to ask certain questions as they consider each competency.
What I like about this list of competencies is the acknowledgement that teaching is a multi-faceted endeavor. It is more than just being “a good storyteller” or an “effective classroom manager”. While many instructors may have some natural talents that aid in presenting content and forming relationships, quality practice takes commitment to improvement, ongoing solicited feedback (collegial and learner), regular focused reflection, and timely strategic adjustments. As Dylan William says: it requires a “culture of continual improvement” and a commitment to reflective practice. There is a lovely little clip from Dylan explaining why, in spite of ourselves, we have “the best job in the world”! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0glFJMYv1JY. If you get a chance, just watch the first 2 minutes! Other facets that might be considered, if we ever think of “refreshing the competencies” might include Instructional Leadership (How do I collaborate with, support and/or mentor my colleagues in their practice?), and Service (How do I support the college and its initiatives, or my professional organizations through service work?). In addition, with the very diverse nature of our college and our students, where might we more properly highlight the role of the instructor as a model/champion for diversity, inclusion, and equality? Nonetheless, I think the teaching competencies have held up very well in these past twelve years and I am happy to draw attention to them one more time in this musing! Have a wonderful week! Jeff |
AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
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