At my home institution, we have a "Faculty Scholarship Day" or a "Faculty Teaching Day" in alternating years (description of one previous program is available here). In either form, the day functions as an in-house retreat/extended workshop/massive colloquium. Two years ago, our Faculty Teaching Day included a focus on adult learning styles and the curricular integration of skills courses, among other topics.
This year, we're trying something new. We are having an "Open Classrooms Week" next month, followed by a morning-long debriefing session/workshop. Here is the description:
Colleagues are encouraged to visit each other’s classes during this week. Go. Observe. Talk about what you see. The idea is to encourage conversations across specialties, teaching styles and all levels of seniority about what makes for excellent teaching.
Each faculty member will be paired with another. The members of the pairs are encouraged to visit each other’s classes, but noone is obligated and everyone is welcome. In other words, you aren’t required to visit that (or any) colleague’s class, but we hope you will. And you are encouraged to visit as many different colleagues’ classes as you’d like. This is an opportunity for us to see each other in action.
Always wanted to see a particular person teach? Had interesting conversations in the past that you might want to continue? Want to see how another person handles a particular dynamic or challenge you are facing? Visit, receive visitors, share ideas, provide feedback and receive input from others.
One of my colleagues is skeptical that folks will actually visit each other's classes. She perceives an attitude among some tenured colleagues that their classroom is "private" (vis-a-vis other colleagues, at least). My suspicion is that some tenured folks will be reluctant to receive visitors (but perhaps ok with doing the visiting) because years have passed since a colleague last observed their teaching. (Unlike some schools, we don't have annual peer visits; we don't have post-tenure review of any kind.) They certainly aren't accustomed to receiving constructive criticism from a peer, and perhaps haven't read their student teaching evaluations in years, either.
This "Open Classrooms Week" will be an interesting experiment.
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