Graduate Teaching Center
Consultations
Although many teaching principles and practices can be conveyed through workshops and lectures, there is no substitute for individual discussion with a staff member of the Teaching Center of one’s teaching style, classroom goals, and interaction with students. The Center routinely assists graduate students with section and course design, mid-semester classroom observations and feedback, interpreting student evaluations, addressing problems in the classroom, and preparing teaching statements and portfolios for applications and interviews. Teachers are encouraged to contact the Center to schedule a consultation at any time for any reason.
The Center also provides classroom visitations that enable one to identify both effective teaching practices that can be cultivated and ineffective habits that can be corrected. There is typically a pre-briefing during which the teacher provides the consultant background information about the class and shares any concerns about classroom dynamics. This meeting provides a context and focus for the classroom observation and is an invaluable first step in establishing trust between the teacher and consultant. During the classroom observation, the consultant takes notes on what happens in the classroom, how the teacher presents material and how the students respond both to the teacher and one another. At the teacher’s request, the consultant will videotape the lecture or discussion and provide the teacher (and only the teacher) with the video file for private review. The analysis concludes with a post-observation dialogue (as opposed to a one-way evaluation) in which the teacher and discuss style and technique specific to the class observed.
All consultations with the Center are strictly confidential. However, participants may wish to inform their departments or potential employers of the efforts they have undertaken to improve their teaching. Increasingly, academic hiring committees seek evidence of effective teaching. Video records, results of consultations, and an ability to theorize one’s teaching style and philosophy are fast becoming standard discourse during the hiring process.
You may contact the GTC for a consultation at any time for any reason. Our most common requests for consultation are:
- Assistance with section and course design
- Mid-semester classroom observations with feedback
- Making sense of student evaluations
- Solving classroom problems
- Preparing teaching statements and portfolios
for
applications and interviews
