College of Business Learning Advancement Board Programs

Success in Teaching Excellence Program (STEP)

       This program provides new faculty in the college a chance to become better equipped for teaching at this university. While intended primarily for new 'rookie' faculty, this program is targeted to all of the new hires in the College. It consists of a 1.5 day work ship that meets prior to the beginning of the fall semester. The topics covered include course design and class session planning, active learning methods, effective questioning strategies, micro teaching practices, implementation approaches, and planning for success. In addition to the initial workshop, the participants continue to meet throughout the fall semester as both a support group and as a means to deal with instruction issues that may arise throughout the semester. As part of this program, faculty are videotaped and individual analyses are provided for feedback. This program has been a significant success in the past. Most new faculty attend both the workshop and the follow-up sessions. In addition, many of these new faculty have continued to participate in subsequent LAB programs and have provided positive feedback regarding STEP.

Teaching and Learning Workshop Series (T & L)

      The teaching and learning workshop series is open to faculty across the College and at all levels of experience. The themes (specific learning or teaching issues) for the workshops are chosen by the College Learning and Advancement Board. Recent themes have included diversity, students teaching students, and the distinguished teacher/scholar series. In some cases, the theme runs across all four workshops offered during the semester. For other themes, there may be only one or two sessions for a theme. These workshops are offered during lunch (11:30 to 1:00) and vary across days (Monday or Tuesday) so to accommodate faculty teaching schedules. Within the workshops, participants are provided an opportunity to share their experiences, strategies, and support. This aspect of our program has been successful in attracting participants to become more involved in learning about teaching and attendance varies by the topic or theme. The average attendance for these sessions is about twenty-five faculty spread across ranks. We have also been able to bring in high level guest speakers such as Tom Angelo and Joseph Lohman to jump-start our programs and to participate in other teaching/learning activities across campus.

Reflective Teacher Workshop Series

       The reflective teacher is one who is ready and committed to discussing educational issues and strategies, willing to participate in active improvement approaches such s peer observation, is interested in assessing and improving their teaching, and is interested in developing their own teaching philosophy, teaching statement, and teaching portfolio materials. Many faculty use this series for improvement as well as for developing their materials for annual reviews, third-year reviews, and for the promotion and tenure review process. Accordingly, this series tends to attract faculty undergoing third-year reviews or who are developing their promotion/tenure packets. We have served about fifteen participants per year through this program.

Teaching Circle (New program for 2004)

       The teaching circle is a more informal support activity that is designed to bring participants together on an informal basis to interact and participate in topical discussions of learning and teaching issues. This program is new and is intended to fulfill the networking needs of faculty to share on a more informal basis. We intend to have some of the college’s best instructors share their experiences and to lead a discussion on a topic of their interest. Topics will vary by the interests of the speakers and polling of faculty interests. In order to be of the most benefit to participants, we plan to have sessions that address specific needs or timely topics. We hope to attract ten participants on a regular basis and to attract more as the program matures.