FACULTY AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
This page contains information on opportunities for faculty development, including the Benchmarks Project, CTE’s annual Teaching Summit, and the Teaching Scholarship Collaborative.
Benchmarks Project
The KU Center for Teaching Excellence is taking part in a five-year project, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF; DUE-1726087) to foster improved methods of reviewing, documenting and evaluating faculty teaching practices at KU and at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Benchmarks for Teaching Effectiveness is organized as a rubric and identifies seven dimensions of teaching practice that are designed to capture the teaching endeavor in its totality, including activities outside the classroom (e.g., identification of learning goals, assignment design, reviewing student work), and contributions to individual courses and the curriculum. The rubric can be used to guide the evaluation of teaching effectiveness (e.g., for promotion and tenure or progress toward tenure). It can also be used to foster teaching effectiveness, as part of a peer review or teaching mentoring system.
We have also developed several additional tools to support both teaching evaluation and teaching improvement.
The Benchmarks Project page has more information about the Benchmarks Framework and tools and the departments and schools taking part in the project.
KU Teaching Summit
The KU Summit is held before classes begin each August. The Center for Teaching Excellence, Provost’s Office, and KU Medical Center co-sponsor the conference for faculty and instructional staff members from the Lawrence, Edwards, and medical center campuses. There is an opening plenary session including a thematic keynote speaker and recognition of the recipient of CTE’s Departmental Teaching Award. This is followed by three waves of conference style breakout sessions led by faculty members, and boxed lunch final discussions with academic leaders.
The fall 2020 KU Teaching Summit will be held August 20 from 9 am - 12 pm. This year’s theme is Teaching in a Transformed World. All sessions will be virtual. The keynote address is Dismantling Educational Inequities Through Teaching by Professors Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy of the University of North Carolina. More info on this page.
Programs from past conferences are available below.
The links below are to materials from Jillian Kinzie’s presentations at the conference:
Teaching Scholarship Collaborative
The Teaching Scholarship Collaborative provides an opportunity for people who have an interest in research/scholarship on teaching and learning to learn more about new developments in the field. Perhaps more importantly, it will function as a working group, with participants helping each other with T&L projects. Once a month, the group will read and discuss an article in the field. The other meetings will provide time for members to work on tasks related to their scholarship – and they will get some help from CTE and the TSC members, too.
More information on future schedules and registration forthcoming!
Faculty Seminar
KU faculty are invited to apply for CTE’s Spring 2020 Inclusive Teaching Faculty Seminar, to support the adoption of teaching methods, strategies, and course materials that enhance inclusivity and respect for diversity. Building on three years of the Diversity Scholars Program, our goal is to continue to develop campus capacity for fostering a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable KU learning environment.
What is Faculty Seminar?
CTE’s Faculty Seminar gives faculty members an opportunity to develop teaching innovations and new models of teaching practice in a collegial setting that offers peer review and support. In the Spring 2020 Inclusive Teaching Faculty Seminar, participants will explore ideas for incorporating greater attention to diversity (broadly defined) and more inclusive practices in their classes. In Spring 2020, participants will meet for five or six 90-minute sessions. Through readings, discussion, and workshopping of ideas, participants will develop plans for a substantial change to a Fall 2020 course to make it more inclusive, and plans to assess the impact on their students’ learning. In Fall 2020, participants will meet for two follow-up sessions, to reflect on progress and discuss implementation and assessment.
Deadline for Applications: December 4th
Zhejiang Normal University Faculty Professional Development Program [2019-2020]
From December 2019 through May 2020, KU welcomed 29 faculty from Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) in Jinhua, China, for an innovative 6-month professional development experience centered around effective college teaching. After a month of English study with the Applied English Center, the ZJNU faculty went through the Center for Teaching Excellence’s course on Effective College Teaching, originally developed by CTE Associate Director Doug Ward. The course combined study of research on teaching and learning with on-the-ground class observations of exemplary KU instructors. ZJNU professors were also paired with mentor faculty from KU. Unfortunately, in-person meetings and class observations were cut short by the transition to online courses due to COVID-19. However, the group was able to finish the CTE course on Zoom.
As a culmination of their time at KU, the ZJNU faculty spent their final 6 weeks of the program designing a transformation for a course they teach, which they presented via Zoom during the week of May 18-22, 2020. The PowerPoints for these presentations have been divided into six categories (Art and Design; Business and Economics; Language, Culture, and Humanities; Social Sciences and Philosophy; STEM; and Teacher Education) and can be accessed by using the buttons below.
The ZJNU course was taught by CTE Faculty Associate Ali Brox (assistant teaching professor, Environmental Studies Program), CTE Faculty Ambassador Yvonnes Chen (associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications), and CTE Graduate Student Fellow Debby Adams (Ph.D. candidate, Curriculum & Instruction). Special thanks go to faculty mentors and the staff of International Short Programs for their planning and partnership for the ZJNU program.
