Context: I've recently stepped into the role of Educational Developer, and helping to shape a Faculty Development program which is aiming to move away from one-off workshops, to series of interconnected/related workshops that culminate in reflective tasks that are directly related to each participant's teaching practice. These workshops are aimed at giving faculty tools for engaged teaching, curriculum and assessment design, intercultural communication, de-colonizing, etc.
One major challenge is that faculty are teaching across departments, with varied schedules, and our unit needs to offer flexibility but motivation for follow-up and "completion". So, whereas there will be high interest and motivation to attend the sessions (and series), there isn't always the ideal opportunity to gather participants together after the workshops for a) setting an intention of trying something new/different in their class, b) reflecting on how the trial worked, and c) celebrating those who take risks to change-up their teaching approach(es).
Reflection Task:
Purpose: To apply new knowledge from the workshops into participants' own teaching practices to gain the experiential element, and then to reflect on this application to delve deeper and recognize changes and opportunities for their teaching practices through the process.
Step 1: Make an intention to try apply changes in your teaching practice. From the workshops, think of 1-3 changes you wish to make and plan the steps to implement these changes. For example, you could ....
- revise your course/class learning outcomes
- create a detailed lesson plan that integrates active learning strategies
- introduce a series of self-regulated learning activities into your course
- invite students to a discussion around land acknowledgement
My questions:
- I like the idea of choice for faculty, but not want to overwhelm. Ideas for the kinds of tasks for the setting of intentions and how that can be realized, as well as options for how to articulate their reflections. Do you have any suggestions?
- Is step 2 too vague? Would participants need more parameters?
- I like the idea of having this post-session(s) task be housed in an online platform (though at this stage, all/most of our workshops are face-to-face), but I wonder if that's too limiting?