Vivian,
I agree. The crux of the matter is attitude. It has been "okay", normal, usual etc. to teach in post secondary when you are a subject matter expert, and have no background in teaching. While some people gravitate to optional teaching programs to develop their teaching skills, the vast majority do not. Since in many universities, research is valued over teaching, and there is little pressure or support to learning to teach more effectively, there is little incentive to attend.
I worked at SAIT (a technical college) for several years, and a two-week course in teaching skills was mandatory for new hires. There was little push back. Yet I think one of the differences between universities and colleges is often the valuing of teaching. I wonder what would happen if a teaching qualification of some sort were similarly mandated in universities. Initially I think a lot of push back in the univseristy sector.
Institutional supports, such as offloads to have the time to take the courses, increases in salary resulting from successful completion of courses, and increased recognition of teaching would be helpful. Still these ideas have financial implications for institutions which makes them difficult to implement., especially in the current situation.
As well, the issue goes beyond the buy-in of instructors. Does senior administration believe the teaching programs are needed? In our case, I am not convinced they see a universal need as opposed to a situational need.
So the next question is how to gain senior administration's full support.
Has anyone experiences/strategies they have found helpful?
Rosalie
Re: Topic 1: Desired outcomes of a national system of training and credentialing
by Rosalie Pedersen -
Number of replies: 1
In reply to Rosalie Pedersen
Re: Topic 1: Desired outcomes of a national system of training and credentialing
by Deirdre Bonnycastle -
For all my negativism, I am actually thankful that because accreditation criticized the teaching techniques used in my College of Medicine, the Faculty Council passed a requirement two years ago that all faculty take a two-day medical teaching course and demonstrate attendance in at least one teaching course a year. Our problem is: failure to enforce the requirement and failure to give new hires time to take the two-day course. (Hear my head banging against the wall)
We have found the strongest motivation to attend medical teaching sessions come from external licensing bodies who require XX continuous professional development credits. Our sessions are seen as an easy way to access these credits but it costs my department ten's of thousand dollars and massive amounts of time to have our courses accepted by the licensing body.
We have found the strongest motivation to attend medical teaching sessions come from external licensing bodies who require XX continuous professional development credits. Our sessions are seen as an easy way to access these credits but it costs my department ten's of thousand dollars and massive amounts of time to have our courses accepted by the licensing body.