Feedback from GRDSCH 630 Students, Winter 2008

• Feedback from Winter 2008 students
• Who takes this class?
• Feedback from other quarters

We asked students to rate a number of aspects of the course on a 0-5 scale (5=strongly agree), and also asked students to respond to a series of open-ended questions about the course and the assignments. Here is the feedback we received:

How has this class change your thinking about teaching and learning in higher education?

• I now know what kinds of things to put in a teaching portfolio and how to present my teaching more effectively. I also got a lot of ideas for how to improve my teaching in the future.
• It's made me much more interested in exploring new techniques, rather than simply following professors I had.
• It provided me with a lot of input on all the ways in which my teaching can be evaluated; I.e., all the different measures which determine teaching effectiveness. It also gave me lots of good/useful ideas about how to represent myself in a teaching portfolio.
• It broadened my perspective about how to structure, assess and evaluate both my goals and my in-class practices.
• Hasn't really changed it, but has helped me see how to focus my 'thinking' in an effective direction.
• This course has given me a lot of ideas for my teaching: new activities to use, new ways to manage the class - room, etc. Also, it has given me some additional confidence in my teaching, and some new ways to collect feedback.
• Wish I would have taken this class last year. Very helpful for career/teaching development.
• This topic used to be a black box to me. I had some ideas about things that worked, things that don't, and how to apply that info, but no clue about how everything (teaching at a university college…prepping for applications) actually worked. It gave me a good picture of the real world!
• The class has helped me gain a better understanding of what colleges/universities are looking for with regards to teaching.
• I've come to view teaching/learning more as a process that's integral to being an academic, not a side responsibility but an important part of ones larger career.
• Hasn't really changed my thinking but has answered questions, given me clarity and a deeper understanding of teaching as an unfolding process.
• The class has increased my awareness of teaching topics, making it easier to focus my thinking about teaching and learning as learn how to vocalize it.
• It has provide me (and open my eyes) to a wide variety of resources to continue developing my teaching interest. It was extremely helpful to talk about teaching with grad students of other departments and find common ground. This class help me think more critically about my teaching and in concrete ways on how to improve it.

... helped me learn

...were useful in the development of my teaching statement and/or portfolio

... made good use of class time

What was most helpful to you about class activities and discussions?

• Getting ideas for improving my teaching. Feedback on my teaching statement.
• Hearing the relevant experiences of others.
• I felt that works hopping our assignments was very useful - especially in that we had to explain the rationale behind our teaching statement etc.
• I really like the use of methodologies (e.g.. the jigsaw approach) for our class activities so we could see what they look like in action.
• Opportunity for interacting with other people in class - from many different disciplines. Hearing their "stories" and experiences and how the reacted in each case.
• The most helpful activity was the discussion of teaching brief - it gave me some new ideas for classroom exercises.
• Small groups.
• Clear goals for class. Good use of class time. Interactions with students from other disciplines. Open, friendly environment for asking questions.
• I appreciated how you made use of different teaching methods within the class. I now have a better idea of how to make the most of my teaching experiences here at UW, to improve my teaching portfolio.
• I enjoyed that the class activities served both as a model for how to conduct similar activities, but also as a means for teaching the main points for each class.
• Group discussions - learning from classmate's experiences.
• Example documents were most helpful, e.g., teaching statements, how to annotate… Worksheets and modeling of activities such as jigsaw. Consultations, networking/socializing, handouts..
• Peer discussion of readings and theories of learning helped to expose my own ideas about a topic. Working with a group of people with an actual interest in teaching was a refreshing change from discussion with other departmental TA's.
• The activities and discussions besides providing a venue to express ideas, showed me ways in which I can develop activities in my own classroom.

What suggestions do you have for improving class activities and discussions?

• Jigsaw method was great, but sometimes it would have been nice to just look at something in its entirety in the small-group format - what's effective about teaching portfolios for example.
• Bringing in 1 piece of the portfolio in early to discuss with others. It was sometimes hard to hear the group when the class talked at same time. Maybe ask students to only speak loud enough so own group hears them.
• Discussions that begin with the whole class appeared less effective than those that began with small groups and had a whole-class component afterward.
• It might just be a personal bias, but I think if there were readings every week, which formed the basis for conversation, it might be more useful than some of the activities (all of which were useful) in which the substance was personal experience as opposed to reflecting on pedagogical issues.
• I would like to see more of the above (innovative methods). For whatever reason the discussions start to feel redundant toward the end - maybe have "teams" practice on the class as a whole?
• For group work, assign people to different groups more often so you work with a greater variety of people. I don't have specific suggestions but it'd be nice to have a bit more variety to in-class discussions - they seemed to always be "small groups --> big group."
• Talk more about other methods besides group and experiential learning. I would have liked to talk about improving lectures.
• Maybe a field trip to a C.C.
• I think they're great. Just the stuff we talked about during the bell exercise (more clear on timing).
• Without having much teaching experience, some of the activities were hard to get into. For example - the activity looking at student feedback. If you didn’t have any, you still got something out of it by thinking about the future, but when you were supposed to look at your feedback, it was solely devoted to looking at your partners.
• Any additional formats for in-class group work that you could include would be helpful.
• I would have liked to see more content regarding methods.
• Not sure, but the pacing felt hectic.
• I would have liked to have been given more reference, literature and authors related to the ideas discussed, not to read them in class but to have sources that I can use later when I refer back to some of these topics.

... helped me learn

...were useful in the development of my teaching statement and/or portfolio

... made good use of class time

What was most helpful to you about assignments for this class?

• Getting a teaching portfolio! Writing and getting feedback on the statement, compiling evaluations.
• Getting it done. Feedback.
• Putting vastly more time into my teaching statement than I would have otherwise, resulting in a much stronger final product.
• First of all, it made me write and re-write my teaching philosophy statement - and all the assignments required the type of reflection necessary in a portfolio.
• Each and everyone lead to a more developed portfolio and/or better sense of how it might serve my future goals.
• 3 step teaching portfolio/statement.
• Doing the teaching brief was most helpful because it helped me explore several activities I wouldn't have thought of doing.
• I really like the weekly emails/reminders. Schedules are busy and people forget.
• Multiple drafts of teaching philosophy. Perfect amount of work.
• I was "forced" (in a good way) to think about what kind of teacher I wanted to be. I liked having the opportunity to explore ideas I felt were interesting, not things solely assigned to me.
• The impetus to begin working on the materials I would need for any portfolio was very helpful, making the assignments something that will be helpful down the road is genius. Greatly improved my motivation.
• The 2 reviews of the teaching statement, and for me working on getting the content knowing I will tweak "written smoothness" later.
• The Teaching Brief and PTP were extremely helpful, also interesting.
• All were directly applicable to teaching statement, and fed into class projects.
• It was an opportunity to incorporate what I have learned and read during class and it force me to think more deeply (reflect) in my own teaching.

What suggestions do you have for improving assignments for this class?

• Although the amount of work is modest, it is still a little more than I would have liked, given that this class is an addition to my usual teaching and research.
• Not many - they served a very valuable and practical purpose.
• They sort of pile up at the end. Would it be possible to shift something earlier?
• Drop the "teaching brief" and instead do another assignment that is more directly tied into the portfolio. For example, the secondary piece that is due with the final draft of the statement could become a 'draft' piece as well.
• Include more variety in readings - inclusive teaching readings concentrated too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on other factors.
• Bring up the annotation, earlier, I was surprised to see it on our list of "To Do's" last week. Although I could have overlooked it.
• The creating of a second piece of your teaching portfolio was hard if you don't have a lot of prior experience. Maybe a second assignment for those people about a plan to develop teaching experiences for portfolio.
• More feedback early on with the practical teaching exercise.
• Seem rock solid to me.
• Seeing T.S. examples before first draft would be useful. Having a starting point might make the rough draft easier.
• Maybe give more examples of what other student have done in the past (teaching briefs, teaching statement, …) maybe have them available on the web.

... how to more effectively help students learn

... how to reflect on and systematically document my teaching

... what to do next to continue developing as a teacher

The next time we offer this course, what should we keep?

• Assignments - very useful! Small group discussions. Putting teaching briefs online is good.
• Meeting with instructors, PTP, drafts of teaching statement, jigsaw activity.
• Small-group activities, many drafts of teaching statement, out-of-class meetings about the statement.
• The assignments, the readings etc. - most everything.
• I would keep basically everything except maybe the Teaching Brief - or maybe just modify this one. Could you more strongly encourage an interdisciplinary goal for this assignment. Maybe ask for team work?
• Reviewing other, successful portfolios, was great. I really liked the jigsaw exercise - definitely something that I will use in the future. Also - one-on-on meetings were super helpful.
• Teaching briefs, statement, information on teaching documentation, information on developing as an instructor.
• Teaching philosophy Practical teaching
• Multiple drafts of teaching statement, I felt like I have a better refined product at the end. The one-on-one interviews on the teaching statement were extremely beneficial. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule.
• Working on the teaching portfolio.
• I would keep the outside class assignments, and the examples of different coursework. I also found the email notifications/reminders about the coursework very helpful.
• The assignments were good.
• Teaching Brief & PTP. I liked weeks 6-8 the best, though I couldn't remember what we did in class earlier in any detail.
• Everything? I can't think of any assignments or activities that were ineffective. Group discussions were occasionally hectic, but they were well-timed and conveyed a lot of information in a short amount of time. Keep weekly deadlines! Even thought I'm excited about the topic, other things often demanded more attention, and having deadlines/assignments really helped me force myself to spend time on the class.

The next time we offer this course, what should we change?

• Should add reading(s) on community college students. The discussion in class was based on student perceptions which can be very problematic in that you could reinforce negative stereotypes ("not good students") (not as good).
• Some of the readings (sorry I can't be specific, I don’t remember names), some of the discussions involving the whole class (which sometimes got bogged down).
• It would be nice to have more discipline - specific advice/help. But these might not be the appropriate context. Some sort of awareness of the audience and conventions of the discipline-specific teaching portfolio would be valuable.
• All of the teaching philosophy drafts and examples were super useful. Also, the individual meetings were great, thank you for spending that extra time!
• Less of looking at other people's portfolios and criticizing them. More variety in readings - more evidence-based studies, perhaps.
• Didn't really understand importance of Teaching Practical. We only spent 1/2 a class on it.
• Be more clear with objectives of teaching brief…but I was probably the only one who completely missed the mark. Also, I think that having the class at the start or end of day, rather than in the middle, would be much, much better.
• I know it is hard to really delve into true aspects of teaching I don't know if it is better to leave it out or just touch on it.
• I don't know if this will happen, but feedback on the final project would be really helpful.
• Perhaps spend more time developing the practical teaching exercise --> more feedback on proposal.
• Maybe talk more about interpreting/responding to student rankings, since these are so commonly used in departments. I liked the jigsaw activity but thought the articles weren't that helpful. Grids don't always work.
• A class discussion board or website with extra references might be nice. (The references would be helpful for following up on different angles from class, though that's always limited more by student time than resource availability).
• I would add a virtual forum where the students can continue some of the discussions, brainstorm, share ideas on projects they are working on, etc.

Any other comments?

• Great class - thanks!
• Include a reading about teaching underrepresented students in the sciences - something with best practices; could be using a program institutions that support students of color.
• Not really. Very much enjoyed it and found it helpful. Thanks!
• A great class which expanded my sense of how to incorporate my teaching into my professional/academic goals and career planning.
• Thanks - it was a fun class and I feel as though I made some new friends including you two and that I have a good "network" for future prep with teaching and job searching.
• Maybe a discussion (or outline) at the beginning of each class so that we can remember what was discussed last time.
• You both do an excellent job of demonstrating how a class should be conducted. Objectives were clear. Time was well-managed. Learning was a collaborative effort.
• Really appreciated all the resources you pointed out. CIDR website/materials are excellent.
• This class was very useful, and really a lot of fun. Again, having a chance to interact with other interested in teaching and learning was a welcome change, and Jennie & Wayne did a great job of facilitating discussion. I really appreciated the time and effort they spent to make this a good and thorough class.
• Yes,…thank you!!!!

206.543.6588 (phone)
206.685.1213 (fax)
email: cidr@u.washington.edu
web: http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/