RevisingOutcomes


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====At CTE we believe that teaching is a skill that can be learned, and that reflective practice leads to improvement. These beliefs inform our programming for faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and teaching assistants. (Nicola wonders about the wording of the first sentence - could it be more inspirational? Also, for me, it suggests we think they don't know anything when they start - rather than 'teaching can be learned' - how about 'teaching can be developed/enhanced/improved/honed' or "good teaching can become great teaching" or something like that? [trevor agrees with nicola about not starting from a deficit model. Trevor also is of the opinion that we can focus on outcomes for now and the header statement before holidays]====

By engaging in a variety of CTE's professional development activities, instructors at the University of Waterloo will be able to do the following:
(Nicola - btw - overall I think these are powerful statements! - a nice mix at different levels)
 * 1) ====locate and use scholarly, procedural, and technical resources appropriate to their teaching context; (Nicola would want to think about the order of these - not sure I'd put this first)====
 * 2) ====apply self-knowledge and knowledge of teaching practices in their own discipline; (Nicola - "be able to articulate own teaching philosophy and how it impacts own practice")====
 * 3) ====develop effective instructional design skills; (Nicola- will people know what 'instructional design skills' are?)====
 * 4) ====develop skills for effective course delivery and facilitation for a variety of class sizes and course levels; (Nicola - but - they may be coming to us simply to develop for one thing in one context...)====
 * 5) ====respond confidently to dynamic teaching and learning environments; (Nicola - hm - how we will a) teach that, and b) assess it?)====
 * 6) ====identify, create, and engage in further development opportunities;====
 * 7) ====value, support, and respond to diversity such as cultural norms, global awareness, social perspectives, learning difficulties, and lives outside the classroom.====

Nicola wonders what each of us would add for our own areas that is not encompassed above? For example, I'd probably have a set just for SoTL work - e.g., "Develop effective SoTL research design skills" - I'm not sure what I do would necessarily contribute to the above - or if I said it did, might be a force fit... :-) Trevor does a smiley back at Nicola but makes it a vampire >:[ and suggests that, just as with academic departments that have vastly differing streams, we can go ahead and come up with outcomes for the main areas under our larger unit. That would be so cool! And they will fit with some, but not all, of the overall outcomes. Just like the core/elective debates in Depts and Programs, or the overall university outcomes versus program outcomes (remember that to major in Arts is to take about half one's courses in a particular program!), participants in our SOTL work may need also to take some hands on stuff for delivery and design skill enhancement if they are to meet all our outcomes. We don't expect people to meet them all in one particular timeframe like a degree program would, nor in a particular sequence. So it's a bit loosey goosey. But this does imply rethinking the first part of the outcomes (maybe By participating in a number of our offerings, learners will achieve some or all of the following...?)

Here's a slightly pared down version for comments, chopping, hacking, etc:

At CTE, we believe that teaching skills can be learned and that reflective practice leads to improvement. After participating in our professional development programming, Waterloo faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students should be able to: (Nicola really likes the list of people - can we add administrators?)


 * 1) put what they learn into practice and reflect on how new ways of teaching affect their practice and their students’ learning;
 * 2) design and facilitate learning activities and courses that include active learning principles appropriate to their teaching context;
 * 3) identify and apply relevant findings from higher education research literature, and contribute to that literature when possible;
 * 4) continue to develop their instructional design and delivery skills so they can respond confidently to a dynamic and diverse teaching and learning environment.

Mark's opinion: the pared down version is not as good as the non-pared down version. Verna agrees with Mark. The first version is easier to read. I would change teaching assistants to graduate students in the second sentence. Nicola advises caution in trying to put too many outcomes together in these statements. Trevor agrees with Mark, Verna and Nicola. This is the smush-it-all-together version and perhaps an example of holistic outcomes, described (but harder to map when omnibus like this).


 * This is the version of the outcomes that the liaisons worked on Nov 2nd.** We feel that this order reflects the most important outcomes: 1 - 4 relevant are for everyone, 5 and 6 are for the very engaged faculty member?

At CTE we believe that teaching is a skill that can be learned, and that reflective practice leads to improvement. These beliefs inform our programming for faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, and teaching assistants. By engaging in a variety of CTE's professional development activities, instructors at the University of Waterloo will be able to do the following:


 * 1) reflect on their own teaching and apply knowledge of effective teaching practices to their own discipline;
 * 2) develop effective instructional design skills;
 * 3) continue to develop their course delivery skills so they can respond confidently to a dynamic and diverse teaching and learning environment.
 * 4) value diversity, global awareness, social perspectives, and learning difficulties.
 * 5) identify, create, and engage in further development opportunities with colleagues; (learning Communities?)
 * 6) identify and apply relevant findings from higher education research literature, and contribute to that literature when possible;