Category: About the Centre

Over the last two terms, I’ve been scheduling and running CTE microteaching sessions for graduate students. Our  microteaching sessions (MTS) focus on providing feedback to the participants on their teaching skills. A series of three microteaching sessions is structured as a developmental cycle in which participants are presented with an opportunity to practice their teaching skills in a safe environment, having the opportunity to focus on their weaknesses and try new teaching techniques. The feedback is provided by 3-4 peer graduate students who participate in the microteaching, plus one Graduate Instructional Developer who facilitates the session. However, the feedback provided is constrained to a few components that we, as observers, have the capacity of noticing and writing down. There are still numerous other aspects of teaching that either go unnoticed, or fall outside the standard observation items in which most of the feedback is grounded.

At CTE, we are constantly trying to improve the quality and impact of our graduate development programs. This term we will offer video recorded microteaching sessions. Based on the experience of other teaching development programs that include a videotaped teaching component, video feedback provides one of the most effective, solid, and comprehensive tools to raise awareness of individual teaching strengths and weaknesses.

Starting on April 10th, 2012, we will offer a number of video recorded MTS  as an additional  tool for teaching development. These sessions will be available for all participants of our Fundamentals of University Teaching program and can be scheduled the same way as regular MTS. Each participant will receive a video of their mini-lesson  at the end of the session.

This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to do a self-review of their teaching after the event. Check out the the dates of upcoming sessions that will be video recorded by going to our website and schedule yours.

The safe environment of a microteaching in a peer group  presents the perfect opportunity to try new methods and improve teaching. See you around at upcoming sessions!

It can be so easy to get caught up in our daily tasks that we overlook all that we can celebrate.  I’m the first one to admit that the lure of a concrete task can sidetrack me from taking a step back and celebrating our accomplishments and contributions.  And yet those celebrations are so very important.

Just last month in CTE, we celebrated our move to EV1.  I wasn’t too sure how many people might join us at this event – there were no special attractions, no speeches, no official ribbon-cutting.  It was just an opportunity to come and find us in our new location and join us for cake and coffee.  And yet, we had a wonderful turnout.  It was exciting to welcome our colleagues and encouraging to know that they can now find us more easily another time.  We even had some fun with a trivia contest – congrats to Sandra Keyes from the Library for being able to answer my colleague Mark’s tricky questions!

We celebrated even more broadly by hosting the 6^th annual Loving to Learn Day.  In this case, we were celebrating learning.  My thanks go out to all of those who took the time to dream a little about what they would like to learn instantaneously.  And thanks as well to the man behind the scenes – Mark Morton.  CTE also celebrated learning within our own department, participating in a professional development day on February 16^th.  We shared what we have learned about various topic areas regarding “communication” and had fun together at the same time.

Do celebrations always have to involve fun?  Perhaps not in the same way as an official celebratory event.  Most recently, I have been spending time discussing performance appraisals with the staff in CTE.  These conversations may not involve cake, and yet they are still celebratory events to me.  We have an awesome team here (and no, I’m not biased!).  When I review their many accomplishments for the past year, I can clearly see how much they all contribute to the culture of teaching and learning at Waterloo.  My thanks go out to each and every staff member who makes CTE a great place to work!

So maybe I’m the only one who needs the reminder, but if you haven’t made the time to celebrate a noteworthy occasion – be it a milestone or the contribution of a colleague – I encourage you to do so.  It may help to renew your energy enough to get you through your next task…

I teach a course on teamwork. It’s an elective in the WatPD program, which is a suite of courses completed by UW’s undergraduate co-op students. When I tell people I teach a course on teamwork, their reaction usually involves something cringe-like followed by a story about a horrid group work experience they had when they were in school. To say people loathe group work might be an understatement. We usually commiserate briefly on the experience and then I start telling them a bit more about my course. Unlike other courses, which include group or team work as part of their assessment, my entire course is about teamwork, with the focus on teamwork in the workplace.

Students in the course develop their knowledge and skills related to teamwork in three ways: completing independent assignments related to the course content; participating in a team task; and reflecting on their own experiences with teamwork during their work terms, the course, and at school. I should mention, too, that this is an online course and so they must work as a virtual team to complete the task.

Something, however, has been nagging me about my course. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with the course and the opportunities it gives students to study teamwork and develop the relevant knowledge and skills. But I wonder if the course goes deep enough. My course focuses on what is needed for team success, such as building on individuals’ strengths, team processes, collaboration, etc. The course, currently, focuses on knowledge and skills. The missing piece is valuing teamwork. Does the course effectively convey the true value of working in a team? Will they recognize the subtleties surrounding personalities and politics that will impact team success just as much as lack of resources or time pressures? Will they understand that just as each individual brings their own strengths to the team, they might also bring their own agenda? How will they lead a team when given the chance? Will they be motivated to work collaboratively the next time the opportunity presents itself or will they, like others before them, cringe at the thought of teamwork?

So I sat down at lunch recently with a friend of mine who works in the private sector and asked him why, in his experience, teams failed. He had a long list, many of which focused on the people on the team, their personalities, leadership, differences in vision, politics, etc. He also spoke about challenges between teams, where one team will develop a new process without even realising how it will infringe on the processes of others. It’s not just the communication within the team, but among teams, that can be problematic.

Eventually, our conversation returned to my course and what might be missing. We talked about adding a simulation where teams would be formed and each student would be given a role to play, such as the leader, the loafer, the team player, etc. Each team would be given a scenario (we talked about using UW clubs as a potential option). Then, we talked about how to throw them a curve ball part way through the process, such as suddenly slashing their budget, having a team member simply disappear, having a couple of them try to take over control of the team, etc. I actually love the idea but, realistically, I’m unsure this would fly in the mediated environment of an online course.  I’m also unsure I’m ready to throw that curve ball.

For now, our conversation, recorded on the napkins shown in the above photo, has given me direction for change in my course. Teamwork is not just about knowledge and skills. For success, there must be an underlying trust, among team members, between the team and the workplace that surrounds it, and, most importantly, that teamwork really can lead to success. It has led me in many directions – problem-based learning, experiential learning, exploring the affective domain. I have enjoyed this journey, motivation to dig deeper into these areas. Now, it is time to put this theory into practice. As I move forward with this change, my next step is to figure out how to take all this theory and make it useful and practical as a teacher. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

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The Centre for Teaching Excellence welcomes contributions to its blog. If you are a faculty member, staff member, or student at the University of Waterloo (or beyond!) and would like contribute a posting about some aspect of teaching or learning, please contact Mark Morton or Trevor Holmes.