HILT Grants: Faculty Focus on Teaching

TL;DR

Educators at the EDD School are using virtual visits to share teaching techniques and engage in collective reflective practice.

Transcript

you know we're sitting here in the largest Amphitheatre at the edge school a beautiful auditorium where we hold terrific forums but neither I nor any of my colleagues and the EDD school faculty like to teach in this room and the reason is that we'd like to engage learners in many different ways not sitting passively in fixed chairs but working with... Read More

Key Insights

• 💨 The EDD School faculty seeks to enhance teaching by engaging learners in different ways and sharing teaching techniques.
• 🥺 Physical visits to each other's classrooms were challenging to arrange, leading to the adoption of virtual visits.
• 🪈 Virtual visits involve recording classroom sessions, selecting segments for reflection, and conducting interviews with instructors.
• 🫵 Materials from virtual visits are posted on a dedicated website for faculty to view and reflect on.
• 🧑‍🏫 Discussion group meetings facilitate collective reflective practice and deeper discussions about teaching techniques and purposes.
• 🧑‍🏫 The focus on teaching project encourages faculty members to experiment and learn from each other's classrooms.
• ❓ The virtual visit initiative is made possible through support from the learning Technology Center and a hilt grant.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why does the EDD School faculty prefer not to teach in the school's largest Amphitheatre?

The faculty wants to engage learners in different ways, such as working interactively and in small groups, instead of having passive learning in fixed chairs.

Q: What challenges did the faculty face in arranging physical visits to each other's classrooms?

Coordinating schedules, spending hours in other classrooms, and the preparation and debriefing time made it difficult for many faculty members to take advantage of the opportunity.

Q: How are virtual visits conducted at the EDD School?

The sessions are video recorded, unedited segments are selected to showcase interesting pedagogy, and the instructor is interviewed about their intentions and reflections on the session. The materials are then posted on a dedicated website for faculty to view and reflect on.

Q: What is the purpose of holding discussion group meetings among faculty after viewing the virtual visit materials?

The meetings serve as a platform for collective reflective practice, where faculty members discuss teaching techniques, purposes in various kinds of teaching, and how different techniques serve those purposes.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The EDD School faculty wants to engage learners in various ways and share teaching techniques and understandings about pedagogy.

• The focus on teaching project encourages faculty to visit each other's classrooms and exchange feedback.

• Virtual visits are now being facilitated, where classrooms are recorded and selected segments are shared online for reflection and discussion among faculty.