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These pages contain general resources for faculty and instructors, as well as information specifically for new faculty, and faculty teaching first-year seminars (FYS). Faculty may log into the FYS pages by using the format "clarku\username" and Clark password.
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Faculty Opportunities and Resources
- Currents In Teaching and Learning is now accepting
submissions for its Spring 2009 issue. For more information
about this publication and how to submit, please click
here.
- Educational and Professional Development workshops are frequently held for
faculty,
graduate students, and
undergraduates. Visit our
events page to
learn about upcoming workshops.
- Peer Learning Assistants are undergraduate students
selected by the faculty member to facilitate teaching and learning
activities that might otherwise be difficult for the faculty member to carry
out by him/herself. Experience at other institutions and in several
FYSs and other introductory level courses at Clark has shown that PLAs are
most useful in facilitative roles, e.g. giving students feedback on early
drafts of writing, leading small group discussions, working with individual
students who are having difficulty, facilitating group project work (in or
out of class), and/or facilitating online discussions on Blackboard. Because
they are undergraduates, as is the practice at Clark, PLAs do not grade
student work, and they generally do not have the content expertise to serve
as substitutes for graduate teaching assistants. PLAs are paid $8.50 per
hour (AY06-07) from federal work-study funds or from other institutional
funds, or some choose to take academic credit (e.g. independent study or
directed reading) for their work. PLAs generally work about 10-15 hr/wk.
CETL offers:
1. Assistance in redesigning your course to incorporate the inquiry based
learning that PLAs can help to facilitate.
2. Logistical assistance for hiring and managing PLAs.
3. Training for PLAs and the faculty who employ them.
To discuss how PLAs might help improve your students’ learning while
reducing your workload, please contact Judy Miller at
judmiller@clarku.edu.
- We offer confidential individual teaching consultations
to anyone who teaches at Clark, including full time and part time faculty
and graduate teaching assistants. Consultations are typically requested when
an instructor has a specific teaching area in which s/he has questions or
wishes to improve, but can also be requested for more general teaching
feedback. A consultation typically begins with a meeting to determine your
interests and needs and to review your course. If you wish, we may proceed
to one or more classroom observations, with written feedback provided,
and/or continue with additional meetings. Other possibilities include, but
are not limited to, videotaping your class and reviewing your student
ratings. You make the decisions, and we tailor the consultation to your
needs and available time. Most importantly, the consultation is completely
confidential. Unless you choose to share information or reports with other
people, no one else will ever know that the consultation took place, let
alone its content or results. Consultations are done by
Judy Miller.
- The Colleges of Worcester Consortium
Certificate in College Teaching Program.
The certificate program is designed for graduate students, adjunct faculty, and full-time faculty who are either pursuing or engaging in a career in academia. This program offers graduate students and faculty the opportunity to learn best practices in college teaching with the theoretical background that supports it. Courses may be taken “a la carte” or in pursuit of the 1.5-unit Certificate in College Teaching. Clark faculty and graduate students may qualify for
tuition reimbursement
for Certificate courses. The Certificate in College
Teaching Program was recently featured in an article in the
Teaching Professor Newsletter.
Faculty Resource Documents
TA
Feedback and Evaluation Process
First Year Seminar Opportunities for Faculty
What are First-Year Seminars?
First Year seminars (FYS) offer a marvelous opportunity for faculty to
showcase their “learning through inquiry” approach to the liberal arts. In these
courses, faculty support students in the development of academic and
professional skills while working closely with students in an intimate classroom
setting. In a FYS, faculty engage in active and collaborative dialogue with a
group of no more than 16 students who share intellectual interests. By enabling
faculty to convey their passion for research to first year students, these
courses have proved to be an excellent way for departments to recruit new
majors.
In first year seminars faculty explore an academic area in depth and work
closely with students at the start of their college career. The small size of
each seminar creates an environment conducive to lively discussions and active
learning. First year seminars focus on helping students develop core academic
skills, including reading, writing, speaking, thinking, arguing, and creative
expression, all at a college level of intellectual sophistication.
Research shows that good teaching and good advising go hand in hand, thus FYS
faculty act as academic adviser to the students in their FYS until their major
is declared in the sophomore year. All faculty advisers are provided with
training and support to assist them in the advising of first-year students
during their crucial transition to life at Clark.
Above all, first year seminars provide an ideal setting for creating a
community of learners who go on to do remarkable work. Not surprisingly, data on
student performance and retention confirms that on average, Clarkies who enroll
in first year seminars have stronger academic records as sophomores, juniors,
and seniors and are also more likely to graduate on schedule than those who
don’t take a FYS. Every first year seminar fulfills one of the Program in
Liberal Studies (PLS) requirements, and several are writing intensive courses
that carry a Verbal Expression (VE) designation.
In the 2006-2007 academic calendar year, Clark offered 25 first year seminars
(up from 16 as recently as Fall 2002), which meant that we had enough seats to
accommodate 70 percent of our incoming students. Next year, Clark aims to offer
30 first year seminars, which would raise our capacity to 80 percent. Faculty in
those departments where the curriculum is less well suited to the first year
seminar format are strongly encouraged to continue thinking about innovative
ways to engage new students in a “learning through inquiry” mode.
Our ultimate goal is to build a rich and broad curriculum in which we offer
every student the opportunity to take a special FY course (a seminar, a research
group, or similar undertaking) designed to introduce them to Clark’s distinctive
learning environment. Two currently active projects that support this long-term
goal are:
Difficult
Dialogues: The Ford Foundation has funded a two-year Difficult Dialogues
project at Clark directed by Sarah Buie and Bill Fisher. Faculty interested in
building a “difficult dialogue” component into their first year seminars for
Fall 2007 can apply for summer stipend money available to facilitate this work.
Please contact Sarah ( sbuie@clarku.edu )
if you are interested in learning more about the possibilities.
Learn
through Inquiry: With funding from the Davis Educational Foundation, we plan
to develop six new learn-through-inquiry based FY seminars in each of the next
two academic years. Faculty who participate will receive a $2000 stipend in
return for participating in an ongoing program of faculty development,
evaluation of student learning across courses, and mentoring of the next year’s
faculty. Participation in this program is by application. Contact Judy Miller (
judmiller@clarku.edu ) for more
information.
The Academic Advising Center,
CETL, and the Difficult Dialogues project work closely together to provide
encouragement and support for faculty who have been or who are willing to become
involved in the FY seminar program.
First year seminars change from year to year. The following list offers some
examples of seminars that were offered in the past. For additional information
about a particular seminar, we encourage faculty to exchange e-mail with the
faculty member teaching the specific course. This is a great way to gain from
the experience of faculty while developing your own focus for a FYS. For details
about a specific course being offered for the upcoming year and the faculty
member teaching the course, go to:
http://www.clarku.edu/offices/aac/fys.cfm
First Year Seminars in Fall 2006
BINF 100 - DECODING MYSTERY OF LIFE
BIOL 040 - BRAIN AND ENVIRONMENT
CHEM 103 - ACCELERATED INTRO TO CHEM
CHEM 103 - LAB FOR FY SEM IN CHEM
CHEM 103 - LAB FOR FY SEM IN CHEM
CMLT 117 - NARRATIVES: HEBREW BIBLE
CMLT 129 - REVLTN IN HISPANIC CULTURE
COMM 050 - COMM & CULTURE: MAIN SOUTH
COMM 050 - DISC FOR COMM 050
CSCI 100 - ART AND COMPUTING
CSCI 110 - INVESTIGATING SOUND
ECON 100 - INTL ENVIRO POLICY
ECON 100 - INTL ENVIRO POLICY
EN 124 - GLBL WARMING
ENG 103 - POETICS: SEX, DRUGS & ROCK
ENG 104 - WALDEN TODAY
ENG 131 - LATINO/A BORDERLANDS
ENG 132 - CONTEMPRY WOMEN ESSAYISTS
ENG 147 - SHAPING FANTASIES
GEOG 090 - NATIVE AMER/NATRL RESRCES
GEOG 152 - GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBALIZATION
GES 090 - NATIVE AMER/NATRL RESRCES
GOVT 101 - GENDER GAP IN AMER POLITICS
GOVT 102 - POLITICAL SCIENCE FICTION
HGS 090 - NATIVE AMER/NATRL RESRCES
HIST 037 - 19TH C AMER: WOMEN'S EYES
HIST 117 - NARRATIVES: HEBREW BIBLE
JS 117 - NARRATIVES: HEBREW BIBLE
MATH 110 - EXPLORING EMOTION SPACE
PHIL 104 - AIDS PANDEMIC
PHIL 109 - LIFE&TIMES OF DAVID HUME
PHIL 109 - LIFE&TIMES OF DAVID HUME
PSYC 191 - PSYC OF MEN & MASCULINITY
PSYC 192 - PSYCHOLOGY OF NONVIOLENCE
SOC 090 - SWEATSHOPS IN GLOB CONTEXT
SOC 137 - RACE/ETHNC ACROSS BORDERS
SPAN 129 - REVLTN IN HISPANIC CULTURE
TA 153 - MODERN DRAMA
WS 037 - 19TH C AMER: WOMEN'S EYES
WS 090 - SWEATSHOPS IN GLOB CONTEXT
WS 101 - GENDER GAP IN AMER POLITICS
WS 102 - POLITICAL SCIENCE FICTION
First Year Seminars in Fall 2005
ARTS 025/PHIL 025: EROS AND THANATOS
ARTS 101: IMAGING THE COSMOS: DRAWING THE WORLD FROM MICRO TO MACRO
CSCI 100: CAN COMPUTERS THINK?
CLAS 157/HIST 157: THE AGE OF NERO
CMLT 150: JOURNEYS WITH HYPHENATED AMERICANS: EMERGING IDENTITIES, EVOLVING
CULTURES
COMM 50: COMMUNICATION & CULTURE IN MAIN SOUTH
ECON 100: EFFICIENCY, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM
ENG 115: SPECULATIVE FICTION
FREN 112 / CMLT 112 / WS 112: FAIRY TALES OF THE WORLD GEOG 010: NATURE AND
CULTURE
GEOG 050: AFRICA TODAY: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
GEOG 088: LIGHT MY FIRE: THE BURNING OF AMERICA
GOVT 102 / WS 102: WOMEN AND WAR
HIST 033 / AS 033: CONFUCIANISM, DAOISM, BUDDHISM: THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF
CHINA ID 011 / MGMT 011 / UDSC 011: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
JS 117: READING THE NARRATIVES OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
MUSC 128: MUSIC AND WORDS
PHIL 106: SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND REALITY
PHIL 112: THE PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS AQUINAS
PHYS 040 / EDUC 040: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
PSYC 193 / COMM 195: DISCOURSE, SELF AND GENDER
TA 012: HOW TO ACT RIGHT-ON AND OFF THE STAGE
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