Faculty Opportunities and Resources
- Currents In Teaching and Learning is now accepting
submissions for its Spring 2012 issue (deadline is November
15th, 2011). 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 Mary-Ellen Boyle or Danny Fontaine.
- 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
Mary-Ellen Boyle.
- 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.
- There are a number of local and national conference and workshops on effective teaching and learning. Please check out our External Events page for a listing. Please note that if you are interested in attending, CETL can provide partial funding.
Faculty Resource Documents
TA Feedback and Evaluation Process