Dr Richard Baker




home about me teaching research graduates examples resources jobs	Dr Richard Baker : Teaching : Ideas from the University of Washington, Seattle Supporting teaching innovation: Ideas from the University of Washington, Seattle Richard.Baker@anu.edu.au In 1999 I spent two months at the Center of Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) at the University of Washington (UW) examining teaching methods, teaching support and teaching evaluation. I did this by working with CIDR staff and academics from the departments of Geography, Anthropology, Public History, Community and Environment Planning, Public Policy and the Program on the Environment. UW has about 5,000 staff, 38,000 students in 16 schools and colleges on 3 campuses and is a major research university. For the last 25 years it as been one of the USA's top 5 institutions in the dollar value of federal research grants and contracts awarded its academic staff. As well as differences in how staff talk to students there are many other fascinating contrasts between here and there. In particular I was struck by how UW has greater: commitment to and support for teaching excellence engagement with the community cross departmental and faculty collaboration flexibility in student course structure post-graduate course work. Some reflections on the two systems Things that we can not emulate Expectation that everyone will get a job Outside financial support - it helps to have the richest man in the world in town High regard that universities are held in - will take long term change here Economies of scale (UW 38,000 students, 280 million people in country, specialised depts) A cultural that produces articulate confident students Touchy feely approaches One week from the end of exams to graduation ceremonies! Things that I don't think we should emulate 4 quarters a year - "wham-bam thank you the quarter is over" teaching state based system/ differential fees for in and out of state students low level of intellectual rigour of first year, emphasis on quiz tests eg multiple choice MacDonalization of education - 100 London campuses, Kellogization of PhDs Grade inflation, high % getting 3.9 or 4 out of 4 What might be translatable Greater engagement with the community - Americans argue that this is the reason for the high regard that Unis are held in Graduate course work Greater involvement of post-grads as teaching assistants Systematic process of support for new staff and post-graduate students who are teaching Support for cross dept/faculty courses Greater flexibility in course structures (UW has 1-6 credit point courses, eg Geography has 1 point courses for attending a weekly seminar where each staff members talk about what research they do and what drives their research interests) Broad undergraduate education Involving alumni money in supporting teaching Some UW strategies for teaching excellence Annual workshops on teaching and learning sponsored by the Office of the Provost which anyone can attend Quarterly forum on teaching and learning Support for internships and service learning (contact me if you want web page details) Departmental Self Studies, Departmental Teaching Awards (Brotman Award) - and every teaching award (individual or departmental) is associated with a forum to exchange ideas Demonstrated ability to teach essential for promotion Culture within the university that values teaching excellence General interest in pedagogy, focus on active learning strategies - as part of this there has been a conscious shift from focusing on teaching to learning Two week paid retreat each year for teaching development President took 1% off all budgets for 5 years to fund innovative plans for interdisciplinary or service-community learning - current president made an enormous change in short time he has been there Acknowledge excellence eg college of teaching excellence, board of excellent teachers the advisory board for CIDR http://www.washington.edu/oue/academy/ CIDRs use of Small Group Instructional Developments to create a culture of teaching evaluation being directly linked to course development and improvement (used as a strategy to raise credibility of CIDR on campus). Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) Staff of 24, about 1/3 permanent consultants, 1/3 support staff and 1/3 graduate students who spend a year as "staff consultants". Resources include their own video filming room. CIDR is quite distinct from the Office of Educational Assessment (OEA) that does all the end of course evaluations. OEA has a long history in this regard. Student ratings started in 1925. Currently used in more than 7000 UW courses and have done 20,000 course evaluations in last 4 years and done many more for 20 other institutions around the country that it contracts out its services to. It has a detailed web site where you can get mean rankings on 20 different aspects of your teaching that can be corrected against a large list of variables - ie your discipline, class size, your marking standards etc. CIDR's main functions: Course planning and development Instructional consultation, assist with the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, class observations, videoing, micro-teaching, SGIDs - Small Group Instructional Developments Assistance in teaching writing skills eg designing writing assignments, criteria for grading, alternative approaches eg in class writing, journals, OWLS on line writing workshops Research into teaching and learning Current CIDR research Student evaluations vary with class size and grading toughness What students are doing when they fill out forms - getting students alone in a room as they fill out their forms and asking them to think aloud as they do it. Longitudinal research on the graduate student experience of "becoming a teaching scholar"

Ideas from the University of Washington, Seattle