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EARLY CAREER ACADEMY

This academy is available according to faculty/staff interest.

 

Climbing the Ladder to Successful Teaching, Scholarship and Service

Since the inception of the New Faculty Academy, we have had requests to develop similar experiences for faculty members who have been at FGCU for some time. The Lucas Center for Faculty Development has developed an annual academy to support faculty at early career (Instructor I, Assistant Professor, Assistant Librarian). The topics we cover and the tools we will provide will prepare, lead, guide, and challenge you to define your goals for the next 3-5 years, to support the attainment of your goals and identify how to integrate the three areas of faculty work with your personal and professional life. Imagining what your career can look like will prepare you to be an agent for your own growth and development. We hope you join fellow faculty members as they explore and plan their future career path.

Dates: TBD
Time: 9am - 11:30am
Location: LIB 221 (Lucas Center)

 

For more information, please contact us at lucascenter@fgcu.edu or 239-590-1282.

New Faculty Academy

Overview 

All new resident faculty hires at FGCU with less than two years of university teaching experience (not including graduate assistantships, teaching assistantships or adjunct teaching) are required to enroll.  Other new faculty may enroll, if there is space available. 

Becoming an effective educator takes more than just content knowledge. It takes more than merely implementing a syllabus and it doesn’t happen in a linear way. It’s hard work, reiterative and can be a life-altering experience ranging from intellectual highs to emotional lows. Teaching and learning happen within a social environment and demand a relationship between you and your students. It’s a learning process that never ends. Most professors have not had any course work in teaching and learning but are expected to just "know" how to teach well. Some professors are gifted with exceptional people skills and make their way in the classroom with those gifts. Others try different techniques or flounder around trying to find ways to reach their students. For many, some immersion in learning theory, course design, behavior management and reflection makes learning how to teach a more successful endeavor.

 This course is for new (and relatively new) educators at FGCU.  It is built upon the belief that while no one can make one a better teacher, new faculty members can be given the tools to develop their own “teacher persona” through reading, discussing, reflecting, and practicing.  Along the way they have opportunities for feedback from the instructor, other faculty members and their peers.  The goal is to equip our new colleagues with skills that will set them on the path of teaching effectiveness.

This course is divided into 4 units:

  1. Designing a Course
  2. Teaching Strategies
  3. Assessing Learning
  4. My Academic Life

NFA is offered during the fall term on Friday mornings from 9 AM  - 11:30 AM in LIB 221.

For more information, please contact us at lucascenter@fgcu.edu or 239-590-1282.

Peer Observation of Teaching

PURPOSE

Formative Feedback

PROCESS

At the Lucas Center we view peer observation of teaching (POT) as an effective mechanism for assisting faculty to achieve their professional goals related to the art and science of teaching. Research strongly suggests that POT (being observed and observing others) can provide an opportunity for collegial conversations about teaching, while also enabling reflective practice and providing opportunities for the provision of developmental advice (Drew et al., 2016; Hammersley-Fletcher & Orsmond, 2005; Hendry & Oliver, 2012; Pressick-Kilborn & te Riele, 2008).

In order to most closely align POT with the mission, vision, and goals of the Lucas Center, we employ a coaching model that conceptualizes POT as a formative, collaborative, and developmental series of activities conducted between a Lucas Center representative and a faculty member who wishes to engage in a dialogue about her/his teaching (in contrast to a summative, more formally evaluative approach used by some institutions). In this spirit of mutuality, all observers commit to opening their classrooms to observation by those they observe.

Despite our intention to enact a process that is useful and fulfilling for both the faculty member being observed and the observer, we acknowledge that vulnerability and concerns about judgment are inherent in the process. Therefore, we ensure that confidentiality is built into the POT procedure, and written reports are provided directly and only to the observed faculty members when requested. Peer observers are encouraged to share their experiences of and feelings about being observed in their own classes in order to foster trust and mutuality in the observation process.

The Lucas Center will not provide letters or reports attesting to the quality or effectiveness of one’s teaching based on a single observation. However, when faculty members provide a clear set of learning objectives for a given lesson during the pre-observation meeting, observers can comment on the extent to which those objectives have been achieved.

PROCEDURE

Faculty wishing to schedule an observation should follow these steps.

  1. At least three weeks before the class session you would like observed, contact the Lucas Center to ensure an observer is available and to arrange a pre-observation consultation.
  2. Email your observer the course syllabus and any materials you believe would help her/him better understand your goals for the class and how you intend to accomplish them.
  3. Attend a brief (typically 15 – 30 minutes) pre-observation meeting, during which you will a) discuss your general approach to teaching and any specific elements of your lesson (e.g., teaching methods, style, student engagement) about which you would like feedback and b) learn about the observer’s approach to conducting an observation.
  4. Within a week of the observed class, participate in a post-observation meeting, during which you and the observer will discuss your respective perceptions of the class, and the observer will provide feedback and suggestions (often including detailed descriptive notes) typically in direct response to the areas of focus discussed in the pre-observation meeting. 

We strongly believe that peer observation of teaching can play a valuable role for all faculty who engage in a reflective process of professional improvement. We hope to visit many of your classrooms and encourage you to observe the teaching of Lucas Center personnel at your convenience.

TRAINED PEER OBSERVERS

  • Menaka Navaratna

  • Alayde Barbosa

  • Angel Taylor

  • Tatiana Schuss

  •  Brenda Thomas

  •  Lynn Jaffe

  •  Erik Insko

  •  Tanya Huffman

  • Roderick Rolle

For more information, please contact us at lucascenter@fgcu.edu or 239-590-1282.

2020 Southwest Florida Symposium on Teaching and Learning:

Active Learning Across the Disciplines

This year’s Southwest Florida Symposium on Teaching and Learning (formerly Lucas Symposium) is a collaboration between FGCU’s Lucas Center and FSW’s Teaching and Learning Center that will focus on the actions we as members of an educational community take to promote active learning in various classroom settings. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend.

2019 agenda 2020 agenda

Questions? Contact lucascenter@fgcu.edu or tlc@fsw.edu

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