Information about teaching-related mentoring and Communities of Practice.
- Where can I find a teaching mentor?
- Who can give me feedback on my teaching?
- What options are there to join a teaching community of practice at Duke?
- How can I connect with other faculty who are involved with the assessment of learning?
Where can I find a teaching mentor?
- The Thompson Writing Program mentors graduate students who teach writing.
- The Bass Society of Fellows is an elected group of Duke’s most celebrated educators. Fellows will mentor other instructors on teaching practice, upon request. Contact: Dr. Seun Bello Olamuso, seun.olamosu@duke.edu.
- Office of Faculty Advancement provides an institutional membership to National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD and Association for Women in Science (AWIS), both of which offer workshops and programs on various aspects of faculty life.
- The Graduate School’s Preparing Future Faculty program connects graduate and postdoc fellows with faculty mentors at nearby colleges and universities.
- Academic Resource Center (ARC) learning consultants work with faculty in departments served by a large population of ARC students, for example Computer Science, Math, Chemistry, and Biology, although other departments may also be served.
- Other than these programmatic options, we recommend that faculty ask experienced teaching colleagues in their departments if they are available to mentor on teaching practice.
Who can give me feedback on my teaching?
- Duke Learning Innovation (DLI) can consult and advise on teaching but does not perform evaluative teaching observations. We recommend and are happy to conduct Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIFs) to gather student feedback on teaching, and Visit a Classroom to gather ideas for your own teaching by observing others. You may also choose to engage in Peer Evaluation of Teaching.
- Via the Teaching Triangles peer teaching observation program, grad students participating in the Certificate in College Teaching program (and other instructors at Duke) can observe others’ teaching to get ideas for their own practice (like the Visit a Classroom program mentioned above, Teaching Triangles is not evaluative but rather generative).
- The Academic Resource Center (ARC) learning consultants can provide feedback on courses and student learning, in courses where there is a reported student need.
- Self-reflection via journaling can be useful or faculty can video-record themselves teaching and review the recording with a colleague or self-review using an established teaching observation rubric or checklist (several are linked here).
What options are there to join a teaching community of practice at Duke?
- Intellectual Community Planning Grants (deadline: November 15, 2021): The Provost’s Office offers support to faculty who are interested in convening a group of colleagues to begin or test a new collaboration around a shared intellectual interest. Any Duke regular rank faculty member, from any discipline, is eligible to propose and form a new collaborative group.
- Teaching for Equity Fellows is a year-long fellowship that gives faculty tools to better engage all students in our classrooms, labs, and learning spaces. The program is specifically designed to address a number of teaching and mentoring topics that may arise around race and identity. Faculty Fellows gain specific skills and strategies to create a culture that improves learning for all our students.
- Duke Learning Innovation offers periodic Active Learning Faculty Fellowships and other Faculty Fellowships focused on various teaching topics. DLI also encourages faculty to form their own Faculty Learning Communities and can help solicit faculty participants if you have a topic about which you’d like to engage with peers. Programs were suspended during the COVID response but we anticipate them restarting in May 2022 (with applications to open in early 2022). To keep apprised, subscribe to Learning Innovation’s email list.
- Duke Service-Learning offers consultations, workshops, and events for faculty teaching service-learning and community-engaged courses to reflect on their teaching as a community of practice.
- Language, Arts & Media Program (LAMP) Bacca Fellowships are cohort programs for faculty designing courses and assignments in line with LAMP goals of teaching and teaching with contemporary communication (application opens annually).
- Bass Connections and Duke Learning Innovation periodically run the Collaborative Project Courses Faculty Fellows Program. This program supports faculty interested in designing courses in which student learning is driven by collaborative research, analysis, and communication on applied projects that extend across an entire semester.
- The Preparing Future Faculty program at Duke provides a yearlong experience for PhD students and postdocs to prepare them for the multiple roles they may be asked to assume as future faculty members in a variety of academic institutions.
- The Bass Digital Education Fellowship is a semester-long experience for Ph.D. students interested in digital education and online teaching. Fellows complete a hands-on project, and also participate in a concurrent colloquium where they and their peers solve course design challenges, engage with digital leaders within and outside the Duke community, and gain online teaching knowledge.
How can I connect with other faculty who are involved with the assessment of learning?
The Office of Assessment hosts regular workshops, information sessions, and discussions of learning outcomes assessment. You can see a list of past events here. To join a communications listserv for future events, please email assessment@duke.edu.