University of Calgary Teaching Academy
In 2014, the inaugural year of the University of Calgary’s Teaching Awards program, 18 educators were recognized for their contributions to teaching excellence at the U of C. The 2014 award winners became known as the Teaching Academy, a group of “on-the-ground” professionals who were interested in supporting the development of individual and collective teaching practices at the U of C. The Teaching Academy met for the first time in May, 2014 to discuss the identity of the group and to decide how group members would like to offer teaching and learning support. Robin Mueller, an educational development consultant and faculty member at the Educational Development Unit of the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, led the Teaching Academy’s development over a ten month period in alignment with an action research model of inquiry.
Within 18 months of formation, the Teaching Academy group articulated a purpose and principles of practice, designed a teaching support framework, determined objectives for each support type within the framework, and achieved pilot implementation of all three of the three support types featured within their teaching support model (see Figure 1). While the group has provided targeted support to new instructors at the U of C as part of their pilot initiatives, they have also built on the principles of inclusivity, collegiality, and interdisciplinarity by supporting teaching development, dialogue, and collaboration across a broad range of University of Calgary colleagues.
The Teaching Academy has shifted to an advisory sub-committee model of operation, meaning that Teaching Academy members continue to contribute to the development of the group in an individualized and sustainable manner. Teaching Academy members are also contributing to an Educational Development Unit research project that has been designed to investigate and evaluate the group’s depth, breadth, and impact of activity.
Documentation and Materials
Teaching Academy Planning Document Spring 2015
Teaching Academy Poster_STLHE 2015
Campus Alberta Teaching Summit – Teaching Academy highlighted as a strategic effort to foster teaching networks of practice
Teaching Academy’s Open Classroom Week
Teaching Academy’s Peer to Peer Teaching Mentorship – Expression of Interest
Assessment Strategies and Results
The newly established assessment and evaluation sub-committee of the Teaching Academy will work together to finalize an assessment plan for the Teaching Academy as a whole by early 2016.
An Open Classroom Week research project is also being conducted by Robin Mueller (EDU faculty) and Meadow Schroeder (Teaching Academy member). The project has been designed to assess the learning and teaching development benefits of participating as an observer during Open Classroom Week.
Reflection and Impact
The Teaching Academy contributes in a unique way to both the practice and scholarship of teaching and learning at the University of Calgary.
Current research regarding teaching awards programs in higher education clearly indicates the purpose of awards, but does not extend our understanding beyond the offer of the award to determining how winners continue to support teaching development on their campuses. The Teaching Academy contributes to this gap in understanding by providing a practical model for engaging teaching award winners in a sustained influence on campus-wide teaching development. The Teaching Academy also serves as a mechanism to forge, develop, and foster teaching networks of practice at the University of Calgary. Networks of practice have been theoretically conceptualized in higher education, but the Teaching Academy offers a specific case example of networks in action. The interdisiciplinary nature of the University of Calgary Teaching Awards program ensures that teaching networks of practice mobilized by Teaching Academy members continue to create capacity for teaching development across disciplines and the campus as a whole.
The Teaching Academy will move forward by shifting to an advisory sub-committee model of operation, in order to ensure that Teaching Academy members have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the group in ways that are meaningful and sustainable. The three support types offered by the Teaching Academy will continue to be refined by advisory sub-committee members, and will be assessed on an ongoing basis.
ePortfolio post author: Robin Alison Mueller