New Faculty Programs and Resources

Every year we offer and promote educational development opportunities for new instructors in part funded by an endowment by the John P. Ellbogen Foundation. 

 

 


New Faculty Book Baskets

The ECTL has an endowment from the Ellbogen Foundation for new faculty book baskets that we hand out during new faculty orientation. In addition to the baskets and some awesome swag, we including books on teaching and learning. This year’s books are:

How Learning Works

How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, 2nd Edition

What single factor makes for an excellent undergraduate education? As it turns out, it’s pretty simple: human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive and only an option at elite institutions where instructors have the luxury of time with students. But in this revelatory book brimming with the voices of students, faculty, and staff from across the country, Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert argue that relationship-rich environments can and should exist for all students at all types of institutions.

In Relationship-Rich Education, Felten and Lambert demonstrate that for relationships to be central in undergraduate education, colleges and universities do not require immense resources, privileged students, or specially qualified faculty and staff. All students learn best in an environment characterized by high expectation and high support, and all faculty and staff can learn to teach and work in ways that enable relationship-based education. Emphasizing the centrality of the classroom experience to fostering quality relationships, Felten and Lambert focus on students’ influence in shaping the learning environment for their peers, as well as the key difference a single, well-timed conversation can make in a student’s life. They also stress that relationship-rich education is particularly important for first-generation college students, who bring significant capacities to college but often face long-standing inequities and barriers to attaining their educational aspirations.

Drawing on nearly 400 interviews with students, faculty, and staff at 29 higher education institutions across the country, Relationship-Rich Education provides readers with practical advice on how they can develop and sustain powerful relationship-based learning in their own contexts. Ultimately, the book is an invitation—and a challenge—for faculty, administrators, and student life staff to move relationships from the periphery to the center of undergraduate education.

 

—From Johns Hopkins University Press

The New College Classroom

The New College CLassroom, by Cathy N. Davidson and Christina Katopodis

"Academia is not, by and large, a kind place. Individualism and competition are what count. But without kindness at its core, Catherine Denial suggests, higher education fails students and instructors—and its mission—in critical ways.

Part manifesto, part teaching memoir, part how-to guide, A Pedagogy of Kindness urges higher education to get aggressive about instituting kindness, which Denial distinguishes from niceness. Having suffered beneath the weight of just “getting along,” instructors need to shift every part of what they do to prioritizing care and compassion—for students as well as for themselves.

A Pedagogy of Kindness articulates a fresh vision for teaching, one that focuses on ensuring justice, believing people, and believing in people. Offering evidence-based insights and drawing from her own rich experiences as a professor, Denial offers practical tips for reshaping syllabi, assessing student performance, and creating trust and belonging in the classroom. Her suggestions for concrete, scalable actions outline nothing less than a transformational discipline—one in which, together, we create bright new spaces, rooted in compassion, in which all engaged in teaching and learning might thrive."

—From the the author, Catherine J. Denial

New Faculty Learning Community

In-Person: Mondays. 10:00am to 11:30am MST | Coe Library 510
Dates: 9/8, 9/29, 10/20, 11/3, 11/17, 12/1

Online: Tuesday, 11:00am to 12:30pm MST
Dates: 9/9, 9/30, 10/21, 11/4, 11/18, 12/2

This learning community for new faculty offers valuable insights for educators at all experience levels, from novices to seasoned professionals. You'll gain access to an online, non-credit course comprising six comprehensive modules. These modules cover various topics, including crafting effective student learning outcomes, implementing active learning techniques, and mastering online teaching strategies. The flexible format allows you to engage with the content as much or as little as you need, tailoring your experience to your specific requirements. Each module includes a brief assignment, which we'll discuss in synchronous sessions held in-person and via Zoom throughout the semester. By participating in these groups, you'll reflect on pedagogical best practices and forge connections with faculty across various disciplines on campus.

Registration Due:
Friday, August 30th, 2024

REGISTER HERE


Teaching Tips

A compilation of teaching tips and messages from contributors across the country.

2021-22 Teaching Messages Collection

2019-20 Teaching Messages Collection

2018-2019 Teaching Issues Writing Consortium Teaching Tips


Additional Resources

The ECTL has a wealth of resources that promote “best-practice” pedagogies in support of the active pursuit of teaching and learning excellence. We encourage all instructors to browse our website for more information about the ECTL and the resources we make available to UW’s teaching community.