Temple University and Temple University College of Public Health have built national reputations for leadership in teaching and pedagogical innovation. We not only celebrate our faculty for their teaching excellence here, we literally carve the names of our Great Teachers in stone in the heart of campus. By this summer, four of the College of Public Health’s faculty will have their names etched in that circle of excellence.
We are always looking for ways to support our faculty’s growth and success in the classroom, in their fields, and through processes like promotion. On April 18, we are holding a two-hour kick off event to mark a new collaboration with the Center for the Advancement of Teaching to provide CPH faculty with new trainings and resources on researching the efficacy of instructional strategies and highlighting their teaching effectiveness.
Our CPH faculty are invited to participate in both a College of Public Health-focused Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Teaching Circle that will begin in Fall 2024, and an asynchronous, self-paced course on developing teaching portfolios that can then be used to advance faculty reflection and growth in their teaching, and can support their preparation for promotion, annual reviews, and the presentation of their teaching-related work for departmental, college, and university teaching awards.
Scholarship Focused on Student Learning and Classroom Experience can Change Lives
Perhaps you tried a new teaching method. How might you know whether it was successful? Maybe you plan to implement an innovative assessment. How will you gauge its ability to capture student learning and development? That’s where the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) comes in.
SoTL is research focused on student learning and classroom experience. It provides the opportunity to systematically examine pedagogical practices, intentionally and iteratively refine them based on newly constructed empirical evidence, and disseminate findings with educators across academia with the goal to increase student success. Additional benefits gained include further humanizing your teaching by deeply and empathetically reflecting on your educational practices to foster universally inclusive learning environments so all students can succeed. Furthermore, the more robust and evidence-based our teaching practices become, the more we are able to demonstrate our leadership as teachers and drive transformative educational policy discussions.
Your own experiences as a student, current observations as an instructor, and insights from academic literature will fuel your SoTL pursuits.
A number of CPH faculty have engaged in SoTL and other Teaching Circles run through CAT. This Fall, in collaboration with CAT, the College will launch a CPH SoTL Circle for our faculty interested in being part of a community of colleagues who are developing and advancing Scholarship of Teaching & Learning projects. Faculty can reach out to me to learn more.
The Practice of Developing an Authentic Teaching Portfolio
A well-designed teaching portfolio can support career advancement and offer faculty and teaching assistants a chance to reflect on their philosophical and practical approach to teaching. However, faculty are too often not introduced to the idea of developing a teaching portfolio early enough and find themselves scrambling to collect and organize components immediately prior to applying for promotions or awards. The asynchronous resource Authentic and Effective Teaching Portfolios in Public Health will introduce faculty to the essential ingredients for a quality teaching portfolio, including how to develop a philosophy of teaching and diversity statement, identify artifacts that demonstrate aspects of teaching practice instructors wish to highlight and establish a method of collecting items gradually to reduce stress when finalizing a portfolio for a specific purpose. It is based on the CAT’s successful facilitated online course Create an Effective and Authentic Teaching Portfolio and is designed to reduce the stress and frustration and maximize the teaching and career advancement benefits of creating and maintaining a teaching portfolio.
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