Background Facts
May 1, 2006
Gordon Stubley appointed inaugural Teaching Chair for Mechanical Engineering to provide teaching leadership in ME.
June 30, 2011
Task Force on Innovative Teaching Practices to Promote Deep Learning at the University of Waterloo, with Professor Stubley as a member, releases final report calling for efforts geared toward the improvement in the depth, effectiveness, and efficiency of student learning.
February 8, 2012
Dean of Engineering, Adel Sedra, announces the creation of a new position, Associate Dean, Teaching, and the appointment of Gordon Stubley for the initial three-year term starting May 1, 2012.
March, 2012
Engineering faculty appointment letters include teaching development condition requiring new faculty members to actively participate in teaching development activities.
May, 2012
Vision 2015 released including goals specific to teaching, including the development of a community of faculty members focused on teaching and learning, and the enhancement of Waterloo Engineering’s support for teaching.
What it Means for Students
Support for innovative teaching approaches will be increased.
Engineering students know that memorization is not enough; in your career, you’ll need to be able to apply critical thinking skills, make informed decisions, and implement effective solutions. The same is true for engineering education; memorization may help you get through a few test questions, but application is where deeper learning happens. We want to ensure that students are provided with meaningful learning opportunities that allow deep engagement with the curriculum, and that means providing innovative approaches to teaching and learning. In connection with uWaterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence, we intend to promote, encourage and support faculty members with innovative teaching ideas.
Course evaluation data will play a more central role in faculty decision making.
Thanks to the hard work and support of EngSoc execs and directors, Waterloo Engineering has been surveying students for over forty years. Evaluation scores and student comments are provided directly to the evaluated faculty member, their department chair, and the dean. The results are reviewed to identify any trends that might warrant special consideration, such as a course and/or professor ranking either very high or very low. The data gathered from this process also informs decisions about tenure and promotion of faculty members. But we want to do more with this data. Beginning this term, the Associate Dean, Teaching will be reviewing the course evaluation process and looking more closely at the data it yields.
Teaching Assistants will have more support to develop better teaching skills.
With regard to teaching assistantships, we want to provide TAs with enhanced opportunity to develop their teaching skills. The training program for teaching assistants will be reviewed and rejuvenated to help support more meaningful teaching and learning experiences. This effort benefits both the grad students holding teaching assistantships and the undergrad students being taught by them.
Faculty Members will have more support to develop better teaching skills.
To better support the development of teaching excellence, we’re building a team of faculty members dedicated to supporting teaching and learning. These faculty leaders have been selected to serve as mentors to those teaching in their departments. They participate in working group sessions focusing on key teaching development areas, such as how to assess the teaching skills of new faculty members and how to apply course evaluation results to support teaching development. These mentors will be ambassadors of teaching excellence, available in each department to support faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants.
There will be improved mechanisms for recognition of teaching excellence.
Excellent teaching can occur in the lecture hall, lab, or other teaching and learning settings, but no matter where they teach, excellent teachers deserve recognition. There are a number of awards programs in place to recognize and reward teaching excellence. Anyone encountering excellent teaching is encouraged to consider nominating the teacher for an award; a list of engineering teaching awards can be found in the Teaching area of the Faculty of Engineering website. Based on student feedback (such as through comments on course evaluations), we will work to identify faculty members, instructors and teaching assistants who exhibit teaching excellence, and support their nomination for an applicable teaching award.
In order to improve the teaching and learning experience, we will continue to rely on the help and input of our students. The easiest way for you to add your voice is to complete the end-of-course evaluations administered in class by student representatives during the week of November 12 to 16. Students are also encouraged to consider participating in the administration of course evaluations by serving as an EngSoc Course Critiques Director; contact your VP Education for more information.
Contact
engineering.teaching@uwaterloo.ca
**Sidebar to be put with Background Picture
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