TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Core Competency 4
Understanding the University Context
Workshop by Dr. Katy Colbry, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Services, College of Engineering
Certification in College Teaching Institute
May 10th, 2018, MSU Union Ballroom
Description of the Competency
Teaching can be conducted at a research university, a community college, a minority-serving institute, or other institutional types. Depending on the context, the learners might have a variety of different social, economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. Therefore, different institutional types impose distinct notions of the learning process.
Artifacts & Rationales
The discussion led by Dr. Katy Colbry introduced several concepts that helped in understanding the university context:
- The types and general characteristics of different types of institutions
- The difference in the mission statements of different institutions
Reflection
Why the competency area is important for effective college teaching?
In the U.S, there are over 3,000 post-secondary institutions. They are categorized into different institution types including (1) Research University, (2) Comprehensive University, (3) Liberal Arts College, (4) Community College, (5) Minority-Serving Institution, and (6) For-profit Institution.
Therefore, it is highly important for the teacher to understand the university context so that he/she can adapt the suitable teaching methodologies that best match the institution mission statement.
What are the skills and knowledge areas involved in the competency?
Through this workshop, I learned new knowledge such as
- The difference between each institution type in terms of what is expected from the faculty and what are the offered programs (e.g B.Sc., M.Sc.,…etc.)
- How the mission statement of Michigan State University as a a research university reflects that (1) it provide undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, (2) it conduct research that seek to answer questions and create solutions, ad (3) advance outreach, engagement, and economic development activities
- How MSU as en example evaluates its faculty in terms of credit instruction, non-credit instruction, international instruction, and academic advising
- Minority-Serving Institutions such as Howard University in Washington D.C and how they are mainly founded to provide education to minority groups. Such institutions include research, comprehensive, liberal arts and college and community colleges
- Community college focuses on teaching and community needs and how the faculty are evaluated through classroom observation and reporting by peers from the mentoring team and the dean as stated in the Jackson Community College Faculty Manual
- Engaging the students in the class can be in different ways including changing the activity in the class, asking questions and creating class discussions
- How to craft and write an effective teaching statement which shall include several elements including: (1) goals and objectives for learning, (2) strategies to engage students in the class, (3) methods to assess the students comprehension, (4) approaches to create inclusive learning environment. In addition, the good teaching statement shall (1) include evidences ad examples (2) conveys my reflection on the teaching process, and (3) conveys that I value teaching
Examples of how I would use what I have learnt in this competency in my future teaching.
- First, I need to understand the university context and know its mission statement shapes my teaching style, approach, and assessment
- Understand each student’s best way of grasping the class material in order to maximize the student comprehension. Some student learn well if the instructor writes on the white/black board, others pick up the idea faster through a video, others may comprehend a concept well via group discussion and so on
- Mix and match between different learning styles to satisfy wide number of students