The Teaching Triangles program provide faculty an opportunity to gain new insight into their teaching and students’ learning through a non-evaluative, formative process of reciprocal class visits and reflection. The three people in a triangle agree to visit one class session for each participant over the course of a semester and meet to discuss what they learn from their visits about their own teaching. The goal is to create a respectful, reciprocal, reflective dialogue on teaching and learning.
Request to participate in a teaching triangle (4 minutes to complete form) anytime before Friday, September 29.
Here is an estimate of the time involved in a teaching triangle:
.5 hour setting up meetings via email ☺
1 hour intro meeting with 2 colleagues (Oct)
3 hours observing 2 classes (Oct/Nov)
1-1.5 hour debrief meeting with colleagues (Oct-Nov)
= 6 hours total
How is this a “non-evaluative” process?
Teaching Triangles are convened to stimulate reflection on teaching and learning, not evaluation. Participants focus their conversations on the evidence about student learning they observed and what they are learning about their own teaching from the class visit process. No direct commentary on a colleagues’ performance is part of this process, unless requested by a colleague.
How are triangles formed?
Faculty may create a triangle or submit a request to engage in a triangle to the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching (BCLT). Faculty may request colleagues who are teaching similar courses (Intro, Seminar, Lab, etc.), topics that cohere or align (education, quantitative literacy, or Russia, etc.), or who utilize similar pedagogical or assessment tools (Community-engaged teaching, active learning, group presentations, etc.).
What happens in a teaching triangle?
Each teaching triangle consists of three faculty members. After an initial meeting to discuss logistics and establish expectations, each triangle member commits to visiting the other members’ classes at least once. Following all the class visits, the triangle reconvenes to reflect on teaching utilizing some of the questions below.
- What have you learned about teaching practice from your class visits (it could be something new or something that has been affirmed)?
- What surprised you during this experience? What assumptions about teaching were challenged by what you observed?
- How has the experience of being in the “learner” role impacted your teaching practice?
- What have you learned is one of your strengths as an educator?
- What aspect of your teaching do you wish to improve? How are you going to do this?
- What is one thing you learned that you are going to apply next semester in your classroom?