PEERS in PEDAGOGY: BCC’s Faculty-to-Faculty Mentoring Program

PEERS in PEDAGOGY: BCC’s Faculty-to-Faculty Mentoring Program – Fall 2010, led by Linda McAllister & Laura Ruberto

General Goals:

Through the Faculty Peer Mentoring Program we hope to encourage teacher effectiveness, collaborative learning, and student retention. We also hope the program, in its pilot Fall 2010 run, will help build community at BCC especially across disciplines and among part-time instructors who often feel isolated. This program will pilot two different approaches to self-assessment and peer-based assessment.

Activities:

Participants will meet for an orientation during the last week of September when they will be paired with another instructor and decide on the method of assessment they’d like to use. With the assistance of the Program Leadrs, they’ll try out one of the two options (see below) to receive a mid-term assessment of their teaching and of student experience in their class. The Program Leaders will prepare a short conversational-video explaining the goals and basic structure for the program. The video will be put online.  They will continue to solicit interested participants. At the end of the semester, participants will draft a short report and attend a final meeting to debrief their experience and to offer professional develop suggestions to the Teaching and Learning Center.

TWO OPTIONS FOR PARTICIPANTS

OPTION #1: VIDEO TAPE

Instructor is videotaped, watches tape, and does a self-assessment exercise based on video. Two people who self-evaluated with video meet and discuss findings and strategies for improvement, which could involve visiting each other’s classroom, for instance.

RESULT: Pairs will write up a collaborative report about efficacy of teaching strategies and also of the process of video-tape self-assessment. This report will be anonymous.

OPTION #2: TEACHING ANALYSIS POLL (TAP)

Two instructors will visit each other’s classrooms, observe some teaching and then (without the instructor present) engage students in directed conversation about the classroom learning using the TAP method. Instructors will meet and exchange and discuss findings.

RESULT: Pairs will write up a collaborative report about efficacy of teaching strategies and also of the process of TAP assessment. This report will be anonymous.

For more information, please contact Laura Ruberto (lruberto@peralta.edu) or Linda McAllister (lmcallister@peralta.edu).