What is excellence in teaching

Teachers not only have a direct impact on student achievement but also student engagement and motivation for learning. What teachers do in the classroom and how they interact with students is vital. Teachers maximise student learning when they create a classroom environment that is, supportive, well-controlled and characterised by a clear focus on learning growth. Great teachers are aware that their own learning journey is never complete.

They actively seek feedback and collaborate with others in an effort to improve student outcomes. Our faculty must also teach in innovative ways to engage and educate all students that fosters a spirit of inquiry. We will continue to support faculty who aspire to become great teachers.

Two years ago, we expanded our outreach in the Institute for Teaching and Learning, a part of our newly formed Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. We offer increasing levels of assistance to improve teaching, including mentorships, classroom observations, teaching enhancement plans, individual consultation, coaching for presentation skills, and a series of lunchtime seminars on innovative topics such as flipped classrooms and hybrid teaching.

We provide financial incentives for teaching and learning innovation, faculty learning communities, as well as discussions of pertinent and provocative books. We also offer innovative teaching institutes for faculty and teaching assistants, as well as access to a network of our exemplary professors who have agreed to enable teaching assistants and junior faculty to observe their classrooms. We also provide, in many departments, teaching and research mentors that are discipline-based.

Accordingly, there will be some variation in the components and emphases of the documentation collected for each process, reflecting the different stages of an academic career. Competence in teaching: success in stimulating and challenging students and promoting their intellectual and scholarly development. Competence in teaching: promotion of academic integrity and adherence to grading standards of the division and, as appropriate, the ethical standards of profession.

Competence in teaching: creation of opportunities which involve students in the research process. Excellence in teaching: successful innovations in the teaching domain, including the creation of new and innovative teaching processes, materials and forms of evaluation.