Yehuda Elkana Center colleagues invite all CEU faculty, doctoral students, and others with teaching responsibilities to join us for an individual consultation or a series of meetings to discuss teaching. Center colleagues can provide feedback online, in-person, over coffee, or facilitate feedback on your teaching by inviting a member of the Center or a peer to observe your teaching. New faculty may also arrange for mentoring with respect to their teaching. Global Teaching Fellows receive mentoring through a distinct, Elkana Center / OSUN Developing Teaching Professionals initiative.
Yehuda Elkana Center consultations, teaching observations, and mentoring are voluntary, non-evaluative, and confidential.
Topics of Consultations
Consultations often focus on a specific course activity or the organization of a course as a whole, but they can include broader discussions of curriculum or more methodological questions, such as teaching online.
For example, the Elkana Center offers Syllabus Consultations before every semester for faculty who would like to talk about courses they will be teaching. In these conversations, the syllabus can provide a springboard for discussing not just how the course appears to students through the syllabus, but how faculty would like to organize it, ideas for activities or assessments, making the most of readings, and more. Similarly, faculty proposing new courses often consult the Elkana Center, independent of the semester starting dates.
Another common consultation is in the area of online teaching and learning. The Elkana Center has developed multiple resources to help, but recognizes that every course is unique. Faculty are welcome to arrange a consultation to discuss any area of online teaching, from making the most of group discussions, to effective lecturing, to assessments, to alternative platforms and technologies, to course design, and more. Depending on your query, we may encourage you to seek or collaborate together with IT, who are the experts when it comes to technical issues, such as microphones, licensing, videos, and related issues.
Teaching observations can be done by a peer or by a Yehuda Elkana Center colleague. Typically, the teacher and observer speak in advance of the session to briefly discuss the lesson structure, its place in the course, and any areas where the teacher would like feedback. The observation often works best when structured notes are taken, for example, through a sample feedback form. Finally, the teacher and observer sit down over coffee or informally to debrief and discuss what they both learned during the session.
Other frequent topics include:
- assessing student work, especially group projects and team activities
- mentoring teaching assistants
- facilitating online discussions
- research on problem-based teaching and collaborative learning
- academic blogging
- class discussion strategies
- research on teaching innovations in particular disciplines
- teaching portfolios
- mid-course feedback click for resources
- using student work for program improvement
Contact for Consultations and Mentoring
For consultations, voluntary teaching observations, or new faculty mentoring, please contact us at elkanacenter@ceu.edu or contact any of the faculty or staff, individually.