Soka University has a strong tradition of emphasis on effective teaching, and its extensive GE and Core curriculum helped to bring faculty together to discuss courses and pedagogy. This was a strength that I leveraged, along with the Faculty Enhancement Committee, in developing a strategy for enhancing and building teaching effectiveness at Soka University. One element in urgent need of updating was the teaching evaluation system, which relied on paper scantron forms from the IDEA organization. In the first year as Dean (AY 2017-18) I arranged for a new online course evaluation system, which was based on the IDEA Diagonostic test, but provided by the company CampusLabs, which included in the newer system the options for custom instructor questions and also included additional resources for helping faculty teach. In Fall of 2017 (my first semester as Dean) I set up a series of workshops with faculty to learn the new system and also to provide a chance for them to ask questions and discuss teaching evaluation. To reduce the challenge on faculty used to the older system we also provided an “opt-in” for the first year, as we transitioned the entire faculty to online teaching evaluations. This was a good idea since the old system was about to be retired.
To aid in the teaching enhancement effort, I convened a series of discussions with faculty teaching in the various GE courses, to help them engage in discussions about these courses, which had groups of faculty offering different sections of required courses. The goal in these discussions was to share insights into the curriculum and pedagogy, and to document these insights in a booklet. Each of the groups, which included faculty teaching American Experience, Pacific basin, Core I (subtitled “Enduring Questions of Humanity”), Core II (subtitled “Enduring Questions in a Social Context”), Modes of Inquiry, and Creativity Forum, got together, discussed the course, and were asked to write up the meaning of the course and to give samples of how each faulty member saw this course. My reasoning was that these discussions would leverage this existing “common intellectual property” and help faculty approach their teaching in these courses with a more collective approach that would highlight the social and collaborative approach of a learning community. This hypothesis was aligned with educational research into communities of practice, which require a community to have standards and a property that they share and these groups were hoped to form the basis of a set of communities on campus to share ideas on teaching. By documenting existing practice, it was also possible to improve it, a technique I learned from my SoTL course at Yale_NUS known as “Appreciative Inquiry.” The resulting booklet was a very useful document for recording insights into this curriculum, which had been offered for nearly 20 years, and was helpful for sharing with outside visitors to Soka University, and eventually became an invaluable resource for incoming faculty and for our new website, which was launched during 2019-20. Below is the cover from our 66-page SUA curriculum booklet, which can also be downloaded from this site at the link here: A Guide To General Education and the Core Curriculum.
In parallel to the Core and GE discussions, I worked with my associate Dean, Michael Weiner, to set up a series of discussions about the Capstone process, which was an important part of each of our concentrations. All of the students would prepare a thesis based on original work in their senior year, which included courses in Fall and spring amounting to 12 credit hours. It was important to document how each concentration approached this process, and by discussing and documenting this, the hope was that adjacent concentrations could learn from each other and improve and streamline their procedures. The result from that effort was a Capstone Document, which was very helpful for improving the process within each concentration and did produce a number of innovations and improvements in our capstone process, such as an enhanced emphasis on deliverables in January of senior year to help students finish their project, and a poster fair from our Social and Behavioural Sciences (SBS) concentration to celebrate the accomplishments of our seniors. The latter was developed by Peter Burns and Esther Chang, the SBS concentration director. The resulting 35-page booklet and its cover are below. This document can be downloaded at this link: SUA.capstone.report.
In my second year as Dean, I decided to adopt some new approaches, aided by the Faculty Enhancement Committee and its chair, Peter Burns, who was an excellent teacher and enthusiastic about sharing ideas about teaching and helping to mentor colleagues. With the committee, we set up a series of teaching lunches during AY 2018-19 that included faculty presentations and discussions about teaching, as well as outside experts to bring new ideas to our community. The discussions sometimes centered on our curriculum, like an October event in 2018 that featured an article and a discussion about “Learning Clusters” which are Soka University’s immersive 3.5 week courses we offer each January:
Please join us at noon on October 3 for a brown bag discussion on student-directed teaching.As Learning Cluster approaches, we will read “Student-Directed Learning: An Exercise in Student Engagement,” and answer the following questions:
1) What is your assessment of the approach presented in this article?
2) Have you used similar approaches in the past, and if so, with which kinds of success?
3) To what extent can the approach presented in this article be used in Soka Learning Clusters?
The subsequent discussion was also centered around an article and was a discussion on the topic of mentoring:
The next faculty teaching brown bag will be at noon on November 14 and the faculty will read and discuss the “Guide to Best Practices in Faculty Mentoring: A Roadmap for Departments, Schools, Mentors and Mentees,” by the Office of the Provost at Columbia University. We will discuss the importance of mentoring, formal and informal mentoring, and possible best practices in mentoring for Soka University.
The discussions about teaching continued in the concentrations and one innovation that arose was known as the Teaching Slam – which was invented by Esther Chang and supported by Peter Burns. The SBS faculty convened this teaching slam in December 2018 and shared short snippets (2-4 minutes) from their classes, along with handouts, and gave time for questions and discussion. This innovation was very successful, and Peter Burns implemented a campus-wide Teaching Slam for all faculty at the end of the semester. The Teaching Slam became an annual tradition, and included a nice catered lunch for helping build community and morale.
Our first visitor to campus was Darryl Yong, an amazing teacher and scholar from Harvey Mudd College. He came and gave a pair of workshops in December 2018. Darryl also came out to Singapore when I was starting the Yale_NUS Teaching Center and did a great job with our group at Soka University. Below is the announcement for his talk.
On Wednesday, December 5 we will be visited by Darryl Yong, founding director of the Claremont Colleges Teaching and Learning Center and a professor at Harvey Mudd College. He will provide a lunch discussion and workshop during his visit.His lunch talk will be on Making Active Learning Intentionally Inclusive. He will include a review of some of the research on active learning, then discuss ways that students can experience it differently, then how we can improve the experience for all students. The lunch talk is at noon, December 5, in SC401.His afternoon talk will be on Transparency in Teaching and Learning, and he will share new research on how transparency from instructors helps learning, and give tips on how to be more transparent, and a hands-on workshop that will allow faculty to make changes to their own syllabi and assignments. The afternoon talk is at 4:40PM, December 5, in SC401.
A second visitor to campus was Michael Denning, the UC Irvine Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. Michael came to campus and helped us learn more about how UC Irvine has been promoting active learning among its faculty, and its new feature-intensive teaching space known as the Anteater Pavillion, which the faculty can use for their classes if they are able to get some training or document some of their new ideas in teaching. The lunch was a great chance to connect with Michael and also enhanced our connections with UC Irvine.
Lunch with Michael Dennin, UC Irvine Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, May 8 at noon, SC 401. Come to discuss new developments in undergraduate education and pedagogy with Michael Dennin. Thanks to the Faculty Enhancement Committee for helping organise the lunch series this year. RSVP to follow.
The grants will provide funding for implementing a new pedagogical approach or curriculum, which could support the acquisition of new technology, for attending a seminar and presenting results of the implementation at educational conferences, or for student stipends to help with the development of the innovation. The grants can be made to individual faculty or to groups of faculty within SUA to improve the pedagogy and curriculum within an individual course or a set of linked courses. A focus of the effort will be to capture and disseminate the results of these innovations broadly within our SUA community, as well as at academic and professional development conferences. Eligible applicants include all full-time faculty.
Professor (Concentration) | Purpose of Teaching Innovation Grant |
Ian Read (INTS) | Using digital media and scanned online newspapers for studying Brazilian history |
Junyi Liu (SBS) | Investment competition within economics course using software platform from Wharton School |
Robert Allinson (HUM) | Including video testimonies from Holocaust survivors within his course and also developing other online technologies |
Shane Barter (INTS) | Integrating preparation for a research conference to be attended by students within an international studies course |
Kristi Wilson (Writing) | Developing podcast technologies within writing courses as extended medium of communication |
Tomas Crowder Toraborelli (GE) | Developing podcast technologies within writing courses as extended medium of communication |
Xiaoxing Liu (LCP) | Attendance at the CLTA-SC Technology Workshop & Internation Conference on Chinese Pedagogy (Harvard) |
Sandrine Simeon & Pablo Camus (LCP) | Talk Abroad implementation in language classes to enable live conversations with native speakers in foreign languages |
James Spady (HUM) | Travel to UC campus archives for student training and research on Native American rights on behalf of the Acjachemen Nation |
Schedule for New Faculty Workshop and Full Faculty Discussions – September 5, 2018
Session 1: Overview of Soka Student Body and Mission – 10:00-10:45 [Audience: New full-time faculty]
- Dean and Faculty Enhancement Committee will introduce themselves, and the workshop and offer ideas about teaching and working at SUA (10 minutes).
- Our student profile – based on Admissions (Andrew Woolsey, Dean of Enrolment Services – 10 minutes)
- Overview of Soka student body (Hyon Moon, Dean of Students – 10 minutes)
- Discussion of Soka’s unique mission, values, and learning environment – and question and answers (15 minutes)
Coffee Break (15 minutes)
Session 2: Advising Workshop — 11:00-12:00 [entire faculty] Maathai 207
- Overview of Advising Process, Curriculum, Health and Wellness, and Life Science advising (10 minutes)
- Advice for Advisors and insights from the Advising Committee [Sarah England, Chair, Advising Committee] (15 minutes)
- Health and Wellness, Accommodations and Student Health Issues, and Review of Title IX policies [Brian Durick, Student Affairs and Anhthu Dang, Counselor] (20 minutes)
- Discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)
Welcoming Lunch for All Faculty – 12:00-1:30 PM [entire faculty] Performing Arts Hall Lobby
Dean will introduce and welcome new faculty starting at SUA, followed by brief announcements from concentration directors and coordinators. We will also have a discussion of the SUA GE and Core curriculum document, the new Life Science concentration, and coordination of the GE courses. Ideas for Faculty Enhancement activities for upcoming academic year will be discussed.
Session 3: Syllabus Workshop and Conclusion of New Faculty Workshop – 2:00-3:00PM [audience: new full-time faculty] Maathai 207
- Faculty Enhancement Committee members discuss how they create their syllabi and approach teaching at SUA.
- Principles of Course Design and Grading from the Faculty Enhancement Committee
- Chance to review syllabi with experienced and new faculty for updates and improvements
- Wrap up and questions and answers
Schedule for New Faculty Workshop and Full Faculty Discussions – September 4, 2019
Coffee and Informal Welcoming Reception – 9:30-10:00AM, Maathai 207
Session 1: Overview of Soka Student Body and Mission – 10:00-10:45 [Audience: New faculty] Maathai 207
- Dean and Faculty Enhancement Committee will introduce themselves, and the workshop and offer ideas about teaching and working at SUA (10 minutes).
- Overview of Soka student body (Hyon Moon, Dean of Students – 10 minutes)
- Our student profile – based on Admissions data (Andrew Woolsey, Dean of Enrolment Services – 10 minutes)
- Discussion of Soka’s unique mission, values, and learning environment – and question and answers ) (15 minutes)
Coffee Break (15 minutes)
Session 2: Advising Workshop — 11:00-12:00 [entire faculty] Maathai 207
- Overview of Advising Process, Curriculum, Health and Wellness, and Life Science advising (10 minutes)
- Advice for Advisors and insights from the Advising Committee [Sarah England, Chair, Advising Committee] (15 minutes)
- New ideas for student Health and Wellness, Support for Student Athletes, and helping students with Title IX issues [Brian Durick, Student Affairs, Mike Moore, and Anhthu Dang, Counselor] (20 minutes)
- Discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)
Welcoming Lunch for All Faculty – 12:00-1:15 PM [entire faculty] Performing Arts Hall Lobby
Dean will introduce and welcome new faculty starting at SUA, followed by brief announcements from concentration directors and coordinators. We will also updates on our new Fulbright advising program, our new CGU accelerated degree program, the new Life Science concentration, and will distribute our new Core/GE booklet. Ideas for Faculty Enhancement activities for upcoming academic year will be discussed, along with other new programs.
Session 3: Discussions and Q&A for New Faculty – 1:30-2:15PM [audience: new faculty and interested continuing faculty] Maathai 207
- The Faculty Enhancement Committee will convene a discussion about a variety of topics of interest to new faculty teaching at SUA including the following topics:
- Student Evaluations
- The Portal
- Syllabus Construction
- Grading and Assessment Procedures
- Tips for class discussions and active learning
- Other topics of interest to faculty
Session 4: Learning Cluster and GE Info Session and Conclusion of New Faculty Workshop – 2:15-3PM [audience: new faculty and interested continuing faculty] Maathai 207
- Discussion of learning cluster course design process—what to expect and how to prepare
- Discussion of GE/Core/Modes—what to expect and how to prepare
- Wrap up and questions and answers
Carl Wieman course materials for Principles and Practices of Effective University Teaching course, 2019:
- instructor training workshop v8-8-19 – PDF of the syllabus and weekly schedule from Carl Wieman’s Principles and Practices of Effective University Teaching
- training workshop materials collection 9-11-19 – PDF of the articles and ideas from Carl Wieman’s Principles and Practices of Effective University Teaching