Teaching Circles
(These items are from a listserv about teaching.)
Teaching Circles are groups of instructors who meet together fairly regularly to discuss teaching. The group can operate as formally or informally as it wishes, and can take a variety of forms. For example, some teaching circles are unstructured, with the topic for discussion being whatever is on people's minds on that day. Others identify a series of topics they wish to discuss, and work their way through the list. Some operate within a department or faculty; others are cross-disciplinary. Some focus on a single topic for a term; others have a new topic each week. The decision as to the way in which the group operates and the frequency of meeting is made by the members. Some examples of what teaching circles can do are:
- Members take turns leading a discussion, with the topic selected by that meeting's leader.
- Members work their way through a book on teaching, or discuss a series of articles on teaching.
- Book reviews.
- Members invite speakers, followed by discussion.
- Members reflect on and share their personal experience in teaching.
- Reports from colleagues who went to a conference.
- Review potential classroom material together (presumes same discipline).
- Visit each others classes and give feedback; or visit only to gain appreciation of other teaching situations.
- Invite students to meet with group and give their views on teaching.
Extension Division
Kirk Hall, 117 Science Place
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, SK Canada S7N 5C8
Gwenna.Moss@usask.ca
Phone: (306) 966-5573
Fax: (306) 966-5567
At the University of North Carolina at Asheville, our teaching circles program was started four or five years ago by the University Teaching Council, a group of faculty members who have a small amount of money at their disposal to encourage discussion about/development of/encouragement of good teaching.
Usually one or two people propose a circle, which then will have 4-10 members; they meet on a regular basis, often over food, for discussions. We require some sort of dissemination at the end of the cycle.
Last year, following some suggestions by colleagues in the social sciences (my home discipline is Literature) I organized a teaching circle on Teaching Literature Across the Disciplines. There were ten members, representing the departments of Literature, Computer Science, Biology, Physics, Economics, Political Sciences, Psychology, and Sociology. At the end of the year we produced materials for a ten-page pamphlet on the topic.
Other circles have been on The Body; Promoting Effective Discussions; Use of Oral Presentations in Management; Black Mountain College. Some are about a topic, others about a practice. They are usually interdisciplinary but not always.
The grant for a teaching circle is usually between $500 and $1000 and can include modest stipends, guest speakers, books and other materials.
Merritt Moseley
Dean of Faculty Development
UNC Asheville
Address questions or comments about
TEP or this site to:
Georgeanne Cooper, Program Director,
64 PLC
Phone: 541-346-2177 Fax: 541-346-2184
© Copyright 2000-2006 Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of Oregon.
Last Modified:
05/22/08
