Consultations, Observations, & Coaching

Consultations facilitate reflective and systematic engagement focused on your goals and objectives while offering informed perspectives and resources based on research on teaching and learning. Consultations are not designed to provide you with pre-packaged solutions or to tell you how to teach or conduct research. Instead, consultants will work with you to ask questions and explore possibilities in order to help you identify promising practices, ideas, or materials that support your goals. Based on the scope and complexity of your request, consultations may involve a single discussion or more regular, ongoing meetings. Some of the most common consultations include those focused on:

• Instructional/Pedagogical Practice (evidence-based teaching strategies, inclusive design, classroom management, pedagogical content knowledge, new-to-you approaches)
• Assessment Strategies (articulating and evaluating learning objectives)
• Syllabus/Course Design (re(designing) a current or future course)
• Instructional Materials (specific assignments, exams, class sessions, handouts, learning resources, instructional technologies)
• Student Evaluation Data & Feedback (student opinions of instruction, formative mid-semester feedback)
• Career Competencies (enhancing writing practices or your research pipeline, advancing project and time management, or cultivating your mentoring abilities)

Our consultation process begins with a conversation. These informal discussions are initiated by completing our online collaboration request form, which will provide helpful information for us in preparing for our conversation and help us make the most efficient use of your time. Any materials generated in the course of consultations are considered the property of the individual instructor and will not be shared by FDC staff without your permission.

Following an initial consultation conversation, Faculty Development Center staff can provide additional support should you request it, including teaching observations, coaching sessions, or small-group instructional feedback.

Professional coaching is a collaborative and creative strategic planning process for your future that values and celebrates the answers you have within. Coaches partner with you in the present moment to help you gain clarity, perspective, and direction based on your goals, values, priorities, strengths, and context.  Coaching sessions are not designed to provide you with direct advice, resources, or recommendations nor are they remedial in nature. Coaching is often, although not always, a longer commitment than consulting, often in 3-6 60-minute sessions. Some of the most common coaching topics include those focused on:

• Identifying values and goals that guide your academic and professional commitments
• Articulating your professional commitments, identity, and growth
• Navigating conflicts and challenging conversations
• Creating and sustaining effective self-care practices and cultivate work-life balance
• Troubleshooting areas of work where you feel stuck
• Transitioning to different career or life stages successfully
• Imagining future career steps and leadership possibilities and articulating a strategic plan
• Generating new ideas for your research and scholarship

Our coaching partnerships begin with a goal-setting conversation. These informal discussions are initiated by completing our online collaboration request form, which will provide helpful information for us in preparing for our conversation and help us make the most efficient use of your time. All conversations are strictly confidential. Coaching sessions are offered by Associate Director Dr. Benjamin Haywood, a Certified Life Coach and Master Certified Professional Coach.

The Faculty Development Center utilizes a three-stage teaching observation process, whereby an FDC consultant will a) work with you before the observation occurs to articulate your goals for the observation, b) engage in a formative (non-evaluative) in-class observation over 1-2 sessions, and c) discuss observations of your pedagogical choices, patterns in student-to-student and faculty-to-student interactions, and overall session design and time allocation. The goal of these observations is to facilitate critical reflection of your teaching practices so that future areas of experimentation and refinement may be identified. Teaching observations are particularly useful in offering a different perspective on your teaching once you’ve engaged in personal reflection and analysis of your practice.  To schedule a teaching observation, please complete our online collaboration request form.

Research on a technique called Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIF) suggests that this focus group strategy, lasting no more than 30 minutes, can support greater student satisfaction and self-reported learning. Faculty Development Center consultants can facilitate a SGIF session with your group of learners (course or program participants) to examine, from the perspective of a neutral observer, student perceptions of group dynamics, approaches to learning, assignments or activities, and ideas to enhance student achievement and learning. During a follow-up conversation with you, results from the session will be analyzed together, with the goal of identifying potential strategies to respond to the range of comments generated by the activity. SGIF sessions are typically conducted around the mid-term of a course or program. As such, these sessions need to be scheduled well in advance with an FDC consultant. Find out more about SGIF here.