The upcoming and first-ever UO Summer Teaching Institute will offer faculty members the chance to spend an intensive week focused on teaching.
Hosted by the Office of the Provost, Provost’s Teaching Academy Advisory Board and Teaching Engagement Program, the institute will run June 25-29. Applications are due Monday, May 28.
“This will be an ambitious and, I hope, exciting event,” said Lee Rumbarger, assistant vice provost for teaching engagement. “Wonderful faculty are participating and facilitating sessions alongside the TEP team, and there's still time to apply.”
The UO Summer Teaching Institute offers two ways to participate. One is through a weeklong topical pathway session and the other is for teaching faculty to attend just one or two of the core skills workshops.
Faculty members selected for one of the in-depth topical pathways will receive $1,500 stipends to attend the core skills workshops and specialized sessions in their areas. The topical pathways are “Teaching First-Year Students” and “Teaching Difference, Inequality and Agency.”
“Part of teaching about difference and inequality can be helping students locate themselves within these systems,” said Michelle McKinley, professor of law and director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society. “Students can be incredibly engaged and committed to this exploration, but the instructor’s approach matters. I look forward to sharing my own teaching and supporting colleagues to do this work well.”
McKinley, along with Avinnash Tiwari, of the Department of English, will serve as faculty facilitators of the “Teach Difference, Inequality and Agency” pathway, using a curriculum that faculty members in a multidisciplinary Teaching Engagement Program working group have spent the year developing.
“We are offering the ‘Teaching First-Year Students’ pathway opportunity because the first year of college is so important to our students’ success and persistence at UO, and there are very specific things we can do to increase the likelihood of success,” said Ron Bramhall, associate vice provost for academic excellence, who, along with Kevin Hatfield, director of academic residential and research initiatives in the Division of Undergraduate Studies and University Housing, will join the program to facilitate the pathway.
Faculty members selected for the Lundquist College of Business and College of Arts and Sciences online initiatives will form a third topical pathway on teaching online. These faculty members already have been selected by their colleges.
The interactive, large-format core skills workshops will bring all the topical pathways and wider community of faculty together. These workshops will be “Aligned Courses Design,” “Teaching Toward Inclusion and Belonging,” “Research-Led Practices to ‘Activate’ a Class,” “Student Motivation and Metacognition” and “Teaching at a Research University.”
The workshops are designed to build shared understanding of teaching practices that are inclusive, engaged and research-led.
"The Office of the Provost wants faculty to know that we care about their work in the classroom and understand that teaching creatively and well relies in part on community and support. I'll certainly be there to cheer on colleagues and see how we can move our teaching and learning culture forward together," said Scott Pratt, professor of philosophy and executive vice provost.
Contact tep@uoregon.edu with questions.