While much literature has considered feedback and professional growth in formative peer reviews of teaching, there has been little empirical research conducted on these issues in the context of summative peer reviews. This article explores faculty members' perceptions of feedback practices in the summative peer review of teaching and reports…

What we hear at universities and in public conversations is that there is a crisis in graduate student education and employment. We are interested here in the (re)circulation of the discourses of crisis and responsibility. What do graduate students hear about their education, their career prospects, and their responsibilities? How does work in…

A growing number of Canadian universities offer graduate student certificate programs in university teaching. This paper examines such programs at 13 Canadian universities and presents a discussion of program structures and practices. The findings suggest that most programs were offered over one to two years, and upon successful completion,…

This article examines the strong interest in the scholarship of teaching that has developed since Ernest Boyer introduced the idea in 1990. Although there are many benefits to be realized from a greater emphasis on teaching in higher education, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) "movement" has been subjected to little critical…

Reflecting on one's teaching practice is often an implicit goal for faculty development programs. Yet very little has been documented on how programs for diverse groups of university teachers actually engage faculty in such reflection. This paper examines how theoretical constructs of reflective practice were applied in the context of an 8-month…

An exploratory survey found that women faculty may use educational and information technologies for different purposes than their male colleagues, and that these differences may relate to three main factors: increased emphasis on a teaching role, their tendency to explore more relational approaches to teaching, and their experiences with…

Investigated whether students report professors are excellent teachers if little studying is required to receive high grades. Evaluations from 1,939 students in 75 first-year classes found that when grades varied markedly across sections of the same course, professors assigning the highest grades for the least studying received the highest…

Offers a rationale for using cooperative learning in higher education, identifying six elements essential to its success: positive interdependence; face-to-face verbal interaction; individual accountability; social skills; group processing; appropriate grouping. Describes and compares three distinct approaches in medicine, dentistry, and…

Describes a team-taught college course designed to develop philosophical literacy among students as groundwork for future humanities courses. Unifying motif was "dialog" between faculty from different areas of expertise; the concept of philosophy as dialog; and the student-teacher relationship as dialog. Discusses course design, lessons learned,…

A survey of 1,453 University of Alberta (Canada) graduates found their positive perceptions of the university's teaching had a strong impact on satisfaction, controlling for gender, age, discipline, grades, prior postsecondary experience, assessment of skill development, satisfaction with university learning-related resources, and several other…

Discussion of the scholarship of college teaching looks at its nature, its definition, and how such scholarship can lead to development and advancement of teaching. Examples of the scholarship of teaching and of institutional policies supporting it are drawn from Canadian universities. Lists of journals and conferences at which to publish and…

In a study at Laval University (Canada), 94 faculty were surveyed concerning their teaching style, and over 3,000 of their students were also surveyed concerning teaching style, closeness of relationship with the teacher, satisfaction with teaching style, positive feelings toward teacher, and course satisfaction and involvement in learning the…

The first stage of an evaluation and academic management project to be carried out at Bath University is presented. Included are the background to course evaluation, a proposed model, the development and testing of the model in the context of an innovative biology course at Queen's University, and the transferability of the model to other courses.…

It is argued that workshops for lecture improvement in higher education tend to concentrate on delivery techniques, whereas improvement programs should maintain a broad perspective on lecture useage, which might include consideration of the design of lecture courses, variation of teaching methods, and attention to student lecture learning skills.…

A survey of the efforts of Canadian colleges to train teaching assistants is reported, and the Simon Fraser University Teaching Assistant Training Programme is discussed. Focus is on components of the instruction offered to teaching assistants and representative data from an evaluation of the program. (JMD)