The Provost’s Office of Faculty Engagement and Development (UHFED) facilitates a series of sessions called “Mastering the Craft of Teaching” each Fall and Spring since 2018. Drs. Lisa Farmer (Biology) and Rebecca Forrest (Physics) host discussions featuring special guests interested in teaching challenges and innovative teaching practices.

The session is very informal and is meant to be like a group of faculty trading tips and questions in a café. We hope that you will join us and take part in the discussion too. Our topic for April is teaching teamwork/ using teamwork assignments in class at UH. Teamwork is one of the objectives in the UH Core Curriculum. Note that Teamwork is not necessarily the same thing as active learning, which was our topic in March. Discussion questions include:

1. In which class(es) do you use Teamwork assignments and why?

2. What Teamwork strategies or activities are used in your classroom?  Where do your Teamwork ideas come from?  Novel approaches? Colleagues?  Conferences? Repositories (online publisher platforms, case studies sites, etc.)? 

3. What do you think the benefits of Teamwork assignments are for students?

4. How good is student engagement in Teamwork?  Do you quantify it? 

5. How do you facilitate Teamwork?  

6. Are Teamwork activities used as formative or summative assessments?  How do you assess performance? 

7. Do you obtain student feedback or satisfaction regarding Teamwork? 

8. Were you able to continue Teamwork in the online context? 

The event will be recorded and made available via the FED’s MS Stream Channel as soon as possible post-event. If you would like to suggest a future topic, please contact our hosts and describe your idea!