Exploratory Teaching Groups (ETGs) provide faculty and instructors a collaborative framework to explore and discuss ideas, issues, and challenges in their teaching, with the goal of developing new practices, resources, or other educational interventions. The following ETGs will be open to participation from faculty & instructors at the University of Chicago. We invite you to explore their projects below and register for their events or fill out an interest form to get involved.
Facilitated by Valerie Levan, Senior Instructional Professor in the Humanities Core & Borja Sotomayor, Senior Instructional Professor in Computer Science
Our experience with Specifications Grading has taught us that adopting it can indeed help to shift students’ focus from their grades to their learning, but that incorporating it into a well-designed course is complex and often requires revision. This ETG aims to provide participants with knowledge of multiple possible Specifications Grading models, to offer a venue for workshopping course materials, and to generate public-facing informational materials for use by other instructors at UChicago. We invite you to register for our first ETG event of the year, Rethinking Grading at UChicago (see details below).
Rethinking Grading at UChicago - Thursday, October 18 | 1:30PM - 2:30PM | Crerar 298 or Zoom
The last few years have seen a growing movement within many educational communities regarding the need to reassess the way we grade students. Traditional assessment methods can have several shortcomings, including the inability to reflect the student’s actual mastery of the material, and generating undue stress because the high-stakes nature of the assignments. Alternate assessment methods aim to address these issues and place a greater emphasis on the student’s learning.
One specific approach, specifications grading, has been adopted by a few instructors at the University of Chicago, who have reported largely positive experiences with this scheme. In this event, we will provide a brief introduction to the basic principles of specifications grading, and we will hear from instructors who have deployed specifications grading in their classes.
This event is open to instructors from any discipline interested in rethinking their assessment practices, and it does not assume any prior knowledge of alternate assessment techniques.
Register Here
Facilitated by Maeve Hooper, Assistant Senior Instructional Professor & Director of the German Language Program and Shaunna McLeod, Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Chemistry
The goal of this ETG is to develop interest and expertise related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Disciplinary-Based Educational Research (DBER) within the UChicago community. Our plan is to meet 2-3 times per quarter to provide structure, training, and feedback as participants conduct individual SoTL/DBER research projects. Meetings will include reflection exercises, small group feedback sessions, and workshops to support research progress. Participants are welcome to join at any stage of the research process. If you are interested in learning more and getting involved with this ETG, please fill out the interest form.
Writing and Research About Teaching Interest Form
Facilitated by Diana Schwartz Francisco, Instructional Professor in the Department of History and Lisa Rosen, Senior Instructional Professor in the Committee on Education
This Exploratory Teaching Group is a working group whose goal is to develop an intentional and structured peer mentorship program for instructors. The group's work will address a gap in the current professional development model for instructors at the University: currently, there are few structured and intentional opportunities for mentorship among instructors across disciplines. This leaves instructors isolated from potential sources of collegial support and guidance that could contribute to the improvement of their individual practice. This situation also contributes to a wider campus culture in which teaching is treated as a private, idiosyncratic activity, rather than a shared professional practice. The mentorship program we intend to develop would provide community and the possibility of relationships to foment improved teaching while also providing opportunities for professional development to junior, mid-career, and more senior instructors in an environment outside their home department or unit. The group will be deliberately cross-disciplinary, so that instructors have the opportunity to learn with and from colleagues outside their disciplines and departments.
Peer Mentoring Across the Disciplines Interest Form
Facilitated by Britni Ratliff, Senior Instructional Professor in the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division and Zsuzsanna Szaniszlo, Senior Instructional Professor & Neubauer Phoenix STEM Director
The goal of this Exploratory Teaching Group is to inform faculty in all undergraduate STEM departments about the successful Collaborative Learning Method adapted by several of their colleagues. We plan to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities about departmental and individual adaptations, and available institutional support and resources. Participants in this ETG will learn about the motivating pedagogies, design, and implementation of existing Collaborative Learning (CL) activities in PSD/BSD and engage in discussions regarding the adaptation of these practices to their own teaching. We invite you to register for our first ETG event of the year, Introduction to Collaborative Learning at UChicago (see details below).
Introduction to Collaborative Learning at UChicago - Monday, November 4 | 3:00PM - 4:20PM | Wieboldt 310 D/E
Collaborative learning is a type of active learning where students engage in learning activities together, depending on each other’s resources and skills to support their learning process. Research indicates that students benefit greatly in a collaborative learning environment from the peer interactions through which they share experiences and skills. The UChicago Collaborative Learning method has been successfully adopted by faculty in several STEM disciplines across the university, expanding from engaging more than 380 undergraduate students in Autumn 2023 to over 700 undergraduate students in Autumn 2024. This event welcomes faculty and instructors from across the disciplines at UChicago to learn more about collaborative learning and its current implementation.
This event is open to faculty and instructors from any discipline interested in collaborative learning, and it does not assume any prior knowledge of these techniques.