Catharine Hoffman Beyer & Edward Taylor 
Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience 
The University of Washington’s Growth in Faculty Teaching Study

The image of college faculty members as abstracted, white-haired, tweed-jacketed professors, mumbling lectures from notes that were yellowed by twenty years of repeated use is still pervasive. In this view, college faculty care only about their research and have little connection to the students sitting passively in front of them.
Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience directly challenges this view of today’s college faculty and serves as a guide for graduate students and new faculty who seek ways—both personal and pedagogical—to become more effective teachers.




Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience reports the results of the University of Washington’s Growth in Faculty Teaching Study (UW GIFTS), which sought to find out whether or not faculty ever change what they do in the classroom, even when there is little external pressure for them to do so. Key findings in the study were that all courses that faculty members taught were deeply embedded in their academic disciplines, even freshman-level classes; that content and critical thinking as goals for learning could not be separated; that faculty members were making changes to their teaching continuously; that such changes were motivated by the faculty member’s intentional assessment of the learning needs of her particular classes; and that most changes were aimed at helping students meet faculty members’ goals for learning.

Table of Content

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments



1. Gifts



College Teaching Realities

Purpose of the Study and Key Findings

Literatures

Our Paths

Organization



2. How Was the Study Conducted



Faculty Sample

Graduate Student Sample

Study Design

Generalizability and Usefulness



3. What Courses Did Faculty Describe?



Key Findings: Disciplinary Practice, Content, and Critical Thinking

Class Size, TA Help, and Course Levels

Pedagogy

Course Requirements

Learning beyond the Classroom

Summary: Courses



4. What Changes Did Faculty Make to Their Courses?



Changes to Courses

Few Changes

Big Directions of Change

Are You Still Making Changes to Your Teaching

Summary: Changes



5. Why Did Faculty Make Changes to Their Courses?



Reasons for Changes Made to Specific Courses

End-of-interview Ratings of Sources of Change

Summary: Reasons and Sources for Change



6. What Allowed Faculty to Teach from the Self?



The Importance of Changes in the Self

Moving Beyond the Graduate Student Experience

Learning to Trust Their Own Authority over Time

Permission to Make Mistakes

Knowing That They Know How to Teach

Paring Down, Opening Up, and Weaving In

Listening to Changes in the Self

Summary: Teaching from the Self



7. What Did Faculty Say about Students



Students as Learners

Students Today…

Praise for Students Today

Summary: Students and Other Learners



8. What “Research” Methods Did Faculty Use?



Sources of Information on Teaching and Learning

Tracking the Effects of Change

Summary: Researching One’s Own Teaching Effectiveness



9. Were There Differences across Groups?



Difference Based on Faculty Characteristics

Faculty of Color

Three Disciplines

Graduate Students and Faculty Members

Summary: Differences



10. Learning in the Act of Teaching




Appendices

Appendix A: UW GIFTS Interview Questions for Faculty

Appendix B: Focus Group Questions for Graduate Students

Appendix C: Tables on Statistically Significant Differences



Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Catharine Hoffman Beyer is Research Scientist and Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Writing Program at the University of Washington.
Edward Taylor is Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington.
Gerald M. Gillmore is former Director of the Office of Educational Assessment at the University of Washington.