My teaching experience at the University of Edinburgh began as a tutor to small groups of students on first-year anthropology and geography courses. While I received two days of training from both schools, the first couple of tutorials made it clear that there was a lot I did not know about and couldn’t even anticipate for as I was unfamiliar with the UK’s undergraduate education system. My first instinct was to turn to more experienced tutors for advice. Being able to discuss how a given tutorial went, what worked, and what was problematic or challenging for me and for my students was very helpful. To develop my teaching skills I reviewed several publications and blogs on HE pedagogy and implemented ‘one-minute paper’ questionnaires (Angelo and Cross 1993) to collect student feedback about what they found helpful in our tutorials and what they thought could be improved. This helped me hunt for assumptions and take informed action (Brookfield 2017:80) and keep a learning log of tutorial activities and teaching tips (Kahn and Walsh 2006:56), allowing for more detailed self-evaluation and critical reflection.
The same year, I also started organising weekly meetings with the other tutors on the courses I taught. These one-hour chats offered an opportunity for individual professional development and team building, whilst also enhancing the department’s learning and teaching culture. They provided time and space to reflect on our experience, share best practice, identify areas for course improvement, and sketch immediate and long-term goals for developing our teaching. Several sessions were specifically designed to discuss how we can teach sensitive material (e.g. rape, genocide, infanticide, racism, witchcraft) drawing on relevant pedagogy literature (CUCD Bulletin 2012) and personal experience. We interrogated how we can better support learners, ensure inclusiveness, equality, and participation, whilst being mindful of their individual experiences and wellbeing, and how we can cultivate respect for different individuals and communities within our students and other staff. For five semesters I ran these meetings with a varying number of participants. Sometimes more senior lecturers joined to offer advice. Feedback from those who attended indicated that the opportunity to reflect and hear others’ anecdotes, along with the handout material I provided from HE teaching resources, has been very useful and valuable for their own development as tutors.
References
Angelo, T. & P. Cross (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd edn. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Brookfield, S.D. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd edn. New York: Jossey-Bass.
CUCD (2012). Education Committee Symposium: Teaching Sensitive Subjects. Bulletin of the Council of University Classical Departments, 41(1): 11- 31.
Kahn, P. & L. Walsh (2006). Developing Your Teaching. London: Taylor and Francis Ltd.
Inna Yaneva-Toraman 