Learning and teaching
"Learning and teaching" encompasses the full range of activities relating to student learning from the faculty perspective.
The Center for Faculty Development draws on relevant research to introduce faculty to constructive, learning-focused practices.
Hear from a Faculty colleague
Assistant professor
"I have always walked away from CFD workshops with new ideas for my classes, and the faculty who run them there make me a better teacher."
End-of-year survey, 2023-24
Classroom observations
The Center for Faculty Development provides formative classroom teaching observations and customized feedback for faculty across the university. All discussions and outcomes are kept confidential; while faculty may choose to share experiences with others, your Center colleagues will not. Ideally, we follow a 3-stage process:
This discussion enables your Center colleague to find out the context of the course, the students and the planned sequence of events for the class, establishes the purpose of the classroom observation for the faculty member, and gives time to sort out any logistical issues which may need to be taken into consideration.
As part of this discussion, you, as the faculty member, can choose which specific aspects of the class you would like the observer to be noting.
Here, your observer will take note of anything relevant to your chosen areas of focus. It is often best if the observer can be left to observe, rather than be brought into classroom discussions, though you may wish to discuss this with your observer first.
This meeting is typically a few days after the observation, allowing the observer time to collate any notes and retrieve helpful information, and giving the professor time to reflect on the session. In this meeting, both parties talk through the requested areas of focus and the professor identifies adjustments or suggestions which they feel may work well in this context for this group of students. It's helpful here to be mindful of the fact that not all examples of "good practice" or "received wisdom" will work in all settings, and that you may want to disregard some suggestions if you feel they would not work for you or your students.
To arrange a classroom observation, simply request a consultation by filling in the form and selecting "classroom observation" in the topics field. Alternatively, you can contact us centrally in the Center for Faculty Development:
Center for Faculty Development T (206) 296-2144 | E faculty-development@seattleu.edu | Loyola 216
Course evaluation analysis
When faculty receive their student course evaluations, it can often be difficult to make sense of the data and feedback. The Center for Faculty Development offers to help analyze one set of student responses in a systematic way, and will show you how you can do this analysis for yourself for future courses.
This interpretation can then help you identify areas to prioritize, and the Center can provide further assistance in brain-storming, strategizing, and planning for future courses.
If you'd like the Center to analyze your course evaluations for you, please complete an online consultation request.
Please note that these consultations take longer to prepare, so there is typically a delay of at least a couple of weeks between a colleague in the Center receiving your evaluations from you and your meeting together to discuss it.
To speed up your own analysis
We encourage you to save yourself some time by using these two documents below to structure your course evaluation analysis so that you can make good decisions based on real data. Both links open an MS Word document in a new window.