Sunday 7 August 2016

What do staff new to teaching want/need from a teaching induction program?



As well as talking with program directors of teaching induction programs about their programs, it might be useful, if we could get permission to do so, to talk with some staff who have completed a teaching induction program recently to find out what they valued and what else they would have liked their program to cover.

I like the idea of having this input to consider when we develop our national LTIP.

While we could ask many questions, we aren't setting out to evaluate the teaching induction program that these staff have taken. We want to know what the intended audience of LTIP would value in such a program as we will build.

Below are just a couple of questions and I would be interested for your thoughts on if we should ask anything further and if so what.

Also, should we also interview some staff who are new to teaching and who haven't enrolled in a teaching induction program?

Cheers

Kym

 

Demographic info - teaching experience, age, casual/contract/part time, research student/research and teaching/teaching only + clinical practitioners?

  1. Tell me about your experience of completing your university's teaching induction program?
  2. What were some of the strengths of the program? Or What did you find most valuable about the program?
  3. Tell me about a key moment for you in the program.
  4. Is there anything else that you would like to see covered in the program?
  5. Is there anything about the program that you would like to see changed?
  6. Was the program long enough? Too long?

9 comments:

  1. Dear Kym and colleagues,

    Great questions - thank you.

    Could we consider:
    Demongraphic: teaching/research might be another category (as some researchers required to do some teaching), perhaps it would also be good to determine if those attending induction had:
    taught at another university prior to commencing at their current university (eg how new were they to teaching);
    Find out if they had a teaching degree of some sort as this can influence approaches to teaching and affect responses to how useful induction might be to them.

    Questions:
    Was attendance at the induction program mandatory? (This is an important one to include)
    Was there any follow up from the facilitator to new staff member?
    If there was follow up - what form (webinar, face to face, other online activities with or without facilitator)
    content (exploration of teaching strategies, activities for students, professional development options) how was this accomplished eg what followed?
    How long (duration) were any follow up sessions/next step programs?
    Did you receive any certificates, badges (for ePortfolio) to show you had attended or PD record on your university record?

    These are just some of my thoughts based on observations over the last 5 years.

    I'm interested to read what others think or feel we should include.

    Best wishes,

    Bernie
    9/8/2016

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello everyone,

    just to add - yes Kym I do think it would be useful to interview those staff who have not attended a teaching induction program to determine if they did not know about it; chose not to do it and why; explored other reasons.
    regards,
    Bernie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, it would be most useful to get some information (maybe survey) who have not yet attended a teaching induction. As my institution doesn't have an induction, from my perspective, it would be most useful to find out from staff what would have been useful for them.
    Julie

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks very much for your suggestions Bernie. I wonder if we won't access some of the data you suggest from the program director if we manage to interview them. And perhaps we would be wise then to limit our interviews of staff to those programs where we have been able to interview the person leading the program? I wonder how many program leaders will be willing to do an interview with us and will then be willing to let us talk with a few of their staff?
    cheers
    Kym

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great ideas for questions already listed here...

    Another possible question:
    Did you attend the induction program on Day 1? Was the timing of the induction appropriate in relation to when you commenced teaching?

    Perhaps as an option to interview staff, requesting leaders of the program to send out a survey using Survey Monkey to staff who completed the induction programs.

    Cheers
    Kogi

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  6. Hi there,

    I think these questions are all great - a couple of additional ones I can think of are - what aspects of the program have you specifically put into practice and how?
    Has anything hindered you in putting your learning into practice? (could possibly be better worded)
    Have you used participation in the programs in unexpected ways, for example has it led to you continuing onto a graduate certificate or diploma; has it led to T&L publications or applications for grants or awards: did it lead to some different collaborations across disciplines?

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  7. Fab additionaly questions Ann and Kogi
    that interview schedule is taking shape.
    Julie it would be good to have a chat about interview vs survey.
    cheers
    Kym

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  8. For sessional staff we need to ask if they received payment or not to attend the teaching induction?
    If they did received payment, did it cover all or part of the induction?
    Cheers
    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi colleagues

    Great discussion, lots of interesting ideas. I think the question about payment of attendees is particularly important.

    I wonder if we might need to ask some explicit questions not just about the content and follow-up of the induction programs, but also about the actual design and delivery of - things like the resources provided, and the methods of delivery (including online vs f2f, flipped, etc). Also whether the teaching induction was combined with other induction programs like HR (as it was at UC in 2014 when we actually had a teaching induction program).

    Cheers

    Peter

    ReplyDelete