In the course of completing the Advanced Track of the Teaching Development Program at Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, I observed class sessions led by Prof. Brian Greene (lecture) and Prof. Deborah Martinsen (Core Curriculum seminar). My notes and reports on those observations are available upon request.
My Core Curriculum seminar was also observed by Colin Raymond of the CTL on November 14th, 2018. Below are excerpts of that report.
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- “You have a clear and direct communication style, with good energy, evident in your expository lecture to start the class as well as your deft handling of questions. The pace was somewhat rapid at times, although this was countered by circling back to the text in response to student comments that everyone may not have completely understood, allowing the class to follow along with the chain of thought. Modern historical and geographical context was regularly injected to helpful effect, helping alleviate any potential problems of the day’s topic being perceived as overly narrow.”
- “The discussion-guiding was highly effective at surfacing thoughtful ideas.”
- “The discussion on differences between [religious] sects was enthusiastic, and a major contributor to its success seemed to be that the goals for it were clearly explicated… Immediately following, filling in the chart as a class was a nice device for encouraging bite-size participation, not in a fluid-conversation way but in terms of the diversity of volunteers.”
- “This course appears effective at sparking active discussions based on a variety of readings as well as personal experiences. Your energy pervades these discussions and keeps them moving along, contextualized, and focused on the most important themes.”
- “With only a few exceptions, all students seemed on-task and motivated to learn the large majority of the time.”
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Click here to see a full PDF of this observation report.