Focus Group Report: Seminar in College Teaching

This paper presents the report of a University of Maryland focus group evaluating a seminar in teaching designed for undergraduate teaching fellows in engineering. The course's purpose was to provide the fellows the opportunity to apply teaching theory to practice. Focus groups were conducted in order to evaluate the course and the teaching fellows' experience as a whole. Questions were based on the course objectives, which included providing teaching fellows with: an overview of the theory and research in college teaching; an understanding of students' learning styles and of how classroom climate affects learning; the opportunity to explore different teaching methods; the information necessary to help engineering students make a connection with the school of engineering and the university; and the opportunity to process their classroom experiences. The focus group participants expressed an appreciation for the learning experience from the other teaching fellows and the instructors. The teaching fellows felt that the competencies learned were important to their personal and professional development. Several students indicated that the course impacted their career goals, and were considering teaching as a possible career. Student frustrations included a lack of opportunity to use their skills and a lack of consistency between sections. (CK)