Effectiveness of a weekly faculty conversation forum about teaching

To evaluate the effectiveness of holding weekly 60-90 minute conversation forums for faculty members to discuss, explore, and reflect on various teaching topics in a relaxed, informal, interactive format. Weekly, 60-90 minute sessions were held for faculty members of the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. A 15-item retrospective pretest-posttest questionnaire was developed and administered at the end of the first year of implementation to evaluate the participants' perceived knowledge, abilities, and confidence gains relative to becoming effective educators. Eleven faculty members completed the questionnaire. All respondents tended to agree (6/11) or agreed (5/11) that their confidence as educators improved after attending the conversation forums. In addition,7 respondents tended to agree and 4 agreed that their ability to self-assess their teaching had improved. An ongoing weekly conversations forum provides faculty members opportunities to explore and learn about facets of teaching in a safe, informal environment.