Results of the New Faculty Seminar 2002
Session hosted by RCTE Chairs

Best Teaching Moments

The task was to "write about your single best teaching moment." This is one-fifth of a process used by Stephen Brookfield called a "Good Practices Audit," a process for faculty to solve teaching problems collaboratively. (See Stephen Brookfield's chapter 8 in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher [San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995]:161-184.)

Patterns

The 2002 New Faculty Seminar participants (very few of whom were actually completely new to teaching) who attended this RCTE workshop helped compile patterns in the anonymous written answers, as well as the discussion that followed. Below are the characteristics of good teaching moments that we determined from the anecdotes we had. Clicking on a link (for those that have links) will take you to one or two representative examples of that trait.

	leading students to practical applications (visualizations) of a concept
	putting students' needs ahead of the plan for the day (flex the plan for extra time on task)
	working one-to-one with a student
	affect: using humor and building confidence
	revealing a passion for the subject in order to cultivate strong interest in students
	revealing our three-dimensional lives in order to acknowledge the 3-D lives of students
	prompt students more to make a task feasible and to encourage participation

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