Consultations and Observations

We all pride ourselves on our teaching, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Because on occasion everyone could use a sounding board or an objective third party in the classroom, CARPE provides both one-on-one consultations and classroom observations. Both of these services are available to all W&L faculty and teaching staff, and both are entirely confidential.

Consultations are for those one-off situations: you’ve got a new assignment and aren’t sure how to structure the due-dates; you came across a new teaching trick, but want to talk it over before going live in your class; you’re redesigning your course entirely and are looking for new ways to raise the intellectual stakes—and to support students as they do their best to succeed. To schedule a consultation, simply e-mail Paul Hanstedt at phanstedt@wlu.edu

Observations are for those moments when you’re looking for a more general sense of the effectiveness of your teaching and interactions with a class, or when you’ve encountered a particular challenge in a section of a course. Observations are entirely confidential, and are usually preceded by a brief conversation or e-mail about your goals for the session(s) to be observed, as well as a post-observation dialogue. We recommend planning for observations in more than one session of a course, to provide a clearer sense of the dynamics, but we understand that sometimes this isn’t possible. Interested? E-mail Paul Hanstedt at phanstedt@wlu.edu.

Please note: all observations are formative in nature. CARPE is dedicated to providing a supportive environment where difficult conversations about the challenges of teaching can take place. As such, we are not able to write letters for purposes of tenure and promotion. Should you wish to sit down and discuss drafts of your statement of teaching philosophy or something similar, however, we will happily buy the coffee!

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