What do professors want to learn to improve their teaching

Abstract

This paper recounts the author’s experience with giving a Needs Assessment for improvement by university teachers. Subjects were from the University of Lethbridge and the 2008 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) conference session. Teachers at the University (n=77) indicated they could spend 5-15 hours in teaching development per semester and wanted a variety of information access but favoured quick one-hour workshops. STLHE participants (n=34) were willing to attend three-hour workshops and spend more time per semester (over 20 hours) improving their teaching. Topics that both groups wanted to hear about were teaching efficiently, using student feedback, fostering critical thinking, and marking fairly. STLHE participants were more interested in fostering group work, student writing, and dealing with student disabilities and diversity, whereas the University sample cared more about preventing cheating and presenting the results of their teaching for promotion and tenure. All in all, there were many things that teachers wanted to learn.