Description of the Program

The Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) offers individualized, confidential consulting on teaching and learning for UW faculty and graduate TAs. Since Autumn 2000, CIDR staff have consulted with an average of 75 TAs from STEM disciplines per academic year, 45% of the total number of CIDR’s TA clients. Consultation topics have included course design, teaching portfolio development, interpreting student ratings, responding to student writing, and strategies for effective teaching. CIDR services are voluntary, confidential, discipline-specific, and free to the TAs.

In addition, CIDR offers leadership opportunities for experienced TAs. For example, CIDR often works with Lead TAs (senior TAs appointed by departments to help with orientation and supervision of new TAs in their departments) as they help implement their departments’ TA preparation programs. At the recent campus-wide TA Conference on Teaching and Learning, one-third of the experienced TA facilitators were volunteers from STEM disciplines. CIDR staff also contribute to the projects of a number Huckabay Fellows.

Outcomes of the Program

STEM disciplines represented among CIDR clients in recent years include

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Applied Mathematics
• Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
• Astronomy
• Biochemistry
• Bioengineering
• Biology
• Biomolecular Structure & Design Program
• Biostatistics
• Chemical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Computer Science and Engineering
• Earth and Space Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Environmental Health
• Forest Resources
• Health Services
• Materials Science & Engineering
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Microbiology
• Molecular & Cellular Biology
• Neurobiology and Behavior
• Nutritional Sciences
• Oceanography
• Physics
• Physiology & Biophysics
• Program on the Environment
• Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Speech & Hearing Sciences
• Statistics
• Technical Communication

Clients are routinely asked for feedack on their work with CIDR. Feedback from CIDR’s STEM TA clients has been positive. Clients report appreciating

• the opportunity to consult on development of their teaching
• assistance with instructional design, assessment, and data collection in their classes
• discipline-specific consultations grounded in their specific teaching situations

Implementation of the Program

CIDR’s work with STEM TAs is situated within CIDR’s broader instructional development work for UW departments, faculty, and TAs across academic disciplines. CIDR staff specialize in consulting with specific academic disciplines, allowing them to focus on issues and questions that are particular to those disciplines. CIDR also employs graduate student consultants from a number of different academic departments.