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I would like to convey three key messages about Appreciative Teaching Squares.
Key message one is that we need structured opportunities for teaching growth on our campuses before evaluation. One of these structures that we talked about in this series of videos was Appreciative Teaching Squares. Appreciative teaching squares provide a shared teaching conversation across campus, and appreciate the teaching expertise that’s already present on our campuses.
Key message two is that appreciative inquiry is a mindset shift that we can use on our campuses in order to appreciate what’s going well on our campuses instead of focusing on all the deficiencies and teaching on our campuses.
And key message three is that even if you don’t have a structure for appreciative teaching squares on your campus, there are elements of appreciative teaching squares that you can adapt for your own teaching context.
Thank you so much for interacting with this course about appreciative teaching squares. I look forward to continuing the conversation on the discussion prompts, and also if you have any feedback at all or if you try appreciative teaching squares in your context, I would love to hear from you.
- Faculty need structured opportunities for growth before they are evaluated in their teaching. Appreciative teaching squares allow for an opportunity to build community, appreciate the experience and expertise on campus, and develop teaching goals aligned with available professional development.
- Appreciative Inquiry is a process and a mindset that can be applied in many settings to focus on what is going well and what type of teaching collaborations we want to build on our campuses.
- Even if you do not have a structure that supports appreciative teaching squares on your campus there are elements that can be adopted in your practice.
Thank you for taking this ‘Reflecting on your Teaching with Appreciative Teaching Squares’ course which has been developed with Erin Whitteck. We hope you have enjoyed it. Remember to mark all lessons as ‘Mark Complete’ to earn your Course Completion Badge.
The Center for Appreciative Inquiry offers professional development about appreciative inquiry
The Appreciative Inquiry Commons has a library of materials including a repository of resources
Faculty Focus Articles about different practices used to apply appreciative inquiry in higher education:
An Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Enhance Assignment Completion: Focusing on Locus of Control
Appreciative Inquiry: A Way to Guide Positive Change in your Department
Using Appreciative Inquiry with Internship Learning Contracts
Discussions
In what ways does your institution provide structured opportunities for teaching growth prior to evaluation?
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.