Who Do You Think You Are? Unpacking Teacher-Writer Identities

Effective teaching involves a commitment to praxis: to critical reflection about our beliefs and values as well as the teaching practices that help us enact those values in the classroom. To aid in this self-reflection, the Office of Faculty Excellence and the University Writing Program are offering on a series of three workshops designed specifically to help faculty build meta-awareness about themselves as teachers and writers.

Session 1 focuses on the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI). The TPI measures 5 perspectives of effective teaching: transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, and social reform.  In this session, participants take the TPI and reflect on how individual results demonstrate our own personal teaching style, philosophy, and overall understanding of the learning environment.  

Session 2 focuses on The Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test as an empirically developed instrument to measure both the level and types of writing apprehension. In this session, we will reflect on ourselves as writers and teachers of writing, discuss how we as instructors can anticipate particular writing needs among our students, and consider strategies for reducing stress that can inhibit the development of cognitive skills in writing classrooms. 

In Session 3, we apply the knowledge gained in the two previous sessions to construct our own academic genealogy, including the experiences, knowledge, and people who have contributed to our dominant perspectives of teaching and sources of apprehension. We will also consider how these results could be used to inform our teaching philosophy, theory of teaching writing, and classroom practices to develop and share strategies to apply new knowledge to our academic practices.

Objectives – Session participants will:

• Assess their beliefs, intentions, and actions with regard to teaching and writing;
• Reflect on how your prior knowledge and experiences impact their philosophy for teaching and writing practices; and
• Recognize your own perspectives and apprehensions and prepare to use that knowledge in academic settings.