The Faculty of Arts is pleased to share that we have a new Teaching Fellow, Dr. George Lamont of the Department of English Language and Literature. Lamont is highly regarded for his teaching and holds numerous awards including the 2020 Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching. He joins the other five faculty Teaching Fellows who support excellent teaching within their faculties and also collaborate on a number of impactful university-wide projects.
"I am excited to take on the role of Faculty of Arts Teaching Fellow in 2022, and I welcome anyone to contact me about teaching," says Lamont. "The diversity of our disciplines in Arts presents valuable opportunities for us to learn from each other’s practices and share them with other disciplines. Everyone is busy, so we need practical means to invest in teaching that fit with our competing responsibilities."
Lamont outlines six ways in which he hopes to engage with colleagues:
- Build a network of teaching stakeholders in the Faculty of Arts. Each department and program has its own practices and needs, and some units already have their own teaching fellows. I will invite interested stakeholders to form a dedicated team to discuss teaching-development initiatives.
- Meet educators who want to consult about teaching: I will be available to consult with anyone who would like to discuss pedagogy. In addition to providing my own insight, I will try to connect educators with others who face similar pedagogical contexts.
- Support TA onboarding: Some units have well-developed TA-training programs, while other units are seeking support to train teaching assistants. I will work with stakeholders to share or create resources at the Faculty of Arts level.
- Peer reviews of teaching: As peer reviews of teaching become a formalized element of performance reviews, I will be available to provide peer reviews of teaching to interested educators. In addition to my training in my academic field, I have a B.Ed. degree from UBC, I am a licensed member of the Ontario College of Teachers, and I conducted peer reviews of teaching at my previous institution.
- Connect with the Teaching Fellows Mental Wellness initiative: UW is embarking on a central project in 2022 to address student mental wellness. I will share these developments with the Faculty of Arts and help develop practical resources that are easy to incorporate into course design.
- Cultivate reflexive learning: Our students are asked to think actively about their experiences in co-op. I would like to learn how departments and individual educators are including reflexive learning in their pedagogy and identify ways to advance reflexive learning further.
Teaching Fellows are appointed by the Associate Vice-President Academic — in the case of Arts, with recommendations from Martin Cooke, Associate Dean of Arts, Undergraduate Programs. "Dr. Lamont will be an great source of expertise for individual instructors and programs looking for help with specific teaching-related issues. These might involve aspects of assignments or course design, or challenging program-related issues such as identifying learning outcomes or advancing reflexive learning. Dr. Lamont will also be engaging with Arts instructors, in order to foster a network of colleagues who are interested in discussing teaching," says Cooke.