Blog

I blog about educational development, facilitation, and teaching. 

As of March 2018, I am blogging more regularly at isabeauiqbal.com (my coaching site). I will still occasionally blog here.

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Please click on the tags at the bottom of the page (in the black shaded area) if you would like to find a post on a particular theme. For example, to find posts I have tagged with “educational development”, you would click on that word at the bottom of this page.

Photo credit: Colors by Jon Cornwell (CC BY)

  • Helper roles: Process consultant, expert, doctor

    This is a continuation of my thoughts and notes on “helping” in the context of educational development (see here for my first blog post on this topic). I have been reading Schein’s “Helping: How to offer, give and receive help” and am finding it very relevant to my work (and beyond).  In Chapter 3, Schein…

  • Helping: What it means in educational development

    Educational development: “The profession dedicated to helping colleges and universities function effectively as teaching and learning communities” (from Felten, Kalish, Pingree, & Plank, 2007, p.93) As an educational developer, helping is important.  Whether I am program planning, consulting, or facilitating, my ultimate aim is to help (to enhance teaching and learning in some way). Schein…

  • Instructional objectives and learning outcomes: There is a difference

    Until recently, I have used the terms “instructional objectives” and “learning outcomes” interchangeably.  Though I was aware that some educators thought there was a difference between the two, I chose to side with those who said there was none. I could not, however, have backed up my choice with anything other than a vague “I’ve…

  • Applying a backward-design approach to an educational development program

    We promote a backwards design approach among our instructors…but—ironically—I am only now starting to use it in my own educational development planning and assessment work. Though the task of applying backward design to our entire Centre offerings is too daunting, the application of this concept to a sub-set of our offerings is appealing and makes…

  • The Peer Review of Teaching: Pre-Observation Meeting

    Much of my work and scholarship revolves around the peer review of teaching.  This morning I spent my time revising a resource on the formative peer review of teaching section of CTLT’s website. The resource is useful for any reviewer or reviewee  as it highlights many considerations and process-related questions; it also provides sample wording that a reviewer…