Sean Theriault

Project Title: COLA’s Teaching Mentor Program 

 

Project Summary: New faculty hires have many resources at their disposal to improve their teaching. In fact, so many resources exist that it can be paralyzing. What I propose is not an investment in offices or institutions, but rather in people. By virtue of completing a dissertation, most Ph.D.s are proficient at research. Regrettably, the correlation between research and teaching is not perfect; though a perusal of the teachers in the Academy of Distinguished Teachers shows that a strong correlation very well may exist. Teaching, regrettably, usually only becomes a problem when it is a problem. I think a healthy teaching mentorship early in a young scholars career can preclude any problems from ever developing. The project proposed establishing a Mentor Program for all new non-tenured, tenure-track appointments in the College of Liberal Arts. The mentors for this program will come from the members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.