Faculty Spotlight – Shona Ellis, Professor of Teaching

UBC has a new and improved career track for faculty, the teaching stream leading to the new rank of Professor of Teaching, which places an emphasis on excellence in teaching and learning and educational leadership. Faculty promoted to this rank must demonstrate outstanding achievement in four key areas: educational leadership (taking leadership roles in the department, advancing innovation), teaching and learning (reflective practice, student evaluations of teaching, peer evaluations of teaching), curriculum development and pedagogical innovation, and service to their academic profession, their Department, the University, and the community. The other ranks in the tenure track teaching stream are Instructor and Senior Instructor (with tenure). The new teaching stream complements the long-established professoriate tenure track stream of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor.

The 2011-12 academic year was the first year of its implementation. As of June 30, 2012, four faculty members were appointed at or promoted to the position of Professor of Teaching:

From the Faculty of Science
        Shona Ellis, Botany
        Simon Bates, Physics and Astronomy
        Carol Pollock, Zoology

From the Faculty of Applied Science
        Jon Mikkelsen, Mechanical Engineering

Previously, the highest rank for teaching-focused faculty at UBC was Senior Instructor, which was the tenured position following the Instructor rank.

Shona Ellis, one of UBC’s new Professors of Teaching, was kind enough to share some insights into her new role and how she arrived there.

Q: I understand that there are four areas of focus for review to promotion to the position of Professor of Teaching (leadership, teaching and learning, curriculum development and pedagogical innovation, and service). Any highlights you’d like to share?

Shona Ellis (SE): Like most other instructors, I really don’t think of what I do in terms of these four areas. There is so much overlap. The leadership aspect was the most interesting; many of us spend a lot of time thinking about leadership and the qualities of your own leadership. My leadership work started when I was advising in the Dean of Science office. From there I had a couple of other leadership roles (directorships of General Science and Combined Major in Science) in Science, and now I’m the Associate Head of Biology. There are all kinds of activities that you do that you may not think of as leadership. Some of those roles actually overlap with curriculum development. In Science, we developed the new combined majors program and I was the chair of that committee. I was also on the curriculum committee that was responsible for developing the new biology program. So, I’d call these examples of educational leadership. The fun part now is transitioning between the old and the new biology programs. Then, the next steps include the development of a new biology program website and advising tools for students. We are also in the process of designing a sustainability pathway for biology. It is neat to think about how those four focus areas intersect.

Q: How do you find juggling the various sides of your role – educational leadership, administration, and teaching?

SE: When I became the Associate Head of Biology I was told I could reduce my teaching. I said, “No way, I love teaching!” Last year it was tough though to juggle the teaching, the associate head duties, and develop my teaching dossier for the Professor of Teaching all at the same time. I started feeling a little burned out. This year, I did give up teaching one of the courses I really enjoy, but if you juggle too many things, you spread yourself too thin and that is when things unravel. I really don’t want that to happen as we have a number of really cool projects on the go.

Q: Were there any resources that were helpful or people you sought advice from in putting together your dossier?

SE: I used the “Guidelines for review for Promotion to Professor of Teaching” as a guide for writing the dossier. It was great for overall organization (I think they will likely be updating it for the next round). The dossier itself is relatively short (mine was 25 pages). I had already done a dossier for promotion to senior instructor, so I knew how to approach it. I had taken a workshop from TAG (now CTLT) and used their dossier package. It took some time to decide on which artifacts to use in the appendix to demonstrate the different activities and show diversity…these are things you can start to compile well in advance. I am actually quite shy so I didn’t ask for help with proof reading, which would have been very useful and likely would have saved me time (and agonizing). CTLT was great with help in the development of my eportfolio!

Q: How long did it take you to create your dossier and complete your submission for the Professor of Teaching?

SE: It took me a couple of months…I used an eportfolio/e-dossier as part of the application. I wrote the dossier first and then developed the eportfolio. If I had to do it again, I would have spent more time polishing my CV and incorporating more elements of the dossier into it. I may have spent less time on the eportfolio (although it was fun). As your case goes through the different levels, the committees look at different things. At the department level the faculty found the eportfolio an easy way to review my activities. I’m not certain if the eportfolio was really looked at through the other levels of the process, for example at the Senior Appointments level they really only look at the CV. The eportfolio, however, was a very valuable exercise for me as a teacher, a good reflective exercise. So, now I’m going to be keeping the eportfolio as a living document of my work and keep it up to date.

Q: Do you have any advice for a Senior Instructor thinking about putting their case forward for promotion to the rank of Professor of Teaching?

SE: If you are even thinking of doing this in the future, make a point of keeping a detailed record of all of your activities. It will save you lots of time! There are lots of opportunities at UBC to get involved with activities beyond the classroom, and that is really what this new rank is about. I have really enjoyed working with colleagues from around campus on many projects that have to do with teaching and learning, curriculum development, online learning, student experience…I guess the big advice is “be involved”.

Q: Any teaching tips to share?

SE: Try to be as clear as possible about your expectations of students from the get-go…I receive comments in my evaluations from students that my courses are a lot of work. I agree! I try to make certain I tell the students that right up front. In fact, before classes even start I send them a little treasure hunt exercise through the course website and part of that is to take a look at the syllabus and calendar and understand what the expectations of the course are. Usually, there are a few students who drop the course at that point because they realize it’s a lot of work. So, I certainly get the “a lot of work” comments but it never seems to affect my overall evaluations score. And, I think this is because I have made the expectations of the course crystal clear. I guess that isn’t much of a teaching tip, but I think setting the expectations up early on really helps a course run smoothly.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your role?

SE: I am always learning, creating, and interacting with students…what is not to enjoy? I try to bring a lot of innovation into my courses, which is fun. I like using technology where it works well. I also try to make the organisms real for students by demonstrating how they fit in to their own lives. In my bryophytes class we go on five or six field trips per year. There is no substitute for handling real plants. It is great to have students contribute to the online materials as well. It gives students the opportunity to publish and share their work with their classmates and beyond. So, that’s very valuable. I am very fortunate to be able to teach courses on subjects I find fascinating and it is really rewarding to me when I can light the same spark in my students.

For further information on the new rank of Professor of Teaching and the process of review in the teaching stream, see the following resources (PDFs):

1. Criteria for the teaching stream ranks
2. Guidelines for review for promotion to Professor of Teaching
3. General information on the reappointment, tenure, and promotion review process

This article was published in the September 2012 CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues. Below is a list of the articles included in the issue:

Find out more information about the CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues.