Section 7.3 Feeling comfortable making changes
One new faculty member described the evolution of feeling comfortable making changes:
(After watching the videos of previous course sessions) I could make a decision, “am I going to be a total copycat or am I going to try some new things?” which is how I typically approach my second year teaching a class. I remember what happened the first time and I have my own ideas about what I want to change but that experience of being there watching the video just was a huge step for me.
In the case where I'd taught the whole course before, it was that I knew the big picture, that I knew if I was going to change something on Day 2 what was coming downstream and what the ripples would be and I really thought (it was silly) doing that if I didn't know what was coming downstream.
Watching videos of previous course sessions had enabled this new faculty member to envision what was coming and consider making changes now. Typically he would run such changes by an experienced faculty member. Such checks could identify any difficulties that might occur in other courses later in the curriculum.