Two members from the external community with experience and expertise in teaching This Learning Council will set general policy, set guidelines for Learning Innovation Grants, set general guidelines for the purchase and use of technology in support of teaching and learning, and formulate general policies on teaching and learning on behalf of the university. The Centre for Leadership in Learning's activities will be university-wide and diverse in scope. Some of the proposed activities relate to changes in curriculum, some to changes in policy, and several have implications for the use of technology. The Inquiry Project is a long term project to develop, test, evaluate, implement and disseminate inquiry course curricula, models and teaching strategies for all undergraduate degree programs at McMaster University. This project is described more fully below.
Most faculty members enter their teaching career with little or no formal preparation to teach.
They are asked to begin immediately, and are offered few if any supports. Learning to teach becomes a long process of trial and error. Most survive and many go on to excel, but the process of learning is wasteful. Several institutions, including McMaster, have begun to remedy this situation by offering an orientation to teaching for new faculty, but much more is needed. Beginning in 1999, McMaster University will offer to release new faculty members from one course of teaching to allow them to complete a course entitled The Principles and Practice of University Teaching.