We are pleased to share information about the Group for Independent Feedback on Teaching (GIFT) @Rutgers University –New Brunswick. GIFT is a peer support group for faculty and non-faculty instructors at Rutgers University, designed to provide a welcoming and supportive forum for feedback on instructional methods.
GIFT has three overarching objectives:
- Offer instructors a space to discuss ideas and challenges related to instruction.
- Explore principled, theoretically grounded possibilities for addressing member-posed issues through guided discussion.
- Provide independent peer observations of teaching with structured feedback.
GIFT will accomplish these objectives through weekly meetings, including:
- Discussion of helpful literature discovered by members.
- Open dialogue about teaching challenges encountered that week.
- Demonstrations by members of new materials or methods.
- Constructive feedback on presented materials.
- Optional discussion of notes from any observations, with consent.
- Requests for observations and volunteers to observe.
- Exploration of literature and research for ideas.
Members of GIFT are expected to attend weekly meetings and contribute to at least one activity during their attendance.
GIFT is part of the Teaching Excellence Network (TEN), funded by the NSF Grant Coordinating a Teaching Excellence Network to Engage STEM Faculty in Teaching Reform (NSF Award 2013315). Participants may be asked to voluntarily consent to observations of group meetings.