The image of college faculty members as abstracted, white-haired, tweed-jacketed professors, mumbling lectures from notes that were yellowed by twenty years of repeated use is still pervasive. In this view, college faculty care only about their research and have little connection to the students sitting passively in front of them. Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience directly challenges this view of today's college faculty and serves as a guide for graduate students and new faculty who seek ways-both personal and pedagogical-to become more effective teachers.Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience reports the results of the University of Washington's Growth in Faculty Teaching Study (UW GIFTS), which sought to find out whether or not faculty ever change what they do in the classroom, even when there is little external pressure for them to do so. Key findings in the study were that all courses that faculty members taught were deeply embedded in their academic disciplines, even freshman-level classes; that content and critical thinking as goals for learning could not be separated; that faculty members were making changes to their teaching continuously; that such changes were motivated by the faculty member's intentional assessment of the learning needs of her particular classes; and that most changes were aimed at helping students meet faculty members' goals for learning.

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments 1. Gifts College Teaching Realities Purpose of the Study and Key Findings Literatures Our Paths Organization 2. How Was the Study Conducted Faculty Sample Graduate Student Sample Study Design Generalizability and Usefulness 3. What Courses Did Faculty Describe? Key Findings: Disciplinary Practice, Content, and Critical Thinking Class Size, TA Help, and Course Levels Pedagogy Course Requirements Learning beyond the Classroom Summary: Courses 4. What Changes Did Faculty Make to Their Courses? Changes to Courses Few Changes Big Directions of Change Are You Still Making Changes to Your Teaching Summary: Changes 5. Why Did Faculty Make Changes to Their Courses? Reasons for Changes Made to Specific Courses End-of-interview Ratings of Sources of Change Summary: Reasons and Sources for Change 6. What Allowed Faculty to Teach from the Self? The Importance of Changes in the Self Moving Beyond the Graduate Student Experience Learning to Trust Their Own Authority over Time Permission to Make Mistakes Knowing That They Know How to Teach Paring Down, Opening Up, and Weaving In Listening to Changes in the Self Summary: Teaching from the Self 7. What Did Faculty Say about Students Students as Learners Students Today... Praise for Students Today Summary: Students and Other Learners 8. What "Research" Methods Did Faculty Use? Sources of Information on Teaching and Learning Tracking the Effects of Change Summary: Researching One's Own Teaching Effectiveness 9. Were There Differences across Groups? Difference Based on Faculty Characteristics Faculty of Color Three Disciplines Graduate Students and Faculty Members Summary: Differences 10. Learning in the Act of Teaching Appendices Appendix A: UW GIFTS Interview Questions for Faculty Appendix B: Focus Group Questions for Graduate Students Appendix C: Tables on Statistically Significant Differences Notes Bibliography Index