Classroom Consultants: Colleagues Helping Colleagues.

Abstract

Faculty development literature describes a wide range of classroom consultant approaches (2, 3). At one end of the spectrum is the comprehensive, multi-service teaching center and at the other end is a single, highly regarded faculty member acting as a teaching consult ant. A newly organized Teaching Effectiveness Com mittee at the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) determined that the campus was not ready for either of these alternatives. Instead, the committee sought a voluntary group of faculty members who would form two-person teams and, after training, become each other's consultants. This would be an initial step in establishing a group of faculty who would be available to assist colleagues interested in strengthening their teaching. This colleague-to-colleague approach is non threatening, requires modest resources, and can be ap plied to a variety of settings for the purpose of initiating teaching improvement.