Annual Conversation | Faculty Review | Seneca Polytechnic

Overview

At the heart of the Faculty Review program is an annual conversation between each faculty member and their Chair. This conversation offers a valuable opportunity to celebrate your teaching achievements, reflect on the past year, and discuss potential development paths for the future. Your Chair will offer insights on how you can work together to reach your professional goals in the year ahead.

The aims of this conversation are:

• To highlight your professional growth over the previous year in alignment with Seneca’s teaching Standards of Practice
• To summarize your professional development priorities for the upcoming year
• To discuss ways your Chair can support your professional goals as an educator

These annual conversations between faculty members and Chairs can be structured or more informal. Regardless of the format, communication should be relevant and honest.  It is important to remember that the outcome of the conversation is to ensure all faculty are supported in their teaching. Both faculty members and Chairs should feel comfortable discussing ideas and exploring solutions to challenges together.

At the end of the conversation, your Chair will provide you with a written summary of the discussion that will become part of your teaching record, along with your CAS results and class visit feedback. You are welcome to take your own notes during your conversation if you wish. You can also share with your Chair any other items that you would like to become part of your dossier.

Preparing for Your Annual Conversation

The annual conversation is a great way for your Chair to get to know you better. Think of what you would like to share with your Chair about yourself, as a professor, and your teaching.

Step 1

Begin by gathering and reviewing your notes and feedback from your professional development activities over the past year. The list below suggests some possible items to include in your review. It is up to you to decide what you would like to bring to the conversation and how you would like to prepare. You may find the templates helpful for keeping track of your thoughts.

You may wish to reflect upon:

• Your teaching accomplishments and proudest moments
• Ways you demonstrate Seneca’s teaching Standards of Practice (Teaching Reflection template)
• Any PD courses, workshops, or events that you participated in
• Your CAS results and any actions you took, or intend to take, in response
• Feedback from your Class Visit(s) (if applicable) (Class Visit template for Faculty)
• Feedback from Peer Observation activities (if applicable)
• Your professional goals for the upcoming year (Goal Setting template)

Step 2

After reflecting, prepare a short list of what you would like to share with your Chair. You are welcome to bring forward any discussion topic you choose; however, we recommend that you include the following.

After Your Conversation

Ask your Chair to share copies of any documentation with you if they haven’t already done so. Take note of the growth plan you developed together for the upcoming year and begin working on your goals when you are ready. Feel free to reach out to your Chair during the year to continue the conversation, if that would be helpful for you.

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