Tip of the Week: Teacher’s guide is a tool kit of good practices

What is it?

Teacher’s guide contains detailed and practical information on matters such as planning of tuition and teaching material and collection and utilisation of course feedback.  In addition, it offers tips for teachers to develop their own expertise. 

How?

The guide has its roots in the Aalto University School of Science, where a couple of teachers compiled a guide as part of their pedagogical studies. This guide provides tips and information on questions that regularly crop up in teachers’ day-to-day work. In the preparation of the guide, the writers have adopted a ‘by teachers, for teachers’ approach, which is reflected in the language used. Experts on both pedagogy and learning services were involved in the compilation of the guide.  The schools have prepared tailored versions of the guide, which are available either as Inside pages or PDF files.

What is it suitable for?

Compiling information in a single location, the guide is suitable for offering guidance on matters on which a large quantity of information and instructions already exists. For example, a guide could be prepared to assist heads of degree programmes in the design, realisation and assessment of their programme.

Benefits?

The guide offers numerous practical benefits to teachers. Being able to find all the relevant information in one location makes day-to-day work easier. The guides also provides insight into how other schools deal with various matters. This may offer new ideas to those involved in the development of the processes in their own school.

What is required?

Writing a guide requires experience in the topic and takes time. The writing work is facilitated by a working group comprising members who represent various aspects of teaching and organisation of tuition. Having the intended users of the guide involved in the work contributes to a guide that is easy to read and written in a language used by teachers.  The writers also need to have a desire to create tools for making their own work easier and skills in process writing. The guide must be updated occasionally.

Further information:

Eija Zitting, Head of Learning Services, [email protected]