She doesn’t teach anymore.
But from an office tucked away in the East Wing of College
Library, Julie-Ann McFann reaches thousands of students by helping
their professors perform better in the classroom.
As the faculty development coordinator hired about two years ago
to work in the Office of Instructional Development, McFann helps
lecturers fine tune teaching skills.
Her specialty is educational psychology ““ the study of how
people learn primarily in an educational environment ““ the
field in which she earned her doctorate. After a stint as an
assistant professor, McFann decided to return to faculty training
and enhancement because she felt like it would reduce the chance
that students would “fall through the cracks” of the
educational system.
“I’ve really never met a faculty member who said,
“˜I don’t give a … I don’t care about my
teaching,'” she said.
McFann describes herself as having a “wicked sense of
humor” and says she hopes professors view her as a coach. She
tries to tailor remedies to clients’ personalities and would
not tell a shy lecturer that her problem was in her timidity.
Professors who come in to McFann’s office share a wide
array of problems; some see “you’re boring” or
“you suck” on course evaluations, and others want help
with structuring curriculum.
“He’s boring ““ is it the powerpoint? Because a
lot of the times the powerpoint goes up, and everybody falls
asleep,” she said.
“A professor could be reading from their lecture notes
verbatim. You say, “˜Have you thought about not doing
that?’ and you get the deer-in-the-headlights
look.”
But the professors who ask to see McFann aren’t always the
ones whose lectures students can’t digest, says Larry Loeher,
director of the Office of Instructional Development. Sometimes
well-loved teachers seek help.
Elizabeth Upton, who teaches musicology, visited McFann after
discovering the registrar listing for one of her courses did not
include the discussion section she had requested.
It was too late to change the schedule, so McFann and Upton
found a way to structure an online discussion board to spark
student interaction.
The two began meeting every one or two weeks to talk about
subjects from the art of writing syllabi to the value of handing
out grading rubrics to students.
“I’m teaching classes that have 60 or 70 people in
them,” said Upton, who spent her undergraduate years at a
small liberal arts school. “And I was never a student in a
class like that.”
Before coming to UCLA, she had been a stay-home mother for
several years. Talking to McFann meant having immediate access to
knowledge that would otherwise have taken years of teaching to
gain, Upton said.
“To justify her spending so much time with me, I’m
proselytizing, sharing with my colleagues,” she said.
McFann says most clients hear about her through word of
mouth.
Quarterly workshops that she holds on teaching and technology
are heavier in south campus attendance, while more north campus
professors schedule one-on-one appointments, McFann said.
The time she spent in the classroom as a student contributes to
her understanding of complaints about professors. She said she
dropped in and out of school and was on academic probation for a
while, finding it difficult to stay engaged in her studies.
Now, passionate about her job, McFann often finds herself using
course evaluations to diagnose teaching problems.
“The student will say, “˜Oh, he’s a
bastard.’ And they go, and they write all those nasty
things,” McFann said.
“I can read between the lines. I can read them and say,
“˜Oh, this is what you’re talking
about.'”
She suggests that students write on evaluations what worked and
what didn’t, and what could be done differently if the course
were taught again.
McFann says while “it’s really corny,” she
likes watching professors develop their skills, moving toward
becoming the type of teachers they always wanted to be.
Professors are people too, McFann says ““ just like
students, they sometimes need help.