UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence’s faculty consultants collaborate with all Penn State instructors to use effective teaching methods, engage all students in inclusive and equitable learning environments, and effectively assess students’ learning.
Larkin Hood, associate director and associate research professor, joined the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence in August 2010 as a faculty consultant. Prior to coming to Penn State, Hood worked at Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle with faculty curators from all divisions of the museum on educational outreach projects to help them develop public programs in the natural sciences.
“Basically, I helped the curators figure out how they were going to teach what they knew to all kinds of learners,” Hood said.
In her previous career as an archaeologist, Hood worked with scholars in various STEM fields such as materials science, geology, biology and chemistry, as well as with Indigenous scholars. As a faculty consultant at the Schreyer Institute, Hood said she finds it natural, and fun, to continue interacting with STEM faculty and graduate students about teaching.
“I like the kinds of questions scientists ask, and I love the approaches to thinking common in the STEM fields. Indigenous ways of thinking continue to have a powerful, positive impact on my home discipline of archaeology. I’m really interested in how these ways of thinking inform STEM teaching.”
Hood said she finds individual interactions very meaningful, because that is often when people actively commit to making changes to their teaching.
“A faculty member who consulted with me years ago said, ‘I'm not sure how you did this, but you helped me to look more carefully at the reasons behind each assignment. I should feel bad that I haven't been doing that very well, but you somehow made me feel good about the ways I’ve been doing it while simultaneously giving me ideas for change.’ It was an honor to have that kind of influence on someone’s approach to teaching," Hood said.
“I really enjoy working with people who start out feeling like their only option is to do what they have to or should do. I work with them to generate ideas about what they want to do that benefits their students as learners, and themselves as instructors. I think of this kind of process as what writer and activist adrienne maree brown refers to as ‘the wow option’. I love encouraging people to discover a ‘wow option’ in teaching.”
When not working with Penn State faculty colleagues to identify a “wow option,” Hood leads a research project with and for mid-career faculty on their development as teachers. Compared to early-career faculty, there is very little information published on mid-career faculty development, especially in terms of teaching. She interviews Penn State faculty colleagues in their mid-career from a variety of tracks (such as tenure-line, teaching) about the roles teaching plays in their professional development. Her goal, she said, is to share their thoughts and knowledge to better inform mid-career faculty development at Penn State and higher education in general.
Like her Schreyer Institute faculty colleagues, Hood is a professional educational developer dedicated to enhancing the work of higher education institutions by holistically supporting teaching at individual and organizational scales as they work to ensure and increase teaching quality. Educational developers in higher education come to the profession in a variety of ways.
Hood began work as an educational developer while earning her doctorate in anthropology at the University of Washington (UW) where she interacted with the Center for Instructional Development and Research, as UW’s teaching center was then called.
“I found CIDR staff to be highly knowledgeable, helpful and friendly, so I kept hanging around and they really mentored me. After a couple of years, they invited me to lead a few workshops for their annual teaching assistant orientation. Years later, when I became a professional educational developer, I realized I had been mentored by luminaries in the field of educational development who had excellent national and international reputations.”
Outside of work, Hood spends time riding horses.
“Riding reminds me that teaching and learning are highly connected to effective communication. Horses are excellent teachers. I playfully refer to the ones I ride with regularly as ‘The Faculty.’”
The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence is part of Penn State Undergraduate Education.