Brewing Ideas: Teaching Tea Builds Community
When faculty at Boston University’s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS) gather for Teaching Tea, the brew is ideas—shared insights, challenges, and strategies to strengthen teaching. It’s a space where conversation, connection, and community flow as freely as the tea itself, with teaching placed firmly at the center of the table.
The series was developed by Kevin Gold, Associate Professor of the Practice of Computing & Data Sciences and Preceptor for Instruction, who recognized the need for an informal, supportive forum where faculty could learn from one another. The idea first took shape in the fall of 2023, when Gold hosted two small pilot discussions on teaching advice. To his surprise and delight, the gatherings were warmly received, and colleagues encouraged him to continue. When fellow faculty member Mark Crovella, Chair of Academic Affairs at CDS, suggested extending the series into the semester, Gold knew he had tapped into something meaningful.
A Format for Conversation, Not Lecture
Now held three to four times each semester, Teaching Tea has become a fixture at CDS. Each gathering begins with a brief presentation from Gold—sometimes drawn from books on pedagogy, sometimes from his own classroom experiences—that serves as a springboard for discussion. But the real substance of Teaching Tea lies in the conversations that follow. Faculty members candidly discuss their classrooms, sharing what has worked, what hasn’t, and what they’re still figuring out.
"When you first become a professor, there's just an enormous number of new things to learn about teaching. Teaching Teas are an invaluable opportunity to draw from Kevin's wealth of experience,” said CDS Assistant Professor and Teaching Tea attendee Pawel Przytycki. “But the beauty of these teas is that they're not prescriptive. Kevin guides us through a discussion of the pros and cons of different approaches with a constant eye for improvement."
Topics are wide-ranging and practical—scaling a class as enrollments grow, making sense of student evaluations, experimenting with auto-graders, designing assignments that invite genuine learning, and navigating sensitive or complex discussions. The setting is deliberately low-stakes, meant less as a lecture and more as a conversation among colleagues who share the same mission of helping students succeed.
Moments That Stick
Over time, the sessions have generated memorable moments of insight. Gold recalls one Teaching Tea centered on large language models. As the group shared perspectives, it quickly became clear that faculty approached the same subject from very different angles: one thought the conversation was about catching cheating, another focused on designing exercises that integrated AI, and yet another saw it as an opportunity to reimagine how students practice problem-solving.
“That moment crystallized how teaching challenges are rarely one-dimensional and how much faculty can learn from hearing each other’s approaches,” Gold said.
In another example, Gold described a tool he frequently uses—‘participation cards’—to encourage student voices in large classes. The system fosters consistent, low-stakes engagement by giving each student a name card to submit after contributing during a set period, offering an objective and flexible way to track participation without requiring attendance.
“Introducing the participation card on day one sets the tone—students get in the habit of asking and answering questions, and every new period revitalizes engagement,” said CDS Assistant Professor Kira Goldner, who embraced the idea and introduced the technique to her class. “This method has eliminated complaints about attendance or fairness—it’s an incredibly objective metric that I haven’t had argued with in two years of using it.”
Faculty at Every Stage
One of the unexpected strengths of Teaching Tea is the mix of participants. While newer instructors naturally benefit from peer advice, Gold notes that some of CDS’s most senior professors also make time to join. Azer Bestavros, Mark Crovella, and Wesley Wildman have all participated, and their presence reinforces the idea that teaching is a craft worth refining at every stage of a career.
“Teaching Tea embodies the best of CDS culture,” said Bestavros, CDS Associate Provost. “It reminds us that no matter how senior or experienced we are, there’s always more to learn from each other—and that our shared commitment to students is what unites us.”
For Gold, that blend of experience levels is what makes Teaching Tea so rewarding: “everyone arrives with something to share, and everyone leaves with something new to try.”
“Teaching Tea embodies the best of CDS culture."
—Azer Bestavros, Associate Provost, Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences
Lessons in Flexibility
At its heart, Teaching Tea is about building a community of educators who feel supported in both their challenges and successes. Faculty bring stories from their classrooms, laugh about what went sideways, and celebrate what went right. The environment encourages vulnerability and experimentation, reminding instructors that they are not alone in navigating the evolving landscape of teaching in data science.
Gold emphasizes that the most important lesson he’s learned over the years—and one that surfaces in nearly every session—is flexibility. “Value every student,” he says. “Students come with unique circumstances, and the best thing you can do is adapt. There are no hard and fast rules—just respond to the needs of the moment.”
“Value every student. Students come with unique circumstances, and the best thing you can do is adapt. There are no hard and fast rules—just respond to the needs of the moment.”
— Kevin Gold, CDS Associate Professor of the Practice and Preceptor for Instruction
Building a Teaching Community
Teaching Tea has quickly become part of the culture at CDS—an anticipated rhythm each semester when faculty step out of their offices to gather and reflect on their teaching. The informal sessions also create opportunities for faculty to learn from one another. “Kevin excels at all things pedagogy and has been a bit of a mentor to me,” said Kira Goldner, noting how peer-to-peer exchange has been one of the program’s greatest strengths.
“I’m always pleasantly surprised that people want to hear my perspective—but it’s really the collective wisdom of the group that makes Teaching Tea work.”
Faculty leave Teaching Teas with practical takeaways, renewed energy, and often a sense of camaraderie that strengthens their connection to CDS as a whole. As Gold puts it, “I’m always pleasantly surprised that people want to hear my perspective—but it’s really the collective wisdom of the group that makes Teaching Tea work.”