These articles (see also Another Way to Improve Teaching/Learning Partnership with Values and Respect) below were first presented at the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) presentation on November 16, 2004. The panel members were asked to speak in response to the following question:
Given that community colleges are unique post-secondary institutions “providing standard academic education, occupational training, remediation, work-force development for employers, lifelong learning for older adults, and community support” (Grubb and Lazerson, 2004), and given that Community College of Philadelphia presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, as colleagues who have been identified as exemplary members of the teaching profession, what would be one recommendation specific to teaching that you would make to fellow faculty which you believe would improve the teaching/learning experience?
I am happy to be here to talk about teaching and learning. I thank you for taking time to come here, and I hope that there will be time for you to share your thoughts with us as well.
Our task is daunting. How do we give advice to professionals who have been teaching for ten, twenty, or thirty years? As I wondered about this, I thought about what inspired me to become a teacher. You see, I had excellent role models. My parents were career educators in New York City with seventy years of teaching experience between them, and our dinner time conversation revolved around classroom life. I hope that we can be the kind of role models for our students that I had. In addition, I had special teachers and colleagues, including Bruno Bettelheim, the late Florence Fishman, and my professors of counseling who taught me concepts such as empathy and unconditional positive regard. Here at Community College, I listen to colleagues such as Vince Castronuovo, who told us about Parker Palmer’s book, The Courage to Teach, in the first Annual Lindback Lecture. I read it, learned from it, and I thank Vince for recommending it.
I have always respected my students and believe that students were the best source of information about classroom life. Therefore, if I wanted advice about teaching, I felt I should ask students. So I did. I decided to conduct a pilot research study of students to solicit their advice about effective teaching. Parker Palmer suggests that when we are willing to abandon our self-protective professional autonomy and make ourselves as dependent on our students as they are on us, we move closer to the interdependence that the community of truth requires. Learning happens in surprising and life-giving ways. (Palmer, p. 140).
Though the sample of my study was small, I found that my results are typical of those found in a national survey of effective teaching. I spoke with 100 students and asked them three questions: First, I asked, “In what format do you learn best?”
There were six choices:
I found that most students said that the combination of lecture format and class discussion with challenging questions led to most effective learning. Interestingly, the evening students I spoke with (an older group) favored class discussion over any other teaching strategy.
The second question I asked refers to teacher “effects research.” Teachers whose students got strong achievement test score gains displayed certain characteristics. (Good and Brophy, pp 367-368). I asked our students to review that list of characteristics and to select those they considered most important. I found that two thirds of students reported that the characteristic of “Active Teaching”—where teachers actively instruct and teach beyond the textbook or curriculum materials rather than expecting students to learn exclusively from these materials—was the most popular choice of respondents. Students want their teachers to go beyond the materials. Students hope that their teachers will have high expectations for them and will provide feedback to them. Students appreciate a supportive environment, ie. with teachers who are friendly, pleasant, and enthusiastic. Students also want teachers with good classroom management and organization skills. They said, “Set rules, refuse to let cell phones ring or students be late for class.” Finally, many students feel that teachers who have a passion for teaching motivate students to learn. It is not enough to be an expert in your discipline. You need to be excited about what you teach and to make it part of your everyday life. Robert Fried said, “A passionate teacher is a teacher who breaks out of the isolation of a classroom, who refuses to submit to apathy or cynicism. Passion is not a personality trait that some have and others lack. Rather, it is discoverable, teachable, and reproducible even when the regularities of school life gang up against it.” (Wink and Wink, p. 169). I love what I do, and I want to share that enthusiasm with others. I want to tell them about my learning, about mydiscipline, and be a model for them.
My third question was to ask students to give us advice about effective teaching. They were happy to do that. First, I learned that students want to be respected. They are diverse in background. They come to the College performing multiple roles and shouldering many responsibilities. They have different learning styles. One student said, “I hope that you suggest that teachers incorporate knowledge of different learning styles in their assessments, in teaching strategies, and in presentation aids.” They would like faculty to understand that although we may be experts in our fields, we need to be able to communicate to students whose backgrounds might not be as broad and sophisticated as ours. In courses where content is not easily accessible, and where students are anxious about mastery of a subject, such as in math or science, it is critical to explain, to teach actively, and to give lots of examples. Teachers must relate the subject to real life situations. One young man said, “Please don’t assume that a student knows something just because they were supposed to have learned it. It’s okay to review material.”
“Good pedagogy means not only knowing your subject but also teaching in a way that respects students, their backgrounds, and their lives.” (Wildavsky et al, p. 49). Einstein once said, “If you can’t say it simply, you don’t understand it.”(Wink and Wink, p. 39). So, say it simply, vary the format of your class so you change activities, or strategies, and assess students in a variety of ways. Let’s remember that we were once students, too. Carl Rogers tells us to be empathetic, to walk in others’ shoes. When we do that, we will be able to appreciate where are students are.
Perhaps we all need to do what students ask us to do—that is, to assess our motives for teaching. Are they the same as when we started? We need to be reflective and consider whether we still share the same values as when we entered this profession. When we make a mistake, let’s admit it. When we are not sure about an answer, let’s work on finding the solution together with our students. What could be better than to see faculty and students working together to solve a math problem? I witnessed this recently and it was empowering for the students and invigorating for the faculty member.
Conducting surveys is not new at Community College. As you may recall, there was a Middle States Self-Study Faculty-Staff Questionnaire in 2003. You were asked whether you reexamine your own approaches to classroom instruction and then you were asked to identify the means you use to improve your teaching. Seventy three percent of you said that you share your plans, syllabi, or assignments with an experienced colleague for his his/her review. More than half reported having a colleague or Department Chair observe your class, and 65% of respondents reported reexamining their approaches constantly. And almost 23% reported reexamining their approaches to classroom instruction several times each semester. If these responses are true, I hope that when you are reflecting on your classroom activity, you will consider the advice our students offered and you will be fair, open minded and aware of diversity in student readiness and skill.
Our students deserve excellence in education. When we deliver it, we know it.
We started this series by examining Evan Seymour’s syllabus, “Conversations about Language and Friendship.” When I think back to that syllabus, it is clear to me that my survey results confirm that Evan’s syllabus represents advice that many students offered. At the simplest, they asked for syllabi that outline a semester’s work day by day throughout the semester. They want us to follow it as it is designed. Evan’s rules are echoed by many students who reminded us that they are adults; that is, rules are laid out (for lateness, eating, cell phones, etc.), and no further negotiations need occur throughout the semester. Rather, appropriate consequences may follow if rules are broken. In the area of student engagement, the syllabus once again represents a course in which students will be actively engaged. When students feel valued and supported by others, this promotes their motivation to engage in learning tasks and to value learning. We all need a repertoire of strategies from which to draw. No single approach is effective for all types of students.
In summary, in order to become better teachers, we need to listen to our constituents, our students. Their messages are clear. We need to hear them and translate their words into our own actions in the classroom. We need to provide a supportive environment . We need to engage in active teaching by going beyond the textbook. We need to interact with students on a regular basis. We need to recognize and respect the diverse educational backgrounds that they bring to our classes and to teach, assess, and respond accordingly. We must also seek the advice of colleagues in order to improve our teaching techniques and to grow professionally. Good talk about good teaching is what we all need—to enhance both our professional practice and the selfhood from which it emerges. (Palmer, p. 144).
References
Wink, Joan and Wink, Dawn. Teaching Passionately. Boston, Massachusetts: AB Longman, 2004.
©Copyright 2005. Contact author for permission
Maintained by Jay Howard,Apr 2005