Entries Tagged 'Teaching Faculty' ↓

Overheard:

Treat your graduate students like they’re colleagues. Treat your undergrads like they’re graduate students.

Well…why not?

I say “teaching” faculty loosely, because a significant number do anything but. It blows my mind that college level teachers, who are presumed experts in their field, and who are preparing their students to further their future careers, are not trained to teach.

There are rigid standards at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Not only do these educators have to complete rigorous degree programs before teaching, but they must also achieve and renew licensure. But to teach at the college level, you merely need a degree or two in your field.

Sometimes you don’t even need that.

And sometimes a firm grasp of the English language isn’t even a requirement.

The big problem here is that these faculty are supposed to actually teach their students something. At this point so much research has been done on the concept of active learning that I don’t even need to quote anyone to say the standard lecture course is not effective. There are even reports that students taking these courses retain less than 50% of what they “learn” just a semester later.

Obviously good teaching promotes an environment for good learning. So why aren’t we teaching faculty how to teach? Some colleges and universities have faculty development departments, but few actually do anything with them. So here’s what I propose:

When a new faculty is hired on, give them a light first semester in return for undergoing a semester-long training program with a mentor from their department. Make the training optional if you want, but if they go through it they should receive at least some credit or kudos for future tenure. It’s really that simple. The departments have to commit to developing effective teaching programs, or they may as well stick with the same old classes that do the same old things. But to paraphrase Skip Downing: “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting the same results. So what will you do differently?“