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Approaches to improving teaching

Professors are entitled to helpful direction in their teaching. No matter how good a teacher is in the classroom or laboratory, he or she can improve. No matter how effective a particular teaching method, it can be enhanced.

The argument has been raised by some that we still lack the final answer to the question of what constitutes effective teaching. The key ingredients of effective teaching are increasingly known. They include a deep knowledge of the subject, an ability to communicate with and motivate students, enthusiasm for the subject and for teaching, clarity of presentation, and fairness.

What might such opportunities for growth look like? Seldin (1993) and Eble and McKeachie suggest that they include, among others, emphasis in the following areas:

Programs are to build bridges between what the teacher knows and what the student is trying to grasp. Students differ in experience, ways of thinking, and motivation. For that reason, no single method of teaching is equally effective for all students. Skills are required to recognize where individual students are and how to reach them.

Programs to develop skills and understanding having to do with interpersonal relationships with students. The teacher cares about them. Effective teachers are available to students and work closely with them both inside and outside the classroom

Programs to help teachers gain greater understanding of how their disciplines' organizational structures facilitate or inhibit student learning. Teachers must communicate differently to students who are taking introductory classes than they do to those in doctoral seminars. Learning how to communicate at the proper student level is a key component of effective teaching.

Programs that provide feedback to instructors on their teaching performance. Teachers needing more individual help can be obtained from workshops.

Because teachers may need different kinds of help at different career stages, instructional improvement efforts must be geared to particular faculty needs. For example, new teachers will likely need help in leading discussions and constructing tests. Those at mid-career will likely value learning new skills, taking part in interdisciplinary work, and adopting new technologies in the classroom. Those in the latter stages of their careers will likely benefit from systematically reflecting on their teaching and becoming mentors for their more junior colleagues.

Until recent years, the widespread institutional bias toward research and scholarship outside the classroom discouraged and rendered pointless efforts to improve teaching. Today, however, teaching is being taken more seriously. Swelling pressure from such diverse sources as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the American Association for Higher Education, state legislatures, faculty, and students have moved institutions to reconsider the importance of teaching and the role of the teacher in the classroom. Countless institutions are reexamining their commitment to teaching and exploring ways to improve and reward it.

Teaching is an art and not a science. Yet, every artist needs a grounding in technique before setting to work, and there is no artist--or teacher--who cannot improve his or her skill.

No one would make light of the hurdles confronting professors intent on improvement. Progress may be slow. For some, the effort may possibly fail. But the stakes for teaching and learning are high, and the effort is imperative.

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