June, 1988

The Teaching Professor

 

READ TO BE INSPIRED, ENCOURAGED,
REFRESHED

These pieces tell you why teaching ts important, to
whom it mallers, what it can be worth, why it makes
you tired, and most of all, why you must rest and then
try some more.

Beidler, Peter G. “The Joys of College Teach-
ing.” National Forum: The Professoriate, Phi
Kappa Phi Journal (Winter 1987): 3-6.

“It occurs Lo me,” writes Beidler, “that some of the
worst frustrations of the teaching life give rise to
some of the most satisfying joys.” And that’s the ar-
ticle in a nutshell. Beidler writes with the kind of sin-
cerity and insight that just might rejuvenate even the
most pessimistic and discouraged among us.

Hill, Nancy K. “Scaling the Heights: The
Teacher as Mountaineer.” The Chronicle of
Higher Education (June 16, 1980): 48.

‘The teacher, to Hill’s way of thinking, is a “confi-
dent, exuberant guide on expeditions of shared respon-
sibility into the most exciting and least-understood
terrain on earth -- the mind itself.” She makes you
think about teaching as a strong and viable profes-
sion, worth the very best you have to give.

Ayers, William. “Thinking About Teaching and
the Curriculum.” Harvard Educational Review
(February 1986): 49-51.

The title belies the exceptionally creative and in-
spirational content in which Ayers uses the role of a
midwife in the birth of his child to explore the role of
the teacher in the birth of learning. The metaphor
reasserts the centrality of the student in both the
Leaching and learning processes -- that’s where the ac-
tion is. Although the teacher occupies a position on
the sidelines, it would never happen as well if we
were not there assisting.

Franzwa, Gregg. “Socrates Never Had Days
Like This.” Liberal Education (1984): 203-208.

Sometimes what we need most is a good laugh. We
should stand back, and take a look at the amazing
and amusing aspects of teaching. Franzwa does that,
creating caricatures of those unforgettable students
thal have somehow wandered into his (and our) clas-
ses. This qualifies as the only picce we’ve read recent-
ly that brought tears to our eyes -- tears of delight.0

 

Quotation |

In the encounter with the teacher who takes you serious-
ly, you learn to take yourself seriously. In the eyes of the
one who sees what you can accomplish, you gain vision
of yourself as more than you thought you were.

 

-- Jacob Neusner, How to Grade Your Professor.

 

 

Learning More,

About Those Student
Comments

One group of researchers found those comments stu-
dents offer on evaluation instruments of interest.
Specifically, two questions intrigued them. First, they
wondered whether students’ comments encompassed
the research-identified characteristics of good or ideal
teachers. Second, they wondered how their comments
related to the assessments they offered in response to
the closed-question items on the instrument.

In this particular study, students had the oppor-
tunity to write comments in response to four open-
ended questions: “What are the major strengths and
weaknesses of the instructor?” “What aspects of this
course were most beneficial to you?” “What do you
suggest to improve this course?” “Comment on the
grading procedures and exams.” The researchers
looked at 3,240 different comments from 924 students
in 60 courses.

And what did they find? Almost two-thirds of all
the comments students made were positive. One of
every two comments was about an instructor charac-
teristic, compared with one of every three focusing on
course characteristics. Does that say something about
the perceived importance of the instructor in the stu-
dent learning experience? Of the 1,607 comments
about the instructor, nearly one in four related to the
instructor’s ability to make clear presentations. Does
that say something about the real importance of effec-
tive communication strategies in effective instruction?
The strong emphasis on instructor characteristics oc-
curred despite the fact that two of the four questions
specifically asked for responses about the course; only
one of the four asked about the instructor.

As for the two questions of interest, yes, students
in this study did offer comments in areas that encom-
pass what the research identifies as the ingredients of
effective instruction. And yes, a high degree of what
the researchers call “convergent validity” existed be-
tween closed and open question responses. In other
words, students did not make comments that were at
odds with the evaluations they offered elsewhere on
the instrument,

Braskamp, Larry A.; Ory, John C.; and Pieper,
David M. “Student Written Comments: Dimen-
sions of Instructional Quality.” Journal of Educa
tional Psychology (1981): 65-70.0

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