This was a wonderful post to read. I've been thinking a lot about (un)certainty and authority lately, and I especially appreciate your statement that we are "partners in navigating the messiness of teaching." This might be a harder sell to admins ("I've got a plan that'll boost our productivity by 27%..." v. "I look forward to working alongside faculty to explore what's possible in their teaching"), but it seems more intellectually honest (re: politically ... meh).
I really appreciate this post--thank you! I especially appreciate your observation that reasonable disagreement about teaching methods is to be expected (and indeed should be encouraged).
One thing I'm wondering about: is it possible to introduce folks to new teaching methods while also helping them figure out how to assess whether those methods are working well? Is that something that can be incorporated into the initial familiarization with a method, or is it best left to afterward?
That being said, it's difficult to help folks figure out how to diagnose whether a method is working well or not (and in particular, whether to use it again), as your case study at the end partly shows. And it's important to avoid too much focus on measurement, as you discuss in the linked blog post.
I've definitely found it hard to figure out whether a method seemed lackluster because of something I did, or because of these specific students, or the modality or topic of the course, etc. And this issue is important to talk about in faculty development contexts, and to talk about in peer settings too.
Thanks for reading and commenting Max! There are a lot of ways in which I think reflection and assessment skills are something to be approached as an independent skill and then applied to different teaching situations. I used to run a group for graduate student instructors that was focused on reflection and improvement in teaching, and I used this book: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Becoming+a+Critically+Reflective+Teacher%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119049708 I think it is approachable for instructors in a variety of disciplines, and centers on critical reflections rather than just measurement.
As always, I appreciate you putting words to this present but often unexplored dynamic!
John Warner has described his consultancy pitch as "No solutions! Only process!", and I often joke to my team that we should get t-shirts that say: Faculty Development: No Answers, Only Frameworks. I like to tell people that I'm not going to tell them what to do, but I will give them a set of questions to ask and strategies to explore. In a sense, this is also backward design--thinking about where you want to get to and then thinking about how you will get there, through trial and error and recognition of what will and will not work for you and your students.
This was a wonderful post to read. I've been thinking a lot about (un)certainty and authority lately, and I especially appreciate your statement that we are "partners in navigating the messiness of teaching." This might be a harder sell to admins ("I've got a plan that'll boost our productivity by 27%..." v. "I look forward to working alongside faculty to explore what's possible in their teaching"), but it seems more intellectually honest (re: politically ... meh).
Although I have limited availability to attend the “virtual gathering” live, I am excited that some of these themes are coming up there!
I really appreciate this post--thank you! I especially appreciate your observation that reasonable disagreement about teaching methods is to be expected (and indeed should be encouraged).
One thing I'm wondering about: is it possible to introduce folks to new teaching methods while also helping them figure out how to assess whether those methods are working well? Is that something that can be incorporated into the initial familiarization with a method, or is it best left to afterward?
That being said, it's difficult to help folks figure out how to diagnose whether a method is working well or not (and in particular, whether to use it again), as your case study at the end partly shows. And it's important to avoid too much focus on measurement, as you discuss in the linked blog post.
I've definitely found it hard to figure out whether a method seemed lackluster because of something I did, or because of these specific students, or the modality or topic of the course, etc. And this issue is important to talk about in faculty development contexts, and to talk about in peer settings too.
Thanks for reading and commenting Max! There are a lot of ways in which I think reflection and assessment skills are something to be approached as an independent skill and then applied to different teaching situations. I used to run a group for graduate student instructors that was focused on reflection and improvement in teaching, and I used this book: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Becoming+a+Critically+Reflective+Teacher%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119049708 I think it is approachable for instructors in a variety of disciplines, and centers on critical reflections rather than just measurement.
Excellent, thanks for this comment! Indeed, makes sense to approach it independently. And this book sounds fantastic, thanks!
As always, I appreciate you putting words to this present but often unexplored dynamic!
John Warner has described his consultancy pitch as "No solutions! Only process!", and I often joke to my team that we should get t-shirts that say: Faculty Development: No Answers, Only Frameworks. I like to tell people that I'm not going to tell them what to do, but I will give them a set of questions to ask and strategies to explore. In a sense, this is also backward design--thinking about where you want to get to and then thinking about how you will get there, through trial and error and recognition of what will and will not work for you and your students.