Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#235 HELPING NEWCOMERS BECOME GOOD TEACHERS

Folks:

There are many things department chairs can do to help beginning faculty
succeed in their academic careers. The excerpt below is from: The
Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty Into Teachers and
Scholars, by Estela Mara Bensimon, Kelly Ward, Karla Sanders, Anker
Publishing Company, Inc. Bolton, MA. In it, Professor Maryellen
Weimer, author of "Improving College Teaching: Strategies for
Improving Instructional Effectiveness," offers advice to department
chairs on helping newcomers become good teachers. Copyright 2000 by
Anker Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted with
permission.

Regards,

Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
UP NEXT: SITUATED LEARNING: Red-Eye Milton and the Loom of Learning

Tomorrow's Academic Careers

------------ 862 words ---------------

HELPING NEWCOMERS BECOME GOOD TEACHERS

Professor Maryellen Weimer's Advice to Chairs

From:The Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty Into
Teachers and Scholars, by Estela Mara Bensimon, Kelly Ward,
Karla Sanders, pp. 95-97.

I'd begin by visiting them in their offices shortly before the start
of the school year. I'd bring with me a modest collection of
instructional publications and tell them that I hoped these would be
the first of many in their instructional libraries. What resources
would I bring? I'm probably not the person to ask since I'm directly
involved with some of the publications I'd recommend, but I'd bring
an assortment that might include a subscription to a newsletter on
teaching-something like The Teaching Professor (published by Magna)
or The Forum (published by ERIC). Id also bring some books. My
favorites for new faculty include Wilbert McKeachie's venerable Tips
for Teachers (now in its 9th edition), Kenneth Ebles The Craft of
Teaching (2nd edition), or my own Improving Your Classroom Teaching
(part of a series published for new faculty by Sage)-you could buy
this particular collection for less than $ 100. Or if being so
prescriptive was not my style, I might bring a memo which gave the
new faculty person a subscription to the pedagogical periodical of
their choice for their first two years in the department. The message
behind the gift of these resources is a simple one. There is much to
be learned about teaching, but not all of it is knowledge that needs
to be acquired in the school of hard knocks.

I'd look carefully at the first-year teaching assignment in terms of
what the new person is qualified to teach and whether he or she has
experience doing so. New course preps are a part of new teaching
assignments but in reasonable amounts-not three a semester or term,
or five during the first year. Confidence comes with repetition. Let
the new person teach the course two semesters in a row even if
somebody else usually teach it during the spring or if it's not
typically offered again until the next year. I'd also look at class
size. The less teaching experience, the greater the trauma associated
with a big class. That's not an empirical conclusion but large
courses require sophisticated pedagogical skills and typically should
not be part of a first-year teaching experience.

I'd try to develop a climate of collegiality within the department,
particularly with respect to teaching. We know that most of the ideas
faculty acquire about teaching come from colleagues. I'd work to
cultivate that exchange and make sure that new faculty are part of
the dialogue. I'd put instructional topics on department meeting
agendas-what are we doing together and separately to promote academic
integrity? How do we develop critical thinking skills? Who's using
group work and with what success? I might try to establish a
mentoring program or sponsor a series of noontime discussions on
instructional issues.

New faculty (in fact all faculty) need information about students.
Student populations are changing dramatically. They are more diverse.
They are older and must work more to pay for college. They are less
well prepared (at least as measured by conventional faculty
standards). They have learning styles markedly different than
faculty. And you cannot teach them well unless you know who they are
and how they learn.

I wouldn't be uptight about summative end-of-course evaluations for
new faculty either. In fact, if I had my druthers, I'd absolve all
new faculty from having to do them during their first year. I'd
prescribe in their place a whole series of diagnostic, descriptive,
formative activities (like midcourse evaluations, classroom research
techniques, reciprocal observations with a colleague, videotaping
small group instructional diagnosis, to name a few) that give the
teacher the kind of specific, detailed feedback necessary to
understand the impact of one's teaching behaviors, policies, and
practices on student learning. If I was worried about a new faculty
completing enough of the activities, I'd hook them up with the
Teaching Excellence Center (if one exists on campus) or designate a
senior faculty member as the resident resource on the topic. Why this
radical approach? We know that teaching behaviors are most malleable
to change during the first years of teaching. That propensity to
innovate, try alternatives, and experiment is encouraged when it
happens in an environment where it is safe to fail, at least
occasionally.

Finally, I'd work diligently to fairly represent the hard work that
is inherently a part of good teaching. Teaching still isn't rewarded
as it ought to be (but that's another letter), but even those of us
committed to instructional excellence often devalue teaching by the
way we think and talk about it. Good teaching cannot be assumed or
taken as given. In most new faculty, it must be consciously and
systematically developed. We also devalue teaching by talking only in
terms of technique. Getting students to participate in class is much
more than a repertoire of techniques. Real teaching skill resides in
the management and use of the repertoire. Getting students to do the
reading is more than the "right" quiz strategy. Creating a classroom
climate that is inclusive demands much more than instructor decree.
To value teaching means to acknowledge its complexity and inherent
intellectual intrigue. New faculty will acquire respect for teaching
if they see their department head demonstrating that respect.