Teaching and Faculty Support Center
Newsletter - April 1996


Page 1 of 4

Beware the N of One

Written by Lynn Sorenson.

Good teaching - how would we know it if we saw it? Lest we come across sounding like the court justice who exclaimed that he could not describe pornography but "knew it when [he] saw it," let us attempt to describe the characteristics of good college teaching. This is particularly important now as faculty members are invited with greater frequency to observe their colleagues' classes and provide input for summative evaluation.

Consider this definition of teaching:

Helping someone else learn.(1) Good teaching then, would be good ways - or even the best ways - of helping others learn.(2) Sometimes we assume students learn in the same way we learn, and we define "good teaching" as teaching that reflects our own learning styles. It is also tempting to take our own teaching methods as the standard of good practice rather than measuring teaching performance against specific criteria.

Unfortunately, there is danger in using oneself (an N of one) as the measure of good teaching/learning without regard to current research on teaching, student learning styles, and effective methods. Fortunately, currently research (3) is remarkably consistent in suggesting teaching techniques, behaviors, and attitudes that help college students learn with the greatest facility and retention.

Fostering personal relationships in learning:

Students learn more when they feel connected both to the instructor and with other students involved in the learning process. Methods that facilitate these personal relationships include active and cooperative learning activities and faculty availability-both inside and outside of class time.    

Establishing high expectations:

These expectations must be communicated early (usually the first day of class) and reiterated throughout the semester, both in writing and orally. Frequent, meaningful writing and other assignments provide students with the opportunity to perform often, receive feedback, and revise when necessary. Inherent in maintaining these high standards is the expectation that the instructor will provide timely and frequent feedback. 

Understanding and respecting students' varied talents and ways of learning:

Creative teachers are (or become) aware of various methods of teaching that take into account students' strengths and weaknesses, their cultural and experiential differences, and their vastly varied ways of knowing and learning. This means college teachers must be open to new ways of rethinking old paradigms, entertaining student (and other) suggestions, and taking risks as they try innovations-not all of which will be successful. [See Bonwell, p.3 of this issue.]

Peer observers (especially if they are serving as summative evaluators) must beware of another N of one. We need to remember that one or two visits to a colleague's classroom provide only "snapshots" of teaching-and indeed, the snapshots are of a process. A teaching portfolio (or dossier) needs many snapshots-students evaluations, syllabi, student work, teaching goals, and specific outcome-based measurements. When an album of snapshots is collected, it becomes a collage of a person's teaching. Only then can it be reviewed for its value as "good teaching."    

Endnotes  

1. Summative evaluation is used for personnel decisions (continuing status, promotion and tenure, raises, etc.), in contrast with formative evaluation, which is feedback provided to a teacher solely for the purpose of improving instruction.  

2. Fink, L.D. quoted in "Teaching: How Am I Doing?" Focus on Faculty, Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 1993, BYU Faculty  Center.  

3. Chickering, A. W. and Gamson, Z. F. Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, 1987; and Light, R. J., Harvard Assessment Seminars (First Report), 1990.  

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Tip on Using Mid-Course Evaluations
by Dan Berleant, Asst. Prof.,

Computer Systems Engineering    

Mid-course evaluation forms have been recommended as one way to find out how a course is going while there is still time left in the semester to make useful changes. Open-ended questions are useful in drawing out student concerns. Two questions that I have heard and used are:

(1) What about this course is good and should stay the same?
(2) What about this course could be better?

But does one student's explicit suggestion represent an opinion shared by more of the class, or would a change to suit that student actually make things worse for many others? I address this issue by distributing a follow-up questionnaire with specific, yes/no or multiple choice questions derived from the actual suggestions and comments that the original questionnaire elicited. Tabulating the answers helps clarify what changes would be welcomed by the class. Informing the students of the results helps them to understand any decisions you make.



"What's Happening" Teaching Portfolios  

Another group of faculty has completed writing teaching portfolios under the tutelage of an experienced mentor. Almost 100 U of A faculty from virtually every department on campus have been through the experience. Congratulations to portfolio writers:

Myria Allen, COMM;
William Bailey, HESC;
Don Compton, CIED;
Inza Fort, HKRD;
Pi Liu, FINN;
Linda Morrow, CIED;
Hameed Naseem, ELEG;
David Neff, AERS; and
Jean Turner, HESC.

These writers worked with mentors:

Kathleen Barta, NURS;
Dennis Brewer, MATH;
Terry Brusstar, DRAM;
Claire Detels, MUSC;
Michael Riha, DRAM; and
Mary Jo Schneider, ANTH.



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Craig Beyrouty Joins TFSC  

Craig Beyrouty, Professor of Agronomy, is the new Co- Director of the Teaching and Faculty Support Center. Craig has most recently been chair of the Teaching Academy and brings to TFSC experience as well as talent and energy. We welcome him on board and look forward to initiating him into center traditions and programs.



Summer Faculty Teaching Retreat II, 1996

Fifty-two faculty members from across campus have been accepted for participation in the 1996 Summer Faculty Teaching Retreat. The camp will be at Western Hills Lodge, July 29-August 2, 1996. Last year's tradition of stimulating sessions, continuous interaction and recreation will be continued.    

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Effective University Teaching    

A focus group of six students from a variety of disciplines and professional schools recently shared with the Office of Instructional Development and Technology staff their perspectives on teaching and learning at Dalhousie University. (Taken from the March/April 1996 edition of "Focus on University Teaching and Learning" published by Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.) The students said they learn best from professors who: 

  • show respect and concern for students
  • develop rapport with students
  • stimulate learning in the classroom
  • provide timely and useful feedback on student work.    
The following are effective and ineffective teaching practices as gleaned from the group interview.

Effective Teachers....

  • Pause during a lecture to ask if there are any questions-and mean it.
  • Write key words, phrases, and important names on the board.
  • Prepare classes thoroughly, using humor, fostering debate, giving practical, current examples.
  • Welcome students to "drop in" to their offices.
  • Meet and interact informally with students outside class in a relaxed atmosphere.
  • Show interest in students as individuals by engaging in "personal-level conversations" with them; thus students are motivated to do well in the course to please the teacher.
  • Show respect for student opinion to the point of asking the class for suggestions to improve an article in the works, reporting when the article was accepted for publication.
  • Show concern for student achievement by going out of the way to contact a student to deal with a potential problem.
  • Provide ample comments and a full explanation of how a mark was determined, prompting students to report "we know where we're going."
  • Recognize that students have other classes and responsibilities and show some flexibility in assignment  deadlines.
  • Accept major assignments in draft form, give feedback (including a grade), and allow students to re-submit an improved version for a higher grade.

Ineffective Teachers...
  • Make class a "note-taking race." 
  • Use overheads crammed with too much text.
  • Lecture by reading aloud from the textbook without permitting questions or interruption.
  • Refuse to see students without an appointment.
  • Communicate with students outside class exclusively by electronic mail, unnecessarily limiting student-teacher interaction.
  • Convey a sense of superiority to students with the message  "Because I have a Ph.D., I am always right."
  • Show little respect for students, to the point of getting "kicks" from a position of power, proudly claiming to be "the prof from hell."
  • Appear to lack commitment to the class by accumulating frequent, unannounced absences.
  • Provide little comment and feedback, even limiting remarks on an A+ paper to "Not bad."
  • Employ unyielding policy about deadlines for student work while returning graded assignments to students months after they're submitted.
  • Administer mid-term exams without having returned any previous assignments prompting a student to observe that "You need to know how you're doing along the way. Otherwise, you're just floating.

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