Professors as Teachers

Eble, Kenneth E. (1972).  Professors as Teachers.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Observation of Teachers:  Eble describes the difficulty he had in getting permission to sit in on classes.  He finally resorted to anonymous drop-ins of large classes without permission.  Here are some of his findings:

·         Overwhelmingly, lecture-discussion was used, and seemingly more lecture than discussion.  

·         Few instructors used any technology even though it was available.  Eble thought that this was due to lack of time to learn, schedule, and prepare material for the equipment.

·         Classrooms seemed set up to favor lecture and discourage other modes (e.g., desks bolted down).

·         Classrooms may not be designed well even for lecture: they were noisy, had bad lighting, and the air was stagnant.

Interviews

Next, Eble interviewed students regarding their professors.

·         Students regard professors as too distant.  Not that they want professors to be buddies, but the classroom seems designed to create barriers between professors and students: the inflated egos of the learned and titled, formal modes of address, generation gaps, professors’ desire for objective analysis, and distain of teaching relative to research.

·         Faculty are not devoted to teaching.  They’re not hostile or disrespectful toward it, but less than half seem to be interested in improving their teaching (as evidenced by turnout at programs aimed at improving teaching).

Then he interviewed faculty, who said: 

·         In order to improve teaching, the reward system needs to be changed—teaching is not valued as much as research.

·         Teachers fear they may pale in comparison to TV, radio, film, and popular culture.

Tips for Teaching Effectively:

1)       Good teachers are disciplined craftspeople, constantly trying new things and revising their techniques.

2)       Good teachers are generous—with character and personality as well as time, energy, skill, & knowledge.

3)       Good teachers are energetic.  Teaching with energy is enormously draining, but energy level often determines how successful the class will be.

4)       Good teachers use variety in delivery, moods, formats and subject matter.

5)       Good teachers use examples and demonstrations well.

6)       Good teachers are enthusiastic.

7)       Good teachers are clear and well organized.

8)       Good teachers have character:  they don’t fake when they don’t know something,  they’re fair in grading…in short, they’re honest and thus are credible.

9)       Good teachers have a sense of proportion and balance that goes beyond their subject matter and helps create a mutual experience of learning between them and their students.

QUOTE:  “Teaching is simple to do and to keep on doing in a mediocre fashion.  But superior teaching makes the same kinds of demands as does any craft or art.” P.53

EVALUATION:  Though a lot of techniques for evaluation exist, few are precise and many aren’t commonly used (e.g., observation of classes).  Student evaluations remain the flagship method.

EVALUATION QUOTE:  “…the present system of evaluating faculty performance stresses judgment more than development, secrecy rather than openness, and the informal, inferential, and subjective judgment of teaching rather than the systematic, firsthand, and objective.” p. 64

WHAT STUDENTS WANT: relevance and participation in important decisions affecting university policies and practices.

TEACHING TECHNIQUE:  ‘Let Them Win One”—giving an occasional easy test that everyone can pass motivates people discouraged by constant failure.

OTHER:  Eble also discusses the training of college teachers and ideas for faculty development. 

© 1999-2001, CogSim