http://aspectwebsite.com/strange-bedfellows/ A Publication from the School of Arts & Sciences at Salem State College Thu, 27 May 2010 13:36:22 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://aspectwebsite.com/strange-bedfellows/comment-page-1/#comment-674 Jim Gubbins Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:52:18 +0000 http://aspectwebsite.com/?p=1018#comment-674 Dan, I applaud your work on TBL and all the teaching you do at SSC. It's wonderful you're exploring this teaching method that shows so much potential. However, it highlights a number of wider systemic issues. You mention how your work is interdisciplinary, bringing together faculty not only from different fields but from different schools. Looked at closely, don't you see that even within fields the kinds of diversity form a kaleidoscope? For example, the American Psychological Association currently has 54 divisions. So on the one side, we have faculty coming to teaching having been professionally trained in ever narrower niche subfields. On the other side, we have students coming into college with what most faculty surveys profess to be declining skills and preparation for college in key areas such as reading, writing, math, and science. Added to this is a more and more complex, dynamic, and difficult job market for college graduates. To overstate the case, don't we have a faculty underprepared to teach, a population of students underprepared for college education, and all headed for a unfathomable future world? If any of this is true, it seems that the least we should do is attempt to teach as well as we are able. This includes ongoing faculty education in teaching and learning and ongoing assessment of which teaching methods are the best. BUT are there any substantial incentives in place to make this happen? Dan, do you feel recognized and rewarded for your sincere and effective efforts to improve your teaching? How many of us do recognized and rewarded? Isn't it still the case that being a devoted and effective teacher is much like being a devoted and effective parent--you need to survive on the intrinsic rewards because those are the only significant rewards available? Dan, I applaud your work on TBL and all the teaching you do at SSC. It’s wonderful you’re exploring this teaching method that shows so much potential. However, it highlights a number of wider systemic issues. You mention how your work is interdisciplinary, bringing together faculty not only from different fields but from different schools. Looked at closely, don’t you see that even within fields the kinds of diversity form a kaleidoscope? For example, the American Psychological Association currently has 54 divisions. So on the one side, we have faculty coming to teaching having been professionally trained in ever narrower niche subfields. On the other side, we have students coming into college with what most faculty surveys profess to be declining skills and preparation for college in key areas such as reading, writing, math, and science. Added to this is a more and more complex, dynamic, and difficult job market for college graduates. To overstate the case, don’t we have a faculty underprepared to teach, a population of students underprepared for college education, and all headed for a unfathomable future world? If any of this is true, it seems that the least we should do is attempt to teach as well as we are able. This includes ongoing faculty education in teaching and learning and ongoing assessment of which teaching methods are the best. BUT are there any substantial incentives in place to make this happen? Dan, do you feel recognized and rewarded for your sincere and effective efforts to improve your teaching? How many of us do recognized and rewarded? Isn’t it still the case that being a devoted and effective teacher is much like being a devoted and effective parent–you need to survive on the intrinsic rewards because those are the only significant rewards available?

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