Key Points from Robert Menges (Northwestern University) essay on Improving Teaching

College instructors are one of a dozen of professions where change is a constant. Traits that contribute toward graduate student success and have carryover into teaching: exceptional curiosity, persistence, and desire for feedback.

In a 2000 survey among university professors (1,200 count), 68% said that rather than being put off by problems, they sought them out, and after solving one problem, proceed to deconstruct another.

What sort of problems do college instructors encounter on a relentless basis? How to engage students at different levels of maturity with the fundamental concepts of a field, how to link those concepts with the world of experience that students bring to class, how to connect the content of one course with content of other courses or viewpoints, and how to bring coherence to the immense amount of fragmentary information potentially relevant to a curriculum.

Most teachers report that if they can get credible feedback, it motives them to improve by increasing feelings of control and efficacy.

Few teachers read about teaching and learning. Most read in one’s field of specialization. Teachers are likely to improve their practice if they book they read has detailed discussions and concrete examples at the level of a specific behavior.

The effects of Best Practices and Brown Bags on campus? If participatory format, content planned in response to needs expressed by faculty and skillfully conducted (preferentially by an experienced instructor) – they can be highly rewarding. At the very least, these events occasion interactions among colleagues on topics that are universal to their profession. Faculty report that this endeavor (as opposed to reading or workshops) proves the most instrumental to improving their teaching.

Interesting – structured conversations about teaching with students proved helpful, as this structure protects against undue attention to an opinionated student whose views are unrepresentative. When these conversations (either online or live) focus less on what the teacher does and more on how students learn – favorable outcomes ensue. Might ask questions about under what circumstances they learn best, are most attentive, and are most inclined to contribute to discussion, and so on.

A particular improvement is less likely to succeed if it seriously clashes with the instructor’s personal theories of teaching and learning. Or the improvement may be something that the instructor feels little control.

Unless there is administrative support for improved teaching, improvement can be questionable.

College instructors report that the time and effort needed to improve teaching pay good dividends, enhancing both the intellectual and the emotional satisfactions that accompany the successful improvements.