Where to get a teaching tuneup

Where to get a teaching tuneup

Maeve Haldane | It was a typical first year science course. Physics 101. The cavernous Leacock 232. Hundreds of students. One lone teacher. Physics professor dik Harris had a crisis.

"I got to a point where I couldn't stand what I was doing. I couldn't reach the students, I couldn't make eye contact with all of them. There were students in the back I could barely make out!" So he asked himself, "Why am I doing this? Why are we doing this this way? Is there a better way?" Where could he turn?

The Centre for University Teaching and Learning, that's where. Professor Lynn McAlpine, director of the centre, describes the CUTL as the hub of a network, where professors can explore the principles and theories behind good teaching. These requirements differ from faculty to faculty, for "what it is to become an engineer is different from becoming a manager or a philosopher."

CUTL members are cross-appointed with the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, so their time is divided between their own academic work and running the centre. Through committee work, projects and workshops, the CUTL provides information to McGill departments on such matters as team teaching, curricula restructuring and classroom presentation.

In addition, the centre offers anonymous, confidential one-on-one teaching advice for those who seek it. A popular feature is the annual intensive one-week workshop on course design for 24 professors, who spread the word by taking what they learn back to their departments.

Professor Alenoush Saroyan has been with the centre for 12 years. "The CUTL has made great strides in the last 10 years. The speed may not be as fast as we'd like, but it's in the right direction. The important point is that we have a centre that is functional and the structure is in place. There is expertise available to help the McGill community on teaching- and learning-related matters."

She keeps busy with committees, the workshop, and consulting. For instance, she will be helping the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy plan and deliver four workshops on teaching in the winter term.

McAlpine wants the centre to show that "teaching can be approached as a scholarly activity. People are engaged in it because it's intellectually interesting and stimulating."

The CUTL can "help people see that, as in any scholarly activity, there's research available, information with practical implications for improving their own teaching."

Harris obviously believes in the centre's academic worth -- it's where he chose to spend his sabbatical. After his involvement in the workshop, he realized he wanted to immerse himself in the culture and bone up on his reading.

A bit to his surprise, he finds himself metamorphosing into a social scientist, by doing qualitative research such as talking to science graduate students and looking at different teaching methods.

He was facing tough questions like "How do you figure out that they are learning what you hope they are?" Are students merely memorizing, or do they know how to think critically, see flaws, assess arguments, express themselves?

Typically, professors aren't aware of how to measure such progress or that helpful research and tools exist. For effective teaching, Harris realized you have to provide more than just the parody of lecturedom, standing and droning in front of a decidedly unrapt audience.

He found inspiration in the works of another teaching-oriented physics professor, Harvard's Eric Mazur, whose classroom techniques involved getting the students to report back to structured questions. Even though Mazur's work applies across disciplines, it helped that he was a scientist. As Harris says, "If you want to engage the Faculty of Science on how to improve the quality of teaching, you can't do it by referring to English departments. At first blush, the physics or science [professors] are not going to accept it, even though it's relevant."

So are teachers born, or made? Saroyan firmly believes that "given the right resources, everybody can be very good. Teachers need to think about their teaching once they leave the classroom. For instance, they need to think 'What worked? What didn't work? What could be done differently the next time?' Improving teaching requires intensive effort."

McAlpine reminds us, "Learners are just as important as teachers in the process of learning." But, "a teacher has a responsibility to be intentional in this process as well as engaging, knowledgeable. Also to show that even experts don't know all the answers."

Professors are required to teach, after all, so they might as well enjoy it. And believe it is being recognized as an important contribution to society and the University. "Many teachers feel that putting time into teaching," Saroyan says, "should be rewarded in the same way as research."

It bothers Saroyan when she hears some professors say something along the lines of, "This is how I learned, so this is how I will teach, and if the students don't learn it just means they're unmotivated."

Teachers have to keep up with the changing student body. Many jobs now require at least a BA, which means there are more university students, who show great diversity, come from different backgrounds, and have different expectations and abilities.

In addition to specialized knowledge, tomorrow's employees need to be able to retool themselves at the drop of a hat. Put simply, McAlpine says, "We need to teach and think about teaching in different ways because what used to work in the past doesn't work anymore. For example, class sizes have grown." "You can't expect to have the same kind of outcome," Saroyan says. More preparation and perhaps a different kind of preparation is needed these days.

"What we need," Saroyan says, "is resources, human and financial, to continue existing programs and introduce new initiatives." Teaching assistants don't receive enough training, for instance. They received funding from the Royal Bank, which has fuelled most CUTL initiatives over the past eight years, but that runs out all too soon.

McGill's up for a change of helmsman, and Saroyan hopes the new principal will have a strong commitment to teaching, which will trickle down throughout the institution. At a robust 30 years, CUTL is the oldest centre of its kind in Canada. According to Saroyan, "It is highly recognized internationally. People look up to it. We look forward to being able to continue."