On teaching

I recently had occasion to write a few paragraphs reflecting on my approach to teaching–by which I mean, in this case, my own teaching that I do as a professor rather than the teaching I study more formally as an academic.

I thought I’d share a some of those thoughts for those who might be interested….

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I am proud of the fact that that students say my classes are challenging and often transformative for their thinking. My work as a teacher goes in to orchestrating activities, contexts, and classroom practices that help a class navigate the difficult challenge of exploring ideas in a way that gives authentic voice to their own insights and opinions while simultaneously taking them toward a deeper understanding of the central issues of the material.

The central organizing metaphor I use for this is the idea that a course is a narrative: that the rules of good storytelling apply to the course as a whole, to individual classes and assignments, and to the moment-by-moment unfolding of ideas. A syllabus represents the unfolding of a story arc: ideas are foreshadowed, explored, and connected; dramatic tension is created and resolved; conflict between theories, authors, and traditions are introduced and played out. The result, when it works well, is a course in which students develop a framework for thinking about a topic or field that is authentically their own but respects the traditions and norms of the field they are studying.

Along the way, there is much discussion of epistemology: claims being made, evidence that supports them, and forms of argumentation that link the two. I use a model for final projects in my classes in which students prepare a paper and present it to the class, and then revise their work based on extensive feedback from their peers and me. The result is an opportunity for the development of their writing skills and personal intellectual growth.