May 25, 2004
Summer Reading
What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain (director of NYU's Center for Teaching Excellence)
[The Chronicle of Higher Education features what appears to be an excerpt or abstract of the book in Bain's essay, "What Makes Great Teachers Great". What follows is an excerpt...]
Highly effective teachers approach each class as if they expect students to listen, think, and respond. That expectation appears in scores of little habits: the eye contact they make, the enthusiasm in their voice, the willingness to call on students. It contrasts sharply with professors who seldom if ever look at their students, who continue on in some set piece almost as if they do not expect students to listen, and who never try to generate a discussion or ask for a response because they don't expect anyone to have any.-- Ken Bain
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Comments
Good questions, Neha! It's true that without a student actively learning, there is no teaching really going on. Like any communication, it's a two-way street. I hold students acountable for one thing above and beyond all: participation. If a student is apathetic, quiet, unmoving...even shy sometimes...I am aggressively trying to motivate them. One of the principle motives I have is to make "enthusiasm" for the material (if not simply the process of learning) contagious. I try to think of myself as a "facilitator" more than a lecturer most of the time, and even when I'm lecturing I can't stop myself from opening up the conversation to questions and comments, refusing to engage in strict monologue in order to open up into dialogue.
How much is too much for a teacher go out of his/her way to accomodate the students?
I clearly haven't taught a class, but I am a certified tutor, and I do relate to student/teacher issues and relationships.
Agreed that enthusiasm on the teacher's part definitely has a positive effect on the class, but sometimes it seems as though the students want their teachers to bend over backwards for them. Sorry if I sound cynical, but what about student liability?