on faculty development and small colleges

Michael Reder is leader of the Small College group at POD, and a wonderful colleague. He was one of the first people to help me see the particular challenges of talking about teaching at a liberal arts institution that values teaching. I know, that sounds like I have left out a word or made a mistake or something, but, no, that is exactly what I mean. Here is Reder’s description of the problem:

However, because [good teaching] is assumed, there is often the collective illusion that good teaching happens “naturally” (which is bad) (Reder and Gallagher 2007.) The false logic goes something like this: “We all value teaching; that is why we are here; therefore, we must be good at it.” Not surprisingly, most administrators are complicit with the idea that good teaching always happens on their campuses, without the need for support or intervention. And, as a whole, faculty members do care about their teaching and improving student learning, but caring is not enough.

(Read the wholearticle here.

How do we get past that? There are many different ways, but they have one thing in common. Again, I will let Reder speak for me:

Our work provides faculty with the opportunity to overcome what Lee Shulman, the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, terms “pedagogical solitude.” Faculty from different departments, some on the opposite ends of our campus, many with differing levels of teaching experience, work together and learn from each other. By providing occasions during which faculty may talk about their teaching, we create the opportunities for them to learn: from each other, from the literature about teaching and learning, from reflective practice.

One interesting tension in my own work is that I find that I can help faculty well one on one, to identify their own goals, to reflect on their own teaching, and to facilitate their learning. But that doesn’t help create the kind of community that talks about and values teaching. Well, it doesn’t directly create that community, but it creates individuals who will be LOOKING for that kind of community. Maybe it is the first step. Patience is not one of my strongest virtues.