Talking about Teaching:
Conversations with Colleagues
The purpose of this article is to describe a faculty development program whose purpose is to encourage participants to regularly meet and talk about their teaching and student learning. Support for these types of programs is framed by the work of Parker Palmer, Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill and Wilbert McKeachie. Following this introduction, a “how-to” section outlines steps used in program delivery. General themes emerging from the program and words from participants are also shared.
Effective teaching is a complex and contextual process that requires, at the least, a deep and rich understanding of content and pedagogical knowledge, passion for this content and knowledge, and commitment to students and their learning. This type of teaching is intellectual and emotional, individual and communal, empowering and frightening, and a means to learn about oneself: teaching is autobiographical. For one’s teaching life to gain meaning, teaching must become story-like and be shared in community with others. Parker Palmer (1998) reminds us of this important ingredient necessary for becoming good teachers:
If I want to teach well, it is essential that I explore my inner terrain, but I can get loss there, practicing self-delusion and running in self-serving circles. So I need the guidance that a community of collegial discourse provides—to say nothing of the support such a community can offer to sustain me in the trials of teaching and the commutative and collective wisdom about this craft that can be found in every faculty worth its salt (p. 142).
Speaking of a particular kind of collegial guidance needed to better understand student silence when attempting to promote class discussions, Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill (1999) writing in Discussion as a Way of Teaching, remind us:
Colleagues’ perception of students’ silence can open up new perspectives on this situation. Both of us rely on our colleagues in the various ‘talking teaching’ groups to which we belong to suggest explanations for student silence that we hadn’t considered before. Colleagues are especially helpful in alerting us to new perspectives on our own actions. When we complain about students’ not taking discussion seriously and not being willing to say anything, our colleagues will often ask us questions that help us analyze this situation in a new way…colleagues remind us of important dynamics we may have ignored (pp. 184-185).
Wilbert McKeachie (1999) in the tenth edition of his well-known text, Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers, writes: “Faculty tell us that new ideas about teaching come more frequently from colleagues than from readings or workshops. I suspect this is because conversations with colleagues are likely to cover content as well as methods” (p. 261). For a variety of reasons, these authors speak to the importance of talking with colleagues about teaching and student learning. In our program, this conclusion was certainly supported.
How-to: MSUM Talking about Teaching Program
The following steps are used in implementing the Talking about Teaching program. From responses we have received over the past four years, faculty participating in the program indicate their time has been well spent. In addition, participant numbers have grown consistently since the program began in 1999. An increase of 2.5 fold has occurred in the four years the program has been offered. In this current academic year (i.e., 2002-2003), approximately 20% of all campus faculty are participating in the program:
1999-2000 14 faculty pairs
2000-2001 20 faculty pairs
2001-2002 24 faculty pairs
2002-2003 35 faculty pairs
1) In the fall, faculty are invited to participate in the Talking about Teaching Program. The main goal is to encourage conversations about teaching across and within disciplines.
2) Faculty interested in the Talking about Teaching program return invitational flyers to me. I make assignments and notify faculty of their partners. About 70% of faculty self-select a partner, I make the remaining assignments. About 80% of the pairs are interdisciplinary. Sixty per cent of participants are repeaters.
3) Pairs decide on when they will meet (day/time) to share something important about their teaching life. Some faculty pairs meet one time per week, with all pairs meeting one time per month.
4) The Faculty Development Committee provides lunch in our campus student union for all pairs one time per month. All participants receive 8 lunch vouchers to be used from September through April.
5) In May, a breakfast get together is held to discuss what was learned.
Emerging Themes
When the 186 participants of the Talking about Teaching program describe
discussions they had about their teaching and student learning, the following
themes emerge:
1) Topics discussed include wondering about the effectiveness of various teaching methods, thinking about when to use teacher-directed and student-directed approaches, encouraging student participation, and balancing family and professional life.
2) Importance of having collegial support for one’s teaching. Time and time again many participants identified this support as one of the greatest benefits associated with the program.
3) Faculty discovered that they were more like each other than different in their thinking about teaching and learning. This finding surprised many faculty given partners represented different disciplines.
4) Many faculty indicated how thankful they were for the opportunity to participate in the program. These faculty developed new relationships with colleagues that may have not occurred without participation in the program. Evidence to support this conclusion is noted in that 60% of participants are repeaters and about 20% of all campus faculty are currently participating in the program.
5) Gained credibility through sharing teaching stories. This was a pleasant benefit that was reported by many faculty. In addition, several faculty responded favorably to being reinforced for what they already knew about teaching and learning.
6) Structuring once a month luncheons with meal vouchers was a real incentive to get together. Nearly all participants agree that this structuring is a major reason as to why the program is successful. I think another reason is that this program provides participants with sufficient structure to do what they so dearly want to do: talk with each other about teaching.
Faculty voices about the Talking about Teaching Program
Faculty are invited to write brief papers about their experiences in the program.
Following are a sampling of these writings. These words speak to the importance the
program plays in the lives of these faculty.
Erin and Steve
“We took time to learn how each other approached life and teaching. The structured lunchtime provided this, we took the time—otherwise it wouldn’t have happened. We would probably just have said ‘Hi’ by our office doors. We didn’t come to any great conclusion about teaching, but the sense of support was wonderful. It was like an informal mentoring program.”
Michael and Theresa
“This program gave us the opportunity to develop a trusting professional relationship with a colleague so that we could share our teaching successes and failures with a peer who presented an objective point of view. When frustrated about an aspect of our teaching, we helped each other look at the larger picture and provided a voice of support. Perhaps even more powerful was the sense of support that we received in struggling with the balance between home and school responsibilities… Another aspect of the program that we found especially compelling was the opportunity to interact with a person whose teaching load and background was different from our own. This program reinforced the notion that good teaching is good teaching, regardless of subject area or audience.
And, we found ourselves talking about many of the same issues: grading practices, implementing standards, and encouraging class discussions.”
Jeff
“Our discussions were affirming of both our teaching efforts. I always felt uplifted, recharged, refreshed, and renewed. It was also exciting from one shared meal to the next to listen to each other’s story of efforts made since the last meeting…It was of great benefit to get together as a group at the end of the semester and talk about what was learned and how out partnerships had progressed over the semester.”
Mary and Jane
“We immediately identified that we both came from service-oriented professionals. This sparked a bond that developed between us during the year and, we believe, was an impetus to our success [these 2 faculty have continued in the program all 4 years]. Through our meetings we discussed various teaching techniques, reviewed course syllabi, explored the nature of students in today’s society, talked about instructor responsibilities and had general conversations as we shared how our lives and careers had brought us to the university. There was a sense of freedom from intimidation and an overall comfort level that developed during the meetings. Additionally, we took the opportunity to observe each other’s teaching by visiting each other’s classroom. Not only were we able to provide helpful feedback following these exchanges, but it also validated our current instructional techniques and course content. It was a revelation to discover that we faced similar dilemmas and dealt with similar insecurities regarding our teaching.
Our sharing had an honest, cooperative feeling about it; like we were making a new discovery that “talking about teaching” might lead to something more significant than we could realize at the moment.”
Amy and Shawn
“From team-teaching our course last spring and reflecting on our work, we know realize that a higher level of feedback is available--feedback generated during ongoing collegial reflection [lunch get-togethers] strengthened our relationship and made us better teachers. We found the giver more competently packaged the feedback we received because the giver considers the sensitivities of the colleague and humanly cares about the other’s development and success. We both left the semester thinking my companion better understands me in context and can more effectively select and shape feedback in order to help enable me to hear what is said, internalize the feedback and formulate and them implement strategies to strengthen my teaching.”
It is obvious the faculty gained from their participation in the Talking about Teaching program. In order to improve teaching and learning in higher education, we need to talk with each other about what we do, why we did it, and what we might do next time. Let me close with words by Parker Palmer (1998). He certainly understands the importance of conversations about teaching, but also realizes the difficulty:
We must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives [as teachers and thinkers]—risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, [and the isolated] (p. 12).
References
Brookfield, S. & Preskill, S. (1999). Discussion as a way of teaching. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Palmer, P. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
McKeachie, W. Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university
teachers. (10th ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.