No faculty member sets out to be a bad teacher—at least I hope not—but there are bad (or ineffective) teachers. I’m sure some of these faculty see teaching as an obligatory chore or are indifferent to whether students learn. Then there are those who want students to learn but have not yet figured out how to teach effectively. One root cause of ineffective teaching for all these groups may be faulty beliefs about teaching and learning. Normally, we focus on what the most effective teachers think and do, but it is equally important to identify and avoid harmful beliefs that undermine teaching success.
3 Responses
I find many of these beliefs in myself and fellow teachers. Thank you for outlining why the beliefs are wrong and what to do instead. The next generation of students deserves faculty who can stay up-to-date on effective pedagogy.
Excellent list of faulty beliefs, but those holding them are likely not reading this article (or The Teaching Professor at all). My experience is similar to yours- these faculty don’t see a need to improve their craft in the same way as their research. And until institutions (particularly R1and R2s) place a higher value on teaching in the RTP process, nothing will change- and students will continue to pay extremely high tuition for poor learning experiences. I would have liked to here what institutions should do about this problem.
Edit typo- (hear)