Exemplary Teaching Practices and Philosophies

Carl Zulauf


My thanks to Dr. Bernard Erven for his guidance over the years.


  1. DISMISS THE "NATURAL TEACHER" FALLACY. Successful teaching comes from learning how to teach by working hard to improve one's teaching. Apply the scientific method to the teaching development process: know your objectives, develop consistent performance measures, implement appropriate monitoring procedures, and assess performance honestly. Select a mentor, or two, or three, with whom you can share your frustrations and your victories. A sound evaluation process creates a useful byproduct: documentation of growth in teaching performance. Such documentation will be needed at promotion, tenure, and salary adjustment time.

  2. MASTER THE SUBJECT MATTER. Subject matter mastery speaks to the Academy's core mission: the development and dissemination of knowledge. However, subject matter mastery in terms of teaching needs to be interpreted through the eyes of the student being taught. In their view, subject matter mastery means understanding and communicating class material at the level it is being taught. It is not about being an expert in the eyes of peers. Subject matter mastery, thus, differs by level of student. At the undergraduate level, subject matter mastery requires an understanding of the intuition behind the theory and the ability to convey those intuitions in a non-formalized, integrated manner to students with a broad array of backgrounds. There is much truth to the old saying that one never knew a subject matter until one has taught it to undergraduates.

  3. DEVELOP A PERSONAL TEACHING PHILOSOPHY. Accomplished teachers are comfortable with and challenged by teaching. A personal teaching philosophy is integral to reaching this comfort zone. Development of a teaching philosophy requires an understanding of what you are trying to accomplish when teaching. As an example, my teaching philosophy is: "I can not teach anyone anything; I can only motivate students to teach themselves and hopefully show them some short cuts to facilitate self instruction." This philosophy leads me to emphasize the development of thinking skills as my primary learning outcome.

  4. FIND TEACHING METHODS THAT WORK FOR YOU. Silver-bullet teaching methods do not exist. Any method can be a glorious success or an unmitigated disaster. What matters is that the teaching method fits the instructor and the situation, that it engages students in the subject matter, and that an instructor understands the method's strengths and weaknesses. My primary teaching method is Socratic Instruction, which involves the use of questions and student responses to build the course's subject matter. I gravitated to this method because it fits my teaching philosophy and personality, and it keeps me engaged in each class session. Downsides are its uniqueness and the need to use the word, "no," as in, "that is an incorrect answer." You must make sure that students do not misinterpret "no" as a put down. Finding teaching methods that work for you requires systematic evaluation that goes beyond the SEIs. SEIs are designed to evaluate performance; they provide limited information for improving performance. I conduct a personalized mid-term and end-of-quarter evaluation. A mid-term evaluation can uncover changes that can be made during the course. My mid-term evaluation is one page of open-ended questions asking what the students like, dislike, and are struggling with. My end-of-quarter evaluation focuses on the effectiveness of my teaching pedagogy and the student learning experience, with an eye to improving the next course offering.

  5. EMBRACE PEDAGOGICAL DIVERSITY. Pedagogical diversity is important for many reasons, but three are of key importance: (1) students vary widely in how they process information and learn; for example, in the initial uptake of information, preferences range from reading to listening, writing, discussion, etc.; (2) students vary widely in their ability to take a certain type of exam question; and (3) the research literature reveals that the attention span of listeners is between 10 and 20 minutes, except for the rare, charismatic public speaker. In my opinion, it is impossible to meet the varied needs of each student; the best you can do is to use a variety of questions on exams, use a variety of pedagogical techniques in class, and vary techniques during each class. PowerPoint based lecture has become the dominant teaching technique. However, like all techniques, it becomes monotonous. The blackboard offers a nice diversion. Ask questions of students. Assign a student to summarize a key concept. Let the teaching associate present some material. Use roll playing to illustrate a concept. Bring candy to lecture to reward correct answers or insightful questions. The possibilities are endless. While caution should be exercised regarding the excessive use of the lecture, it has a place in most class sessions because it is an effective tool for conveying basic information.

  6. ECONOMIC THINKING ABOUNDS IN TEACHING. (1) Teaching involves opportunity cost. When you decide to teach one concept, you forego time for another concept. Which concept has the highest marginal value in the given learning situation? (2) Teaching involves a learning function. Covering fewer topics more intensively often can produce better learning outcomes. Textbooks abet the problem of covering too much material because they are written for instructors and thus cover every imaginable topic. (3) Students are rational. They may not share our goals, but that does not make them irrational. The exchange currency in a class is the grading scale. Not including something you value in your grading scale signals that it is not important. Thus, do not be surprised if students behave contrary to your desires. Make sure your grading scale is aligned with your values and objectives. Furthermore, every class contains students whose goal is to earn a D; think about how you want to relate to and motivate these students.

  7. PROMOTE OVERLAP OF SUBJECT MATTER. We worry too much about subject matter overlap among courses. Verbatim repetition is not productive, but the objective of learning/teaching is understanding, not exposure. Understanding is the ability to creatively apply a concept to a situation never seen before and to understand the limits of applying the concept to the new situation. Understanding comes only after multiple exposures. Be honest: how many times did it take you to understand an important concept in your discipline? Furthermore, from a practical perspective, overlap is needed because students, even the best students, tend to download a course when the term ends.

  8. MAKE TEACHING A HUMAN ACTIVITY. Subject matter mastery and appropriate teaching pedagogy are non-negotiable, but so are fairness, caring, and passion. Fairness is an innate human value. In my experience, nothing is more important in setting a tone of fairness than the style and thoroughness of the course syllabus and the discussion that surrounds it. On the first day of a class, I tell students that fairness in a classroom setting involves two dimensions: the student and the class. I must be fair to both. Sometimes this means not granting individual requests because the unfairness to the class outweighs the fairness to the student. More often than not in my experience, vitriolic outbursts by students regarding unfairness occur because the instructor is seen as granting excessive breaks to individual students. Students are skeptical that college professors (teaching associates) want to be in the classroom. Showing care and passion for them and the subject matter are important ways to combat this skepticism. If you find something neat in the material, let them know it. Pedagogical diversity is one way to show that you care because students understand that they learn in different ways.

  9. COMMIT TO UNDERSTANDING TODAY'S STUDENTS. The cultural half-life of students is about 5 years; so, every 5 years, I have to update my understanding of them. This involves not only talking to students, but also reading adolescent literature, seeing movies aimed at the teen market, and listening to contemporary music. TodayÕs students are well aware that college increases lifetime income, but many are turned off by school. You must work at motivating them. Use current news stories and find creative ways to relate the subject matter to their life. TodayÕs students were raised in a customer-oriented culture. They expect you to communicate your expectations and to listen to their concerns. Spend time explaining, "why you do the things you do" in the course. They may not agree with your perspective, but they will be grateful because it helps them see the common threads and objectives you see in the course.

  10. ENGAGE IN MENTORING ACTIVITIES WITH STUDENTS. Mentoring in this context means extending the learning experience beyond the basics of pedagogy: selection and delivery of material, determination of the syllabus, and development and grading of assignments/exams. Mentoring can take many forms: getting to know the names of students, inviting a student who is struggling to meet with you, holding study sessions before exams, creating additional assignments to help the class with topics it is struggling, advising of individual students, advising of student clubs, and advising of internship and research experiences. You do not have to do all of these activities, a sampling will suffice. Mentoring activities also will provide you with examples to use in class, and will help you stay up with changes in student culture.

  11. BE A RISK TAKER. Accomplished teachers constantly experiment. Some experiments are a reaction to evaluations; others are an antidote to boredom. An effective evaluation strategy is needed to sort out what works.

  12. STRIVE FOR PERFECTION; ACCEPT THE REALITY OF IMPERFECTION. It is hard to reach closure in teaching. There is always a concept that can be taught better, a student who can be reached more effectively, and a new topic to develop. To quote Goethe, "In reality this kind of work is never finished. One has to declare it finished when, in accord with time and circumstance, one has done the utmost."