I do something similar, but I designate a scribe and a leave the room. I ask them to take 5-10′ and make a list of 1) what they want more of; 2:) what they’d like less of and 3) what’s “just right”. It can take the edge off the critiques and gives them a chance to appreciate things that are working well.

I love the comics; it really made me laugh. The idea is true and obvious: no matter how smart and knowledgable one is, he/she can really suck at teaching. We have so many professors in universities that are really good researchers, but their lectures are boring and hard to understand. But teaching actually is a metric to assess faculty. Although the weight is different for different universities, being good teachers do add value to your academic career. And I hope we will value teaching more in the future.

Thanks for the post. I would love to see this broadway musical some day. :) I agree that ideally we all have a picture of what we think we should look like while we teach, but it might be a long journey to become that picture. I am thinking maybe we can have our friends auditing and videotaping one of our lectures, so we could learn about the distance between our real teaching style and the ideal style. We used this method a lot in dancing: we think we are being cool but sometimes we might just be silly.

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Thanks for reminding me about Alan Alda! I think his lessons are very important for professors not only when they are lecturing to students, but also for when they are sharing their research with their community and the public at large.

This also brought a question to my mind. In my PFP class, we talked about a potential division of labor, so to speak, in the university setting; that is having solely teaching faculty for those that were more naturally talented at teaching and solely research faculty for those that were more naturally talented at research. Do you think that this is a good idea and/or should the talented researcher learn to communicate their science better and teach?

Yes! What Homero said.

Ok, first of all, the mentoring / co-teaching program you’re in this semester sounds amazing and I so wish more people had access to something like that. Second, I’m savoring your reflection on visiting the class taught by the very senior colleague, who could not possibly more authentic — because he has spent a career refining and practicing a teaching voice that works for him. And it works for him because it works for his students. I completely agree that there are many authentic teaching voices, and that trying to fit oneself into a particular mold or fashion generally doesn’t work out. I also think, that as Sarah Diehl points out, we grow as teachers throughout our career. Even your senior colleague, who seems so “old school”, is constantly fine tuning his practice, which is why it seems so relevant and effective. And finally, three cheers for practical, “blue-collar” knowledge and experience. In every tough situation I’ve been in, the problem-solving skills I developed working around a farm driving tractors and manure spreaders, fixing fences, and working with livestock have been at least as helpful as the lifetime of “book learning” I’ve accumulated.

I hear you! And I think you are well on your way to finding your authentic teaching voice, because you’ve already taken the most important step, and that’s reflecting on what you’re doing and how well it’s working. I really believe that everyone’s authentic teaching voice is an effective teaching voice. Different people teach differently. They use different registers and have different ranges. You’ve already figured one of them out. Lucky students. Lucky you!

I enjoyed this as well and your title really caught my eye! I’m wondering if you think students would benefit more from participating in the “coding dance” or watching it? If it’s too embarrassing to enact, could they do something comparable with blocks or beads?

Willie,

Thanks for sharing. I will keep this list very close to me to guide my teaching practices.

Very useful, another good example of the need of combining engineering with the arts ?

Homero

Honesty is so important, and it also involves the fact that is OK to say “I don’t know.” I really think that students can recognize when someone is “faking it.” For me, it’s really important to be genuine and show them that you care for them and for their learning.

Congratulations on your award and thanks for sharing!