Lee
Bowie, director of the Speaking, Arguing and Writing Program, works
with Ying Wang '96 and Zsofia Zvolenszky '97.
Next Tuesday, February 29
(Leap Day), an unusual campuswide student/faculty collaboration will
take place from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at the Blanchard Campus Center.
"Teaching Back" will be an opportunity for students to teach faculty
a subject in which students are experts--what makes for effective
teaching. The forum will be moderated by Joanna Dittmer '01 and Penny
Gill, Mary Lyon Professor of Humanities, and is being organized by
the student advisory board of the Weissman Center for Leadership.
Dittmer and Gill plan to
establish some ground rules that will focus discussion on what
faculty do and might do, rather than on particular courses or
particular faculty. They expect the conversation to range widely from
very specific issues to very general ones. What should an instructor
do when one student is dominating discussion? How much work is too
much, or too little? What kind of assignments are busy work, and
which ones really promote learning? How can faculty encourage more
effective class discussion? Is it important for faculty to know
students' names? Asked how he thought
"Teaching Back" would make a difference, Lee Bowie, director of the
Speaking, Arguing and Writing program (SAW), said, "Mount Holyoke
faculty are unusually committed to teaching but rarely have the
chance to hear from the people who know most what works for them and
what doesn't. Student evaluations help a lot and get read carefully;
but this is a chance for faculty to learn from students in a
situation when they can be thoughtful about more comprehensive
questions of effective teaching." Penny Gill, known as a
champion of thoughtful attention to teaching, says, "I hope that this
is the first of a regular conversation among students and faculty
about the most profound ways that we can learn and teach together."
Joanna Dittmer, who is majoring in psychology and minoring in
education, believes that "This event is going to really push faculty
and students to think about teaching and its effectiveness in new and
innovative ways." Because they believe strongly
that all faculty and students will benefit from this forum, members
of the Weissman Center student advisory board have arranged for every
faculty member to get a personal invitation to "Teaching Back" from a
student. Because of students' obvious interest in promoting
outstanding teaching, the organizers also expect a large student
turnout.
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