DO WE GIVE A DAMN?

To those of us who are the professors.

• Conventional wisdom says the old ways of teaching such as lectures and small group discussions are not really the best ways any longer.

• Conventional wisdom says the semesters are busy times for professors and the summers are for relaxation and research.

• Conventional wisdom says professors dislike committee work.

• Conventional wisdom says higher education might be broken.

And whether or not you believe in the conventional wisdom, you can believe that there is an incredible amount of writing and research out there about education in general and higher education in particular. And much of that research discusses new ways to do things, new techniques to use, new ways to incorporate technology, and quite simply, better ways to teach.

But do we as professors really give a damn about any of this? Sure, we might use Ipads in our classes or now use PowerPoint differently or incorporate clickers or try to lecture less even though it’s really hard to figure out what else to do. And we might always dislike committee work.

But do we give a damn enough to effect real change in higher education and to actually test and evaluate new methods? Can we muster the energy to be really concerned about teaching and how to do it better and how to get it right and then share what works with our colleagues and have luncheons that talk about teaching instead of just luncheons that discuss research? Can we? Do we?

Can we be supported by our institutions to attend conferences that talk totally about teaching? Can we bring that information back to our campuses and share it widely? Can we have on-campus grants that support teaching initiatives?  

We must.

We must take the reins in our own hands. Otherwise, those people in the highest ivory towers make all the decisions and those in the trenches just say we were too busy or too tired, but we still complain about the decisions. This is not an easy problem since those in the highest towers do not often want our help, but there is no need to simply hand them reasons for not including us.

Yea, it’s a busy time. But the system can never be fixed unless those of us who continuously use it are involved in the repair.