Think About It

I was meeting with our Assessment person at Purdue today.  He is working to have the Schlolarship of Teaching part of the academic culture to improve student learning for years to come.  The Scholarship of Teaching, as defined by Georgia State University is, "problem posing about an issue of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to disciplinary epistemologies, application of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection, and peer review."  In other words, it means casting a critical eye at one's teaching and determining whether or not students are learning/mastering course objectives in the classes you teach.  If there is a problem, based on the results of a particular assessment method that has been put into place (formative or summative) to gauge whether or not students have mastered the objective, then the onus is on the instructor to take the necessary steps to find ways to solve it and I do not mean by dumbing down the test, teaching to the test, preparing for the test, and all that other bullshit that those in public education have had to stoop to for state and federal funding to continue their mission to educate our children.

During the course of my discussion with our Assessment Officer he at one point lamented that he wishes we would stop using the term teaching and learning and call it what it really is which is teaching for learning.  Thinking of it this way forces educators to look at the performance of students on the various assessment methods that have been put into place to gauge whether students are -- or are not -- mastering the course objectives and then examine the circumstances that produced it, such as the chosen teaching method, learning environment, etc.  His subtle change in terminology stuck with me the entire day to the point that I wanted to share it with FELC members on the blog today.  I look upon this subtle change in the term to be a profound change in the way we practice our craft to help students make their dreams come true, celebrity chef or not, as they work to complete our respective programs.  Give it some thought; it sure caught my attention today.