Over
the summer I had the opportunity to go to Washington DC with my brother. I
thoroughly enjoy chances to spend time with him as we don’t have the
opportunity much. He’s also a professor, but in journalism.
We
spent a lot of hours talking about our jobs and teaching in general, but he
said something to me which has stuck with me ever since. He was impressed by
the creativity and level of work and thought I had put into my teaching
methods, and that “I don’t know anyone that has put as much thought into
teaching as you have,” which even counts all the tenured faculty at his
prestigious university.
While
I take the compliment very highly, I’m left to wonder, now, why more don’t
engage in such thought about teaching method?
The obvious answer, for
universities, is that research is the primary concern, but that doesn’t cover
the community colleges, so what’s going on?