Teaching as Inquiry
DALVision 2020: November 13, 2012Shelagh Crooks, Philosophy,
Saint Mary’s University
Focal questions
1. What does inquiry in teaching and learning look like?
2. How does it get started? 3. Why should we value it? 4. What needs to happen in the
university to bring teaching inquiry ‘out of the closet’ and into mainstream culture?
Teaching in the University: A General Observation
Teaching is not seen as requiring or even as sometimes involving investigation/inquiry accompanied by discussion, publication, peer evaluation and critique.
It is just something we ‘do’.
“One telling measure of how differently teaching is regarded from traditional scholarship or research within the academy is what a difference it makes to have a “problem” in one versus the other. In scholarship and research, having a “problem” is at the heart of the investigative process; it is the compound of the generative questions around which all creative and productive activity revolves. But in one’s teaching, a problem is something you don’t want to have, and if you have one you probably want to fix it. Asking a colleague about a problem in his or her research is an invitation; asking about a problem in one’s teaching would probably seem like an accusation.”
Randy Bass, 1999 Director Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship
Georgetown
As one scholar puts it...
Two disparate cultures -- Two Solitudes
Research Culture- Deeply rooted in inquiry, intellectual debate, peer review
Teaching Culture – One of Individualism and isolation
Remarkable...
The university is a place of learning and inquiry, and, yet, there is very little systematic inquiry about learning going on.
The university calls itself a community of scholars and yet, with rare exceptions, no such community exists for those who want to pursue serious inquiry into teaching and learning.
Remarkable
Faculty who ordinarily demand rigorous standards of evidence and justification for knowledge–claims within their special field of inquiry, seem content with lesser standards for beliefs and practices in regard to their teaching.
It is not at all clear that problems in teaching are less significant and less deserving of rigorous investigation than research problems within the disciplines.
Questions/Problems that might usefully be asked:
How do students experience my discipline?
How can it be understood/misunderstood? What is it to understand, and how is it
(understanding) manifested and measured?
Why should understanding a particular subject-matter, rather than the retention of facts about it, be the goal of teaching in the first place?
Questions...
What is it to educate , rather than to train or indoctrinate?
What does the word ‘higher’ in Higher Education mean?
Discipline-specific Questions
How do first-year students understand the idea of critique and the goal of being critical, not just in the narrow confines of a philosophy or economics class, but as a matter of course?
Why should we value teaching inquiry (and even consider engaging in it)?
Because it is consistent with, indeed, arguably demanded by, the inquiry function/identity/mandate of the university.
Another Reason
There is a very good chance that such reflection and inquiry will make you a better teacher.
Better?? In the sense that you will be a more
reflective, aware, and engaged teacher. The kind of teacher who is willing to
try out innovations
Simple answer Teaching inquiry needs to be
recognized and rewarded. Changing Collective Agreements
This means that teaching inquiry can’t be treated as just something extra that a faculty member does -- an add-on to her real - i.e., disciplinary -- scholarship. It needs to be recognized and rewarded as scholarship, full stop.
Also... A Cultural Shift is Required
Development of a new collegial culture
around teaching and learning. Discussion groups/Communities of Practice Development of critical mass of scholars in
teaching and learning DALVision 2020 Dalhousie Teaching and Learning
Conference Bringing students into the picture Institutional support
What it looks like depends on...
The question you are asking And the research methodology that is
called for to answer it
Often Interdisciplinary in nature
Interdisciplinary when ... The question you are asking calls for working with the literature of another discipline.
Example: As a teacher of critical thinking I want to help
my students understand the idea of evidence, and see that there is a necessary connection between evidence justified, reasonable belief
Read works in cognitive and developmental psychology such as Deanna Kuhn’s, The Skills of Argument (1991)
Another Example Goal: Reflective , self-regulating
thought, known as metacognition Piaget and Inhelder, 1969 John Flavell, 1976, 1979 Ku and Ho, 2010
Interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinary when...the question calls for the deployment of a methodology which is not part of your disciplinary training.
Partnership/collaboration Example: Anthropologist of religion, using
questionnaires and ethnographic interviews
It starts with a question
Why are my students having difficulty with this idea?
Do I really understand the idea myself? How do I achieve my goal of helping
them to understand ’x’? Conversation with colleagues.
Sources
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Finally
Reconceptualisation of teaching in the university
Subverting and disrupting the long-standing narrative of the 2 solitudes
Implications?? Do I take this to imply that everyone
should engage in teaching inquiry? Probably not practical
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