Teaching Advice I Wished Someone Had Told Me – Faculty Focus

As you read the content of this article, you may wonder why you are yet to implement the strategies outlined here. But the fact is many of us were not taught in doctoral school how to teach or build our teaching effectiveness. We were advised to focus on research to maximize our chances of securing the tenure track position. 

We only learnt from observing senior professors or from our personal teaching experience. Nonetheless, it is never too late to start implementing the following strategies. I am sharing them because they worked for me, and I am confident that they will work for you. My only wish is that someone had shared them with me a long time ago, and perhaps, you might have read this article at an earlier time and so, without taking more of your valuable time, let’s proceed!

Advice #1: Use Your University’s Teaching Center and Their Resources

If you never have, this is the time to visit your university’s teaching center. This is free and open to all faculty. They have trained educators, including professors of education, and they offer teaching training, workshops, programs, and seminars, and multiple resources on teaching pedagogy (Beach et al. 2016; Chism 1998). They also provide counsel on how to manage challenges such as academic incivility, workload and time constraints, technological adaptation etc.  

I visited my university’s teaching center during my first semester as a full-time teaching professor and ever since, my teaching has dramatically improved. This is the best investment in my teaching career, and for the first time, I can truly say that I enjoy teaching. In fact, all the advice I provide in this article stems from this. 

On my first visit, I asked for a class observation from one of the center’s trained educators, and I was given expert insightful feedback on my teaching that I had never received before (Martinez et al. 2016). The main feedback was to transform my lectures to become centered on student engagement. I was determined to implement the feedback and so I subsequently enrolled in the teaching consultation. This was a semester long one-on-one training. I was introduced to diverse books, articles, and online websites on teaching pedagogy and technologies including the Teaching Professor, Faculty Focus, Educational Technology, K. Patricia Cross Academy and The Teacher Toolkit. I was also given a lot of assignments on them. I rebuild my curricula, course design, and teaching style using Fink’s Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. As a result, I also integrated a lot of varied classroom activities to make my teaching student-centered. Furthermore, I was compelled to reflect on my past teaching experience and to implement effective teaching strategies that utilized my strengths and encouraged student engagement such as the facilitation of discussions and group activities. Finally, I also had a series of teaching demonstrations as part of the training to apply all I had learnt.  

Afterwards, I enrolled for a separate three-part critical teaching behaviors workshop, where I brainstormed with other teaching professors in groups to discuss and share our teaching experiences and strategies. As part of the workshop, we were required to read Critical Teaching Behaviors by Barbeau and Happel and to reflect on it and implement the critical teaching behavior strategies for improving how we evaluate, record, and communicate our teaching effectiveness. Lastly but not least, I enrolled in the student teaching consultation to build, collect, and implement timely student evaluations, which has been proven to increase teaching effectiveness (Cook-Sather 2011’ Cox 2000).  

If your university does not have a teaching centers and/or programs, search for alternatives close to you or accessible remotely such as The Mentorship or Faculty Success Program offered by The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity.  

Advice #2: Attend Classroom Teachings of Your Fellow Professors

Graduate school is not the only time for teaching apprenticeship. As a teaching professor, continuously seek out knowledge and strategies from fellow teaching professors to improve your teaching. Make it a habit to approach peers that you admire, ask them to share their teaching evaluations and experiences, and what’s more, if they are excellent at teaching, ask to observe their classroom teaching (O’Leary 2020). When you do, make sure to take notes and ask questions about their teaching techniques. Pick up one or two strategies and try to implement them in your teaching. Likewise, invite your peers to observe your classroom teaching and offer their feedback. They will also learn effective strategies or lessons from your teaching. 

Advice #3: Attend Professional Development Workshops and Teaching Conferences

Till today, I don’t believe I have perfected my teaching. Teaching is like being a student, the more you learn, the more you practice, the better you get at it. One more habit to add to your teaching is to actively seek out and attend teaching conferences. I had never heard of or attended any teaching conference until I started teaching full-time. I realized that this is true for many teaching professors. In doctoral school, we are highly encouraged to attend academic research conferences but never teaching conferences. There are annual teaching conferences such as the Teaching Professor Conference held every Summer. 

Also, many academic research conferences offer sections, panels, or sessions specifically for teaching professors and some conduct separate teaching conferences annually, which are less recognized or known. If you are unable to do so, the best place to start from is to attend teaching workshops and programs offered by your university’s teaching center and even university libraries. Sign up for newsletters for teaching conferences and newsletters from your university’s teaching centers so that you can be notified of conferences and workshops designed to help teaching professors.  

Advice #4: Read Academic and Non-Academic Articles About Teaching Pedagogy

Likewise, sign up for newsletters from teaching pedagogy online websites such as the Teaching Professor, Faculty Focus, and Educational Technology and start reading articles on teaching pedagogy. Other Professors and educators share their experiences and expertise on these websites. They teach you how to address teaching challenges and adapt to changes, strategies, and technology for teaching etc. 

Also, make it a habit to read and sign up for scholarly journal articles on teaching such as the Journal of Higher Education and Journal of Teacher Education. You will be updated on new teaching strategies and technologies. You will also learn examples of actual teaching philosophies and strategies adopted by educators and teaching professors that have worked and those that have failed or need reform. Finally, it is important to consider writing about your pedagogy as a teaching professor. By sharing your experience and knowledge on strategies that have worked or failed, you help and inspire fellow teaching professors improve their pedagogy.  

Advice #5: When in Need, Delegate Teaching or Seek Other Outlets

It is important to know that there are resources to help. Most universities have subject librarians and dedicated IT teams that can direct you on how to access and use diverse teaching and learning resources and technologies offered by the university. For instance, when designing courses or assessments, seek their help to find or build syllabus, books, articles, reports, statistics, PowerPoints, rubrics, multimedia etc. as well as interactive, LMS, or AI technologies for course design that you can assign to students for your course or specific assignments. 

Also, if you struggle to dedicate time for research or if in need of a break or you have to miss class for important reasons, solicit your librarian or IT team to help you design educational classroom activities for your students to teach them how to use learning resources and technologies. Likewise, if you have a disability sign up with your university’s center for disability and/or center for wellbeing and health to provide important accommodations to aid in your teaching or help you implement alternative educational activities for your courses.  

Overall, always remember that you are not alone and there are tools and strategies that can be employed to help you throughout your teaching career. Focus on teaching that is centered on students but that also works with or relies on your strengths. Lastly, if you ever implement any of the aforementioned strategies, remember to include them in your teaching portfolio as part of your teaching effectiveness for retention and promotion (Barbeau and Happel 2023). 

Vivian Ike, PhD, is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Syracuse University in New York where she teaches a range of International Relations courses. She is passionate about teaching pedagogy and sharing her lessons with fellow teaching professors. 

References 

Barbeau, Lauren, and Claudia Cornejo Happel. 2023. Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching. 1st ed. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003443902. 

Beach, Andrea L., Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Ann E. Austin, and Jaclyn Simpson. 2016. Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence: Current Practices, Future Imperatives. Sterling, VA: Stylus. 

Chism, Nancy Van Note. 1998. Preparing Future Faculty Programs: What Have We Learned? Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools. 

Cook-Sather, Alison. 2011. “Student Consultants Deepening Classroom and Life Lessons.” Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education 1 (1): 1–5. 

Cox, M. D. 2000. “Student Collaboration in Faculty Development.” To Improve the Academy 18 (1): 97–112. 

Fink, L. Dee. 2013. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. Revised and updated ed. Newark, NJ: Wiley. 

Martinez, F., N. Taut, and L. Schaaf. 2016. “Classroom Observation for Evaluating and Improving Teaching.” Teaching and Teacher Education 58: 217–231. 

O’Leary, Matt. 2020. Classroom Observation: A Guide to the Effective Observation of Teaching and Learning. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. 

Sorcinelli, Mary Deane, Ann E. Austin, Pamela L. Eddy, and Andrea L. Beach. 2006. Creating the Future of Faculty Development: Learning from the Past, Understanding the Present. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.