teaching philosophy

I approach teaching as "engaged facilitation," a process wherein a teacher invites students to acknowledge puzzles (constructed for them in the classroom or discovered in their own experience), allows them to engage with the frustrations and rewards of working their own way out, and helps them to make sense of the knowledge they have gained and produced from the experience. Teaching as facilitation requires a special set of skills: fluency in various "languages" and modes of thought, what we call a "bag of tricks," and the sensitivity to recognize when and how to intervene in the learning process.

• Moving between the languages of various disciplines and ways of thinking

In a liberal arts curriculum, professors must be conversant in disciplines other than their own, and not just to work with fellow faculty in various fields. Students come into the classroom with different perspectives and different ways of learning. Being a resource for them means being able to make connections between different modes of thinking about the world. Through my professional work with English and Theater departments, I have learned to "speak" critical theory, literary and cultural analysis, rhetoric, and composition. My research in disability studies has introduced to me some of the languages of political theory, medicine, and social work. Students have taught me languages of educational policy, history, and even computer science.

• A "bag of tricks"

As students take responsibility for their own education, the faculty who facilitate that education must have a deep "bag of tricks" with an ever-growing array of resources to respond to various eventualities. Having a bag of tricks goes beyond just "being resourceful"– it means continually noting and collecting ideas that might be relevant to some future as-of-yet-unknown discussion topic, plus being able to combine or adapt these ideas to be appropriate for any situation, as well as having the practical expertise to see those ideas through to execution. I bring into the classroom a range of "tricks," techniques, and ideas that go beyond standard lesson plans, including video clips, field trips, and problem-solving initiatives that look like games. I even created a set of white and purple paper plates to help students learn how to organize evidence into a thesis statement.

• Understanding when to intervene . . . and when to keep your mouth shut

One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is the instinct that tells you when students need intervention in their learning experience, and what kind of intervention they need. Such intervention often takes the form of an explanation offered to a silent classroom, an historical fact that places a topic in context, or feedback on student work. Too much or the wrong kind of intervention robs students of the experience of wrestling with a tough problem. In general, my instincts are to hang back in classroom discussions and to step forward in direct feedback on student work. Two supervisors who have observed my teaching have complimented me on my ability to "keep my mouth shut" as the students grapple with a difficult idea or disagree among themselves. Across my teaching, my preferred form of intervention takes place in detailed, concrete feedback on scenes and written assignments.