Ethical Teaching:
- Ethical teaching has been brought up now in both texts. However, in McKeachie's teachings, he brings up other ethical situations that go beyond the obvious of not having personal relationships with students, accepting bribes for grades, etc. I have never taken an ethics class, but I find it interesting that so many actions and scenarios can always be related to ethics. The most useful thing McKeachie addressed was that teachers are being unethical when they are unprepared to teach (p. 329). It is half the battle getting students to come to class and want to be there. It is unacceptable to have students in the classroom and not be getting their full worth out of each class period. It is the teacher's duty and responsibility to be prepared. I appreciate that McKeachie acknowledges that every class period will not be your best. An ethical teacher will also always stay up to date on the content they teach and adjust lessons accordingly.
- Teachers need to follow ethics of not only being a teacher, but also their distinct fields. Communication ethics is again something I have not taken a class on yet but I would like to begin independently reading about how to stay educated on from this site and many others. To address staying up to date with communication content to teach current information, communication scholars and teachers face a rapidly advancing field. New ways of communicating are being created as fast as technology is advancing. Research and knowledge of these new mediums are going to be needed to most effectively use these new tools. Teaching future communication scholars about the past and current methods will prepare them to be the future of the discipline.
- As a graduate student now, I get excited when I hear undergraduates talking in the library or students of my own that are communication majors. I want to share stories or give suggestions to those I overhear and get nervous teaching communication majors. I am teaching such an introductory class that I want to do a good job so they can use what they learn in my class to build on in future communication classes. I also want to show my excitement and knowledge of the field to inspire them as my professors did for me. In regards to preparation, I know that I am not a good presenter when I am unprepared so I need to spend extra time preparing. There have been days that I have been more prepared than others to teach and I think judging by student reactions that it was obvious. Some lectures went short and some activities did not go as planned. I will use these setbacks as learning experience for the next time I teach as all good teachers learn from their mistakes.
Strategic Learning
- I have noticed early in my teaching experience the different types of students. I am happy to read that there is some theory behind my observations and it is not necessarily my teaching that attributes to why some students do not do well while others excel. Strategic learners are those that know when they learn something and when they don't. They are the students that will ask questions of the teacher, peers, or seek out other sources (p.301-302).
- I hope that once students find the discipline they enjoy that they become more strategic learners. Some students will just understand information easily while others will struggle. Once I found my major that I truly enjoyed, I began to become more engaged in class, choose harder topics to study, and even challenge information I found. I think this is applicable to strategic learners in all fields. The more information one seeks, the better the scholar. Being motivated by enjoying your discipline is one of the best feelings. I hope that I can elicit this excitement one day by being a professor in an upper-level course to further the discipline of health communication.
- I think to encourage strategic learning in my classroom I would follow McKeachie's tips to increase student self awareness. McKeachie says that when students have goals, they will know what it is going to take to learn and achieve those goals (p. 302). I will also do a better job of introducing the class I am teaching right from the beginning. As I have learned from being a first time teacher, nobody can predict how your class is going to learn the material best on the first day. However, I have learned from this semester that I will need to be more explicit next semester and teach students how to use their textbook the best way. The thing I think will improve my teaching the most for next semester is that I have SO many examples of what my students did this semester that worked and did not work that I can anonymously share with future classes, as McKeachie suggests on page 307.
Lifelong Learner
- The final tip I found helpful this week is similar to the ethical concern of staying up to date with the content you are teaching. Teachers need to be lifelong learners and also teach their students to want to be lifelong learners. I find the suggestion of utilizing the power of observation to be one of the most helpful I have read this semester. I think by observing excellent teachers as well as those that one may view as poor (possibly because of unmatching learning styles) to learn from. My teaching observations are proving this as well as feedback I have gotten from doing the teaching demo in class and my COMM 110 mentor observing me teach my own class. McKeachie suggests videotaping yourself to watch. I think this is an amazing tip that would be very beneficial, but I just can't bring myself to do this or watch the tape. Like McKeachie also said on page 349 that feedback from peers can make you very anxious, the day I was observed I felt more nervous than I ever had before. I remember the day my own COMM 110 teacher videotaped herself and we all thought was strange. I now know why she was doing this.
- When teaching, it is important to also practice the things you are teaching your students. I think that the COMM 110 teachers maybe should videotape parts of their teaching and watch to see what vocalized pauses or other bad habits they do while teaching.
- To incorporate lifelong learning and observation in my own teaching, I will follow McKeachie's tips of observing others and using techniques from other disciplines. It would not be fun to have the same style of teaching in all of the communication classes taken in a semester, so observing only other communication teachers might be a bad idea. It is best to get the basics down from watching a seasoned professional in the field, but new ideas that can be adapted will benefit the students as well as the teacher. Also, being observed by a peer and using feedback from students will help adapt to the current semester as well.
On a final note, I try to take a minute or two most days to reflect on the phrase "you learn something new every day" by thinking about what I learned for the day. McKeachie also closes on page 357 by saying, "The great thing about teaching is that there is always more to learn" in regards to teaching and improving yourself as a teacher. I don't always learn a new skill or some profound new piece of knowledge, but instead take the little things people say or do to help shape the person I am today and the interactions in and outside the classroom are now starting to shape the teacher I am.
Helpful additional information from this week's readings:
President Barack Obama delivered a historical speech to the school children of America this year. In his speech, he challenged students to take more control and be more responsible of their own education by setting goals. I think this follows what McKeachie suggested about motivating students. This link provides the video and other links to material that relates to the speech. Even though the speech was geared towards students in k-12, I still think it contains pertinent information for all scholars.
This link is to a book review of The Ethical Teacher by Elizabeth Campbell written by
Aubrey J. Scheopner. I found this useful because of the examples and further definition of ethical teaching and being an ethical role model for students. This article further defines the obvious ethical standards of teachers. One example I found helpful that is discussed and I learned a little about in my teaching classes last year is that you must be mindful of the language you use. For example, when asking for papers to be signed or discussed at home, it is not ethical in this day and age to always say "your parents" or "mom and dad" because some students will feel excluded because more and more students do not live in traditional family settings. Instead, it is appropriate to say "parent or guardian".
Teachers need to be lifelong learners. This short article addresses how a teacher can and should teach their students to be lifelong learners also.
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