Advice for New Faculty Members Robert Boice 2000

Advice for New Faculty Members Robert Boice. (2000)

Eight Rules for Working at Teaching with Moderation

Rule no. 1: Wait b Pause before Writing or Talking to Reflect. b Use pauses playfully and planfully. b Put some of what you think into writing. b Active waiting is an alternative to impatience

Rule 2: Begin Before Feeling Ready b No one feels ready especially: procrastinators, perfectionists, elitists, blockers, and oppositionals.

Rule #3: Prepare & Present in Brief, Regular, Sessions b Avoid binges of over-preparation b working under pressure & excitement leads to hypomania, sadness, disinterest and inefficiencies. b Begin before feeling fully ready

Rule #4: Stop! b Stop in a timely manner. b This reduces impatience and intolerance. b Rushed teaching is poor pedagogy. b Leave time at the end of class for all sorts of loose ends.

Rule #5: Moderate over attachment to content & overreaction to criticism b Rely on brief notes for lecture and discussion. Make them into overheads b make only a few main points in class & convey them patiently, with carefully chosen examples and discussions. b Remember that good teaching, like research, is provisional. b Practice early evaluation.

Rule #6: Moderate Negative Thinking b Myths about genius, artistry, great inventors and brilliant teachers make us feel pedestrian and inadequate. b Remember that the other side of teaching is learning.

Rule #8: Let others do some of the work. b Let go of some control and credit. b Use of peers & mentors to talk & share. b Collaborate in classroom teaching. b observe and critique colleagues’ classes. b Invite them to do the same for you.

Rule #9: Moderate Classroom Incivilities b Causes: b too much material at too fast a pace at too difficult a level for student involvement. b Content remains abstract, irrelevant. b Professor can’t relate to average student. b We care more for teaching than learning.

Incivilities: prevention b Teach with compassion, openness, and patience. b Communicate with immediacy & comprehension and pacing. b Remember your role as a reinforcer of high standards - of respect for learning and for others.

Conclusion b “Physics is experience, arranged in economical order” (Ernst Mach) b So is teaching. b Best wishes b contact me at tdc@uregina. ca or 585 -5284.