It might have resembled a student's dream. A room full of professors paying attention and keeping notes, trying to keep up with a student's lecture on how to teach effectively.
It wasn't a dream, though. This really happened earlier this semester.
At a seminar arranged by UB's Center for Teaching and Learning Resources (CTLR), five students got a chance to turn the tables and teach the teachers. Subjects ranged from what students wanted to see on a course syllabus to addressing diversity in the classroom.
The session was informative and received great reviews from the audience, according to Dr. Judith Tamberlin, a Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences professor. A two-time winner of the Student Association's Milton Plesur award for excellence in teaching, she is a member of the CTLR's advisory board, who was largely responsible for arranging it.
"Opening up to dialogue between students and faculty is really a critical and much needed thing," she said. "I was so excited to have the opportunity to do that." Effective feedback between teachers and students is "a pretty rare thing," she added.
Helping to establish that feedback is part of the CTLR's mission. Established in the fall of 2001, the Center has a three-pronged approach of providing teaching professionals with services, resources and events, said Jeannette Molina, CTLR director and assistant vice provost for academic affairs. The events are the most noticeable, she explained.
"We provide settings for very rich conversation among colleagues about teaching," she said. "Not about their research, not about their publications, but about teaching."
Seminars and workshops are helpful in part because they bring together a diverse collection from faculty members who might not normally interact. Molina noted UB has about 2,000 full-time teachers, not counting adjuncts, part-timers and teaching assistants. By attending a session, a chemistry professor might get ideas from someone on the comparative literature faculty, or vice-versa.
Attending a CTLR event doesn't mean that a professor is a poor teacher, said Dr. Mary Anne Rokitka, assistant dean of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is another advisory board member who has also won the student-selected Plesur award. Session attendees have a wide range of experience, she noted.
"The people who come might be especially good teachers who want to to stay good and get better," said Rokitka, "or a really brand new inexperienced person who says 'Help, I have no clue.'"
All three women agree that UB, being noted as a research institution, often draws professors who are distinguished in the laboratory but lack experience in the classroom.
"It's assumed that if you know your discipline you can teach, but that is a big assumption that's not necessarily true," said Rokitka.
"You're not born a teacher," Tamburlin said. "Some skills have to be learned along the way. Often people in science, particularly in the research lab, don't have the opportunity to do a lot of public speaking."
Experienced professors also often come to the CLTR for ideas, Molina said.
"Teachers are always looking for new ideas, ways to liven up things," she said. "There's not a magic formula that this is the ideal way and it's going to work for everyone. That's never been discovered. What works one year might bomb the next."
To help teachers from getting stuck, the Center's resources include books, journals and videos that might give a teacher those new ideas and inspirations, she said.
"(They're about) making the teaching and learning environment one that's richer for both the teacher and the student and a meaningful experience. That's the bottom line," she said.
Every August, the Center holds a four-day series of seminars and workshops for teaching assistants that is particularly effective, Rokitka said. Since most TA's have no teaching experience, it helps them with the basics.
"How to conduct themselves in the classroom, how to dress, how to deal with problem students, how to prepare an exam," she listed.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for TA's to not just come in cold turkey into the classroom," Molina agreed.
About 1,000 of UB's teaching professionals have used the CTLR in one way or another, according to Rokitka. While some have attended multiple events, she said the attendance shows there is real concern about teaching among the faculty.
"The events are not meant just for 'how do I teach well' but 'how do I teach well enough so that the learner learns well," she said.
If an instructor is looking for more specific help, the Center will arrange to videotape one of his or her presentations and submit it for peer review, said Molina. This service, as most offered by the CTLR, is strictly confidential.
Confidentiality is important, Tamburlin said, because teaching effectiveness is often a personal and delicate issue.
"Nobody wants to think that they're not doing something correctly, and it's really tough to accept criticism," she said.
A peer review will help a teacher learn about their verbal presentation as well as how they communicate non-verbally through eye contact and body language, Molina said. Tapes are reviewed by a group of about 25 who are all SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professionals, SUNY Chancellor Excellence in Teaching Award winners or winners of the Milton Plesur award. Once again, it's not necessarily a remedial approach for bad teachers, she said.
"It's the people that are most committed to students that are the most involved," she said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
