More on methods of teaching

There is such great 'variety' between the teaching methods employed by university teachers in India that I am somewhat aghast when I think about it. For those who understand literary texts, I once knew of a teacher in some Indian university, who took one lecture (damn it, just one lecture and I wasn't the unfortunate student) to complete Henry Fielding's novel, Tom Jones.

I am not trying to state that all Indian teachers are bad. In fact, Indians are known as good teachers in many countries of the world.

One excellent teacher that I had heard of was P. Lal, the person who used to teach in Calcutta and who was singularly responsible for the publishing boom in Indian English writing. He started Writers Workshop, a publishing house. One of my father's friends studied under him and he used to tell me that when P. Lal taught in the 1960s, there used to be huge classes and even students, who did not have courses with him, would troop in. The interesting thing here is that there used to be silence in his classes and he never scolded anyone. He was certainly a great teacher, however, he was also a publishing pioneer and I am sure, he must have escaped the petty politics that plagues many of us, even if we don't want to be part of it.

Teaching Practices

How do you teach university students? Are professors in a university trained to teach students? I don't think professors are ever trained to teach students either in the US or in India. In India, they are never trained to teach. Usually, professors pass out from graduate school with their dissertations, work for few years as adjunct (temporary / ad-hoc) faculty and then get full-time tenure. In the US, they have something called student feedback and I guess it is taken into consideration while keeping people on full-time tenure. In India, there is nothing like student feedback. So, one passes out from graduate school or college with an M.Phil. or Phd degree, clears something called the NET examination conducted by the University Grants Commission, and applies for an adjunct position. Meanwhile, one tries to get few papers or book reviews published. Sometimes, you don't even need a single publication if you are appearing for an adjunct position. The moment you get an adjunct position, you are the proverbial scapegoat because you are given a lot of work and you are not expected to speak at department meetings. Moreover, as an adjunct, you cannot choose the courses that you might teach.

After few years, the adjunct teacher is given a full time tenure as Assistant Professor. The faculty member is supposed to give answers to the questions asked in an interview, where the department chair, two experts, the vice-chancellor and a visitor's nominee are present. Usually, there are forty to fifty applicants for a single position and there is no guarantee that if a person has worked as an adjunct for the last few years, s/he might be absorbed there. In fact, getting into a full-time tenure does not depend on favorable student feedback or dedication to work. It depends on the composition of the commitee that selects you as well as some publications that you might have to show. However, I have known of people in the country, where they have been selected even without publications or the quality of publications can be quite varied and rather suspect.

However, no one is ever imparted training in how to be a good teacher. In the US, students pay a lot of money as fees and they are given lists of books to read at the beginning of the semester. They read those books and come to the classroom. There is a lot of internal assessment and students ask a lot of questions to the teacher. In India, one goes to the first lecture, tells the students about the books in the syllabus, then asks them to buy the book. After a week (which is usually being very optimistic), the students might have bought the books. There is certainly no guarantee that the students might have read those books. They read it slowly or rather a number of faculty try to spoonfeed them.

I have seen a number of faculty members all over the country spoonfeed students.It is a platter. The most popular faculty members are those who make it so simple for the students that sometimes might not need to read the books or might just read them later. Moreover, the examination system leaves a lot to be desired. Students can easily cram up questions asked in previous years and guess the questions. The entire system is such that it encourages mediocrity and punishes brilliance. It is in such settings that our Indian faculty members work and they often excel globally. You must salute the spirit of those Indian faculty members who excel in their professional work. They are quite rare.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is central to any pedagogical and teaching enterprise but it is perhaps most widely abused by the teaching staff. I wouldn't like to place the blame only on the teachers because the students too are guilty of academic dishonesty and lack of academic integrity. Without proper academic integrity, not much can be accomplished and most pedagogical endeavors would remain merely of academic interest, without no import whatsoever.

I read a very interesting letter written by William M. Taylor of Oakton Community College from Des Plaines, IL 60016 to his students and I found it quite evocative. I liked his letter for its honest tone. I quote from his letter:

Academic integrity, as with so much in life, involves a system of interconnected rights and responsibilities that reflect our mutual dependence upon one another. The success of our individual efforts in this course, as with so much in life, depends on all of us conscientiously exercising our rights and living up to our responsibilities.

You could read the six page letter at the following link: http://www.academicintegrity.org/educational_resources/pdf/Letter_To_My_Students.pdf

Idea: Using Social Networks to Further Teaching

I found a very interesting podcast, an audio discussion on how social networking sites could be used to further teaching. This is on a blog called EdTechTalk and the specific post is called Teachers Teaching Teachers #113 - Just-in-time, just-for-me reading - 07.16.08. You can read a summary and listen to the audio file by going to http://www.edtechtalk.com/node/3260

The audio file is 35:33 minutes long and discusses the use of Shelfari to build an online library. You can also read the complete transcript of the audio file at the same link.

Issue: Teaching in the Academia

Well, I am sure this is going to be quite a contentious issue and my colleagues might just rise in arms against me. But a very important issue is that of how professors fare as teachers. There is no training for professors. In fact, I read a very interesting post on another blog about the same issue.

This blog is by Jennifer Imazeki and she's from the Department of Economics at San Diego University in the United States. Reading her post which specifically focussed on how economics professors fare poorly as teachers, I was overwhelmed by a sense of ennui--wasn't it the same elsewhere? You can read her blog Professors as Teachers. In India, we don't have any training programme for professors. The moment you pass out from graduate school with either an M.Phil. or a Ph.D. degree or you pass out with a Masters and qualify a National Eligibility Test for Lecturers, you can start teaching.

So, the only models that you have are a variety of senior professors who might tell you 'things here and there'. Unfortunately, there are no mentors available in the profession, who might guide you. As a norm, most Indian professors that I have seen seem to be diffident or uncommunicative or unfriendly and certainly scared of student feedback.