The Great Reversal: A Question to Ask Ourselves as Faculty

"How am I doing in my teaching?"

If we're even half-way conscientious (and perhaps a bit self-conscious!), certainly as faculty we ask ourselves this question at a somewhat regular interval.  It's natural--and commendable--that we'd "self-evaluate" our craft!  After all, part of this 9x9x25 Challenge is intended to help us do just that!

But I wonder if that's the right question?

I can be confident and/or convinced that my "teaching" is good--maybe even excellent.  But how do I know if that self-evaluation is correct?

Maybe my positive assessment reflects a certain mastery of  the  course material.   "Certainly, I must be a great teacher because I know my subject so well!"  No doubt this is a prerequesite for pedagogical prowess.  But is it enough?  How many of us can remember professors who were close to genius when it came to the "knowledge" of their discipline, but couldn't teach their way out of the proverbial paper bag?

Or perhaps my good self-assessment reflects a comfort with the way I've decided to teach.  My lectures or activities or online courses are fine tuned (I've actually perfected them over the years), my tests are spot on, and my classes run like a well-oiled machine.  This has the potential of being a very good thing, but is it necessarily a good gauge of teaching?

Or... maybe I'm commended by my colleagues and supervisors regarding my teaching.  I welcome this as affirmation that I'm on the right track!  But is it really an accurate assessment of how I'm doing as an instructor?

I would like to propose that this question, "How well am I teaching?" may actually be a wrong and even miseleading question, regardless of the answer.  However well I know my subject, or how flawlessly my class seems to run, or what others say about my teaching, these may not be an accurate barometer of my effectiveness, because all of these are "teacher-centric" assessments.

IF the goal of education isn't to evaluate how teachers teach, but to facililtate students actually learning (sometimes in spite of our teaching), then instead, the most helpful question (it seems to me) is

"How, what and how well are my students learning?"

What if I reversed my normal "self-talk" as a teacher, and used this question as the gauge of my success?  What if I judged my performance on how well my students were able to apply what I think I've been teaching, instead of just looking at the mechanics and process of instruction?

What if I actually ASKED MY STUDENTS if, in fact, they were actually learnng?