21 May 2009

Professors Value Diversity, Service, Student-Centered Teaching

The “American College Teacher” survey picks up strong trends

The University of Central Oklahoma's Wei Chen, a professor of biomedical engineering, was named the 2008 U.S. Professor of the Year.

By Jeffrey Thomas
Staff Writer

Washington — “Service learning is important,” Wei R. Chen, a professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, said when he accepted the 2008 Master’s Universities and Colleges Professor of the Year award. “I constantly stress that the purpose of learning is to serve people and contribute to society, not merely to enrich oneself. I challenge my students to save or change at least one person’s life, for the better, in their career. My dream is to have my students come to me one day and tell me that they have done just that.”

For a secondary school teacher or a humanities professor to make such a statement might not cause comment. Chen, however, is a professor of biomedical engineering, a subject that for most people conjures up impersonal lectures and cerebral scientists.

But the latest results from a triennial survey of U.S. college and university faculty suggest that while Chen may be a leader and an outstanding teacher, his goals would not seem strange to most faculty in U.S. higher education.

“The American College Teacher” survey has for years found a virtual consensus among U.S. faculty on some of the main goals of undergraduate education: helping students to develop critical thinking skills and knowledge of particular disciplines; teaching students how to evaluate the quality and reliability of information; and developing students’ writing skills.

But the survey results, which the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) bases on responses from more than 22,000 faculty at 372 four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States, suggest some strong trends in higher education.

The percentage of faculty committed to instilling an appreciation for the liberal arts has moved sharply higher over the past three years: where 57.9 percent of faculty called an appreciation for the liberal arts very important or essential in 2004–2005, 72.8 percent took that position in 2007–2008.

There have been similar large shifts in support for instilling in students a commitment to community service (from 36.4 to 55.5 percent) and enhancing students’ knowledge of and appreciation for other racial and ethnic groups (from 57.6 to 75.2 percent).

The HERI survey has also found a long-term trend toward less lecturing and more student-centered teaching in U.S. colleges and universities, especially among younger faculty.

A similar shift in national norms appears to be reflected in the only national award for outstanding college and university teaching, the Professor of the Year awards, which the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) offer annually.

Chen said in his acceptance remarks that throughout his 20-year teaching career he has used “a three-part, student-centered, transformative learning strategy, which is deeply rooted in the Chinese culture — a part of my ethnic heritage — and in the teaching philosophies of Confucius.”

Chen tries first to “teach according to the student’s ability,” as Confucius urged, or in modern terms, promote individual-based learning according to a student’s background, knowledge and skills.

Second, he strives for experiential learning and an inquiry-based learning process based on a Confucian insight: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Third, Chen uses “an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, since advancements in science and technology have broken down the boundaries of different fields.”

Rosemary Karr won the Outstanding Community Colleges Professor of the Year Award in 2007 for her innovative approach to mathematics instruction at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas. She has dramatically improved student performance not only in her own math courses but when her students go on to higher math. Carr requires each of her students to tutor 15 hours during the semester, write a reflective journal entry for each tutoring session, and write a reflective paper at the end of the semester.

“Most choose to tutor at a local Title I middle school serving disadvantaged students. Upon completing their service, students frequently declare it their best learning experience at Collin College,” Carr said. Title I schools have a large percentage of students from low-income families.

Katherine Rowell, the Outstanding Community Colleges Professor of 2005, uses an experience-based method with her sociology students at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, requiring that they volunteer with her at various homeless shelters in the Dayton area. “The majority of students say the opportunity to work together outside of the classroom was the most valuable learning experience of their lives,” Rowell said.

The HERI survey also found sharp increases in faculty support for helping “students develop personal values” (66.1 percent, an increase of 15.3 percentage points from 2004–2005), enhancing “students’ self-understanding” (71.8 percent, a 13.4 percentage-point increase), developing “moral character” (70.2 percent, a 13.1 percentage-point increase) and providing for “students’ emotional development” (48.1 percent, a 12.9 percentage-point increase).

The overwhelming majority of faculty members (87.9 percent) believe colleges and universities have a responsibility to work with their surrounding communities to address local issues and should encourage students to be involved in community service activities.

An even larger majority (93.6 percent) believe that a racially and ethnically diverse student body enhances the educational experience for all students.

More information about the American College Teacher survey is available on the HERI Web site.