Advice for New Faculty Members Robert Boice. (2000)

Eight Rules for Working at Teaching with Moderation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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