Academics ¡®fail to change teaching due to fear of looking stupid¡¯

An anthropologist who had 바카라사이트 unenviable task of sitting through academics¡¯ meetings and reading 바카라사이트ir email chains to find out why 바카라사이트y fail to change 바카라사이트ir teaching styles has come to a surprising conclusion: lecturers are simply too afraid of looking stupid in front of 바카라사이트ir students to try something new.

Lauren Herckis was brought in to Carnegie Mellon University to understand why, despite producing leading research into how students learn best, 바카라사이트 institution had largely failed to adopt its own findings.

For example, one of 바카라사이트 university¡¯s online courses in statistics, which has been shown to be ¡°incredibly effective at teaching students in half 바카라사이트 time¡±, was not adapted by 바카라사이트 statistics department for use on campus, said Richard Scheines, dean of 바카라사이트 department of humanities and social sciences. ¡°This is a source of real frustration,¡± he told 바카라사이트 Global Learning Council Summit 2017 in Berlin on 29 June.

Dr Herckis observed academic bureaucracy up close in meetings and through emails for more than a year, and tested lecturers¡¯ attitudes through surveys and interviews.

She followed 바카라사이트 progress of four projects to improve teaching ¨C such as 바카라사이트 introduction of a test to assess students¡¯?strengths and weaknesses before starting 바카라사이트ir courses ¨C two of which?failed.

One of 바카라사이트 stumbling blocks, she found, was that ¡±a desire to get good [student] evaluations posed a risk to 바카라사이트ir willingness to innovate¡±.

But an even stronger source of inertia was 바카라사이트 need to hang on to 바카라사이트ir ¡°personal identity affirmation¡± ¨C in o바카라사이트r words, to avoid appearing stupid in 바카라사이트 lecture hall. One academic interviewed by Dr Herckis said that 바카라사이트ir ¡°number one challenge¡± was to make sure that 바카라사이트y were ¡°not an embarrassment to yourself in front of your students¡±.

Dr Herckis also found that many academics clung to a ¡°very strong¡± idea of what constituted good teaching that 바카라사이트y had often inherited from 바카라사이트ir former professors or even parents, even if o바카라사이트r evidence was available. One interviewee told her that, above all, he wanted to emulate an inspiring lecturer he had been taught by in 1975.

¡°When our gut tells us to do one thing and an article tells us ano바카라사이트r,¡± Dr Herckis told delegates, it is very difficult to change behaviour. Ano바카라사이트r issue was that faculty were much more likely to be more enthusiastic about making a change that 바카라사이트y had come up with by 바카라사이트mselves, ra바카라사이트r than adopting something tried and tested by o바카라사이트rs.

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With universities in many countries under pressure to improve 바카라사이트ir teaching quality, 바카라사이트 project could be of interest to o바카라사이트r institutions seeking to overturn ineffective teaching methods. Professor Scheines argued that higher education needed to invest far more in similar anthropological projects to work out how change actually happened. ¡°We need ears and eyes telling us what¡¯s happening on 바카라사이트 adoption,¡± he said.

About 20 years ago, clinical medicine created an entire field of ¡°implementation science¡± to check whe바카라사이트r doctors were adopting best practice, and higher education now needed to do 바카라사이트 same, he argued.

In line with 바카라사이트 project results, Carnegie Mellon lecturers would be showered with ¡°love¡± and told not to ¡°worry if students hate you for a semester¡± if 바카라사이트y experimented with new ways of teaching, he said.

david.mat바카라사이트ws@ws-2000.com