What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong?

Teachers quite often ask me whether I would be willing to sit in on one of their classes and, on the basis of my observations of their teaching, to tell them what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. When I respond to the request, I indicate that while I appreciate their confidence in my ability to fulfil this brief, I am not able to make such definitive judgements. They would need to accept my assuming a somewhat different role. Teachers invariably accept and respond positively to the different role that I propose to them.

In this paper, I describe and account for the distinguishing features of the role I assume. Those features include the use of non-judgemental feedback that is framed in a way that is intended to prompt and help teachers to

1. take responsibility for evaluating their teaching decisions and actions,
2. become more familiar with, and draw on, the products of the scholarship of teaching and learning,
3. plan future teaching inquiries.

The stance that I take when responding to colleagues' requests that I identify the 'rights' and 'wrongs' of their teaching is based on my own assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning, the teaching-learning relationship and the qualities of effective teachers. Sharing those assumptions when proposing a different role, I observe that the role that they have in mind for me can imply that I am a source for universally accepted and fool-proof recipes for effective teaching. Such recipes would identify the mix of ingredients - including teacher qualities and skills - required if student learning is to be assured. I indicate that these recipes don't exist and that this is understandable because many of the ingredients of a teaching-learning situation that will either help or hinder a student's learning are outside of the direct control of teachers. As a result, there can never be certainty that a particular way of teaching will lead to students learning. I cite student attention as one example of an important uncontrollable factor. Students choose to give or withhold their attention during a class and it is not possible to make them pay attention. Teachers, can only arrange certain (controllable) ingredients in ways that make the probability that students do pay attention/do learn very high.

From this perspective, our responsibility is to identify and implement those arrangements: the ones that make the odds for particular learning outcomes high for as many students as possible. I propose that effective teachers - teachers who provide the most favourable odds for their students' learning - have the following general attributes:

• a rich repertoire of teaching methods and skills
• sensitivity to factors that make particular ways of teaching more or less appropriate
• good control of specific teaching skills
• willingness and capacity to 'research' their own teaching.

Against this backdrop, I suggest several ways in which teachers can extend their repertoire, sensitivity and control and, in turn, their ability to implement effectively these 'high probability' ways of teaching. These include (a) making explicit basic assumptions about the purposes of higher education, (b) critical reflection on their teaching and its impact on students' learning, (c) becoming familiar with findings from research on teaching and learning that highlight ways of teaching that are more likely to facilitate learning in particular contexts, (d) sharing experiences and ideas with other teachers, and (e) experimenting with different teaching and learning methods. I indicate that I believe I can assist them to undertake these activities and describe how I might help.

Here are the forms of help that I offer in response to a teacher's original request and that the teachers invariably take up.

Meeting with the teacher shortly before the class, I ask about their planning for the class. We talk about the nature of the planning process, reasons for particular decisions as well as the plan itself. Knowing what the plan is, I can notice variations from the plan during the actual class that it may be profitable to discuss later. Questions about reasons for decisions can prompt reflection on the extent to which decisions are based on a belief, personal practical knowledge derived from reflection on past experience, or awareness of theories and research findings concerning good practice. Sometimes decisions lack an obvious foundation or the teacher expresses uncertainty about them and this leads in turn to talk about the avenues for strengthening the case for particular decisions or for testing their appropriateness. I may refer to products of the scholarship of teaching and learning that are relevant.

As I sit in the classroom, I assume two roles. First, I am a 'good' student - attentive, engaging with ideas, participating in activities. As I do this, I notice my response as a learner who is trying to make sense of and record ideas, respond to questions, solve problems, follow directions and so on. How readily am I learning? Obviously, the ease with which I can do this varies depending on my background in the subject matter. Second, I am also a teacher, making a descriptive record of a colleague's teaching. Methods, strategies and specific skills that I notice being used are noted. In part, I do the latter because I recognise that it is difficult to monitor ones' own teaching actions in detail and accurately when one is engaged in them. I can add to the information available to the teacher when they take up the responsibility for making their own evaluations.

Usually I do not meet with the teacher immediately after the class but do so within a short period of time. In the meantime, I look back over the notes I have made as student and observer and plan the follow-up meeting. There are several elements to this meeting.

1. I describe aspects of my experience of being a learner, noting occasions during the class when I found it more or less easy to learn successfully and the character of the teaching that had this impact. Sometimes I show the teacher notes that I was making in this role. Invariably, I emphasise that I am one student who is unlike any other student - so it would be inappropriate to generalise from my case. However, this review of my experience is intended to prompt the teacher to reflect on how other students may have responded, to recall features of their visible response and to consider whether more information should be gathered directly from other students.

2. In conjunction with my description of features of the teaching that I was aware of, I ask questions that are intended to encourage the teacher to reflect on the match between their perceptions and this description. I also prompt them to review their original plan in the light of the reality of the class and to account for and critique decisions that they made on-the-spot. I do not make explicit evaluations.

3. When the teacher judges an aspect to be have been inappropriate, we identify alternatives that could be tried out in the future. As sources for these alternatives, I may describe options that I have used myself and the circumstances in which they have been effective and/or refer to approaches which have been supported by research finings. I do not claim that these can be guaranteed to be effective in all circumstances for all students. Again, I endeavour to assist, as well as encourage, the teacher to make commitments to continuing research on their teaching.

I noticed that you .... Could you tell me about that.

When you ..... that helped me ...... . Is that what you intended?

How could you check out other students' reactions to that approach?

I had difficulty seeing the figures that were on the transparency. Did you expect me to be able to read them as you commented on the graph?

Here is the record I made of the number and types of follow-up questions that you asked.

I recall that you had planned to .... at that point. What prompted the change? Did the new plan work out as you hoped? Why ?

What judgements would you make now about your original plan to ........

How did the experiment with .... turn out? Any thoughts now on the pros and cons of that way of ...........? Do you think there are particular students who would respond more or less well to that approach?

Are there any other ways of doing that?

Sometimes I .... when I find myself in that situation. Have you ever tried that? Would it be worth trying?

There are findings from several studies which suggest that students who .... are more likely to ..... Would this help account for the reactions of these students?

What will you make a point of continuing to do in the future in the light of how this session went?

What changes, if any, would you make if you had the opportunity to take the session again? Why do you believe those changes would put the odds up for students' learning?

Is there anything that you now feel you need to learn more about,/practice/ experiment with?

Following the discussion, I provide the teacher with a written summary of the ideas that we have talked about. This is a record that they can return to in the future and, as evidence of a professional development activity, they can refer to it in a probation or promotion submission.

Author: Neil Haigh, Teaching and Learning Development Unit, University of Waikato, New Zealand. Email: nhaigh@waikato.ac.nz Please cite as: Haigh, N. (1996). What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Different Approaches: Theory and Practice in Higher Education. Proceedings HERDSA Conference 1996. Perth, Western Australia, 8-12 July. http://www.herdsa.org.au/confs/1996/haig.html