Charlotte Ure

Understanding the University Context

Description

As an instructor it is important to understand, that teaching is extremely context sensitive. In the United States, there are various forms of higher education, ranging from community colleges to research universities. Students come from varying backgrounds, and therefore have different needs and expectations for a course. In order to master this competency, I need to be a aware of this context, be able to determine my students' expectations and needs, and be able to adapt my teaching style accordingly.

Artifacts

• This is the worksheet from the Teaching Institute in May 2016, that I attended.

Reflection

Coming from a different country and finishing my undergraduate degree outside the US, I wasn't aware of the various types of higher education in the United States. Especially the workshop during the Teaching Institute in May 2016 helped me discover these and figure out the institution's expectations for its teachers as well as the students' expectations for their classroom experience. I realized how important it is to be aware of this context in order to be a good instructor.

As part of the workshop, I learned about the different types of colleges in the United States. For completeness I will include short descriptions of the different institutions.

• At a research university, teaching itself is the least important. The educator should be an instructor, rather than an actual teacher. Often instructors teach a lot of different classes in a large lecture setting. On the other hand, instructors can have very intimate relationships with some students as their thesis, or research advisor. I would be very interested in doing this work with students at some point myself.
  The student body at a research university is very international. I made the experience myself in my class MTH 299, that more than half of my students were international students. This was challenging, since some of my students didn't understand my isntruction and communication was extremely difficult. Being an international student I tried to be understanding and to give everyone a voice in my class room.
• A comprehensive university caters usually to a more diverse student body. Faculty often has to aquire research money for these universities, which adds to the workload. Some of these universities have doctoral programs, but faculty mostly teaches lower level classes.
• The mostly private liberal arts colleges can give instructors the opportunity to spend time on preparation for teaching, and allow for smaller class sizes. One aspects that makes working and applying for these colleges challenging, is that tenure track processes vary from college to college.
• Community colleges prepare students for a career outside of academia. Therefore instructors should attempt to give meaningful assignments, that are close to actual work experiences. One of the big challenges for instructors at a community college is teaching outside their own discipline.
• At Minority-Serving Institutions it is extremely important as an instructor to be aware of the student population. Members of an underrepresented minority group face different challenges in achieving higher education. An instructor should be aware of these and counteract them. A teacher at these institution is not just a teacher, but an advisor. Often the relationship between faculaty and students is close.
• The last type of institution I would like to mention are for-profit institutions. These exist on various level of the above scale. Often faculty just teaches part-time at these universities and works in industry as well.

One of the beauties of a career in academia is, that most positions are threefold. Faculty members teach, do research, and do service-work. I believe that every educator has to find a balance of these three that fits his/her personality. I like teaching, but I also enjoy doing research, and I would not want to give up either of those in my future career. I am happy to see that most institutions that I listed above require their faculty to work in all three areas (to varying degrees).

To pursue a career, that will fit me, I need to determine my own values and expectations as an educator, and find an institution that can fill these needs. On the other hand, once I start a job, I have to extract the institutions expectations for me, so that I can work on fulfilling them.

Students motivation to take a course may vary even in one class. They might enroll to fulfill a university requirement, require the knowledge for a certain career path, or they might be interested in the subject itself. I believe that a good instructor needs to be aware of these various motivations, and not belittle any of them. I have heard numerous instructors complain, that their students didn't show interest in the subject. In my opinion, the instructor should try to make the course as interesting as possible, but it is ok if some students just want to pass the course.

Considering my current teaching experience I already realize that I prefer teaching smaller classes to big lecture courses. I like having an intimate relationship with my students, living with them through their struggles and being of help to them through this important phase of their live. I would love to advise students on their research and help them achieve a meaningful university experience.

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