Read on Twitter
1/9// The past few months #Econtwitter has been filled with (usually tenured) research faculty *really* paying attention to their teaching and developing their pedagogy for the first time.
2/9// The "first time" status shows.
If you read a tweet where someone is gushing over a technique that worked for them that is a great outcome for them (and their course, and their students) but *nothing* works universally. You may try it and bomb completely. That's OK.
If you read a tweet where someone is gushing over a technique that worked for them that is a great outcome for them (and their course, and their students) but *nothing* works universally. You may try it and bomb completely. That's OK.
3/9// Re-read their thread: what was their classroom context? 15, 25, 80 students? TAs? 1st years or third years? Core or Topics? Methods or Survey?How high on the taxonomy are their learning goals?
Do these answers map into your course? If no...may not work as well.
Do these answers map into your course? If no...may not work as well.
4/9// What is their "teaching personality"? Some margins not afforded to everyone. I have a British sounding accent so much of what I say is interpreted as being deadly serious by students: I have to be *very* *careful* with humor.
5/9// Many large departments have people who have been honing their economics teaching techniques for the economics students at your institution. If you are struggling
talk to them.
Comparative advantage matters.
talk to them. Comparative advantage matters.
6/9// Broad research analogy: if you are a theorist who wants to write an empirical project you would probably find a co-author with experience in empirical projects. You *can* learn the methods, but someone has already developed the expertise.
Do the same for your teaching.
Do the same for your teaching.
7/9// Finally: most tweets have been focused on the delivery of information/knowledge. Equally important is assessment, and so many people are terrible at it. (See: referee reports. Same thing, but you've received *more training* to write those than assessing student learning).
8/9// What mastery are you assessing? How will you measure it in an online environment? How are you acting to avoid cultural/implicit markers that are much harder to learn without peer interactions? Etc.
9/9//Anyway: on one hand yay! People actively care about their teaching.
On the other: so many are reinventing the wheel & rediscovering things that are covered in the 1st week of a good teaching workshop. I'm exhausted just thinking about that wasted effort.
Ask for help.
On the other: so many are reinventing the wheel & rediscovering things that are covered in the 1st week of a good teaching workshop. I'm exhausted just thinking about that wasted effort.
Ask for help.
