Advocate Online

Thriving in Academe
Tales from Real Life

Searching For Answer

" We want answers. Why won’t they give us the answers?”

Peer leaders and their students both wanted solutions to the Peer-Led Team Learning problems. The pressure was on.

I was forced to do a lot of soul searching. How much faith did I really have in discovery learning? I had no experience.

The project team, peer leaders, and faculty talked for hours about our educational philosophy and what we really wanted from PLTL workshops. Did knowing the answer make a difference? Were answers what we were really after? Did knowing the answer restrict thinking? The questions were deep, meaningful, and endless.

To praise or not to praise, that is the question
I remember one leader training session. Leaders, acting as students, worked in a group to solve a fairly sophisticated problem. As they approached the solution, I got more excited. When they finally got there, I wanted to jump up and congratulate them, but luckily I restrained myself.

Had I congratulated them I would have ended their discussion. Fortunately, the discussion continued a good deal longer, and they learned much more than they would have had I interrupted. It is important for us as instructors to learn when to stay out of the way of student learning. There is so much for us all to learn.

—Tom Berke, Brookdale
Community College

next "Thriving" article