Advocate Online

The Dialogue Question:
Have professors changed their teaching styles to meet the needs of today's students?

Yes, in today's world, one must change teaching styles to reach each student.

Lon Pearson *

In recent years, professors have generally had to change their teaching styles, since many students today expect to be entertained and are not satisifed by a simple lecture. Innovative media techniques have been the major source of learning for many students, rather than reading books and analyzing what has been read.

In our universities of the past, we were required to read a novel a week for a literature course and sit through lectures about the richness of the writings. We tried to imitate the presentations of those distinguished professors in our own teaching, but now we find that it is often impossible, if not unnecessary, to reach our students with these methods. We now use more student participation and cooperative learning.

While many of our professors of yesteryear failed to provide us with even course syllabi at the beginning of the course, today it is important to supplement our lectures with PowerPoint talking points, to reinforce student notes with our own lecture notes on our campus electronic servers, and to give our students outlines at the end of the course to help them prepare for their final exams. Another part of our change is we send them on Web-quests and often show a film version of the novel so that they can more fully comprehend it.

Not every professor has changed. My colleagues in philosophy are proud of using age-old teaching styles, and for some language teachers, the manner of teaching advanced grammar classes may not have changed. However, most colleagues use more oral work today, especially in beginning language classes as we learn more about language acquisition and teaching methods.

* Lon Pearson is a professor of Spanish at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In his career, he has taught at six universities, presented courses by satellite, and lived, taught, and traveled in much of Latin America.

No, too many professors have not changed their teaching styles to meet the needs of today's students.

Michael C. Ross *

As a teacher-educator, I have been trained to give students' learning styles, ability levels, and learner characteristics thorough consideration when preparing any lesson or lecture. My job is to not only teach these planning skills but to also model these skills as I teach. Studies suggest a definite correlation between professors' teaching styles, student academic achievement, and their satisfaction with the course.

My perception that too many professors have not changed their teaching styles is based on student feedback I have received and on research conducted on effective teaching practices. Many of my students from three different teacher education programs over the past seven years, have told me that professors from their content teaching areas—math, science, history, and language arts—don't use teaching methods reflective of their students' needs. I generally hear such comments as I discuss the importance of addressing students' learning styles, multiple intelligences, and ability levels, and the role these factors play in effective teaching.

Perhaps even more revealing is the research regarding pre-service teacher education programs. These data strongly suggest that the methods of instruction pre-service teachers are given during their freshman and sophomore years is inconsistent with the methods of instruction they are expected to model during their methods and student teaching experiences. Thus, teacher educators such as myself are placed in the position of having to reprogram pre-service teachers prior to their entering the classroom.

As colleges and universities across the country embrace their rapidly changing student populations, professors should reconsider not only what they teach but also, how they teach.

*Michael C. Ross is an assistant professor of secondary and middle grades education at Kennesaw State University. He is the founding faculty advisor of the KSU-Student Georgia Association of Educators chapter, an NEA affiliate.