Fired for NOT Lecturing?

Steven Maranville had been teaching at Utah Valley University. He taught business. He didn't lecture. He asked questions and insisted on group work. He was not offered tenure. He left the school. He is suing.

In Maranville’s case, students did not see the value of his approach, the court records suggest. "Some students were quite vocal in their demands that he change his teaching style, which style had already been observed and approved by his peer faculty and administrative superiors,” according to the lawsuit. Students did not want to work in teams and did not want Maranville to ask questions. “They wanted him to lecture.” They also complained, according to the suit, that he did not know how to teach because he is blind.

I'm disappointed but not surprised. This cohort of students did not want to be engaged, or prepare for real world work by tackling group projects, or interact with those differently abled. I wonder why they came to college? Clearly they did not want to interact with the faculty or each other. Perhaps they would have preferred an on-line program (though of course that might also involve questions and interactions).

The non-offer of tenure, it's alleged, had some basis in poor student reviews of the instructor. And, those poor reviews seem to have to do with teaching style. Is it possible an interactive and question-based form (an interpretation of the Socratic method) could get an instructor effectively fired?

I wonder if this situation is simply the intersection of so many changes in teaching and learning and timing. Is it possible these students are new to the Socratic method and group work? Is it possible they were trained in grade school and high school and other college courses to be passive learners? Is it possible they see a college degree as a card to a better job, but do not see the value in the skills learned?

I fear this will not be the last of these types of lawsuits as teacher, learners and institutions re-invent education.

- Inside Higher Ed 

Redefining the Geography of the Classroom

Back in sixth grade we got new furniture. The desks were not desks per se, but trapezoidal tables that fit together like puzzle pieces. We students arranged them in our classroom and choose our own seats. I ended up at a table of eight students: seven of the smartest boys and me. It was probably not the best arrangement for educating the entire class, but we loved it.

Despite that arrangement, one perfect for collaboration, I do recall many an hour spent watching the teacher at the board. The grouped tables were really not used to encourage group work or much hands-on work. Now high school classrooms are being reshaped into studios designed to promote group and hands on work. In one Florida private school, Bishop Moore Catholic High, "studio" classrooms include white "smart boards," "writable windows" and giant touch-screen computer monitors.

The room is a showcase for state-of-the-art technology, but also for the belief that students learn best if teachers ask questions, present problems, prod them to think and then get out of the way and let them work.

The "studio" approach began at the college level, in physics courses interestingly, and is slowly expanding to high schools. The studio or TEAL (Technology-Enhanced Active Learning) lab, as its known at MIT, can be used for a dedicated subject, but at Bishop Moore the room is used by teachers in all disciplines.

While getting all the fancy tools in such labs may not be feasible for some schools, the ideas behind them are not. Group interactive learning works (MIT physics failure rates dropped with the new model) and keeps students engaged. A low tech model might use chalk boards in place of writable windows and traditional computers instead of smartboards. Different tasks might be assigned at different "stations" and student groups could move through them during one or more class periods.

How did the new studios make it to Bishop Moore? The school had graduates share how they were learning in college and introduced the studios based on their feedback. This model of learning has another benefit, it models how learning can (and should!) be done outside the classroom.

- Orlando Sentinel