When I think about the quality of the Queen’s learning environment, I don’t consider the number of books in our libraries or how many campus buildings have wireless Internet. Instead I look at the attitude our university has toward teaching and learning, and the significance it places on the undergraduate experience.
Historically, Queen’s has enjoyed a high-quality learning environment and, as a result, has had success in attracting intellectually-gifted students and turning out well-educated graduates. But a proud history doesn’t necessarily mean we’re meeting the needs of today’s students.
“Engaging The World”, our university’s recently adopted strategic plan, states that: “… at the core of Queen’s learning environment is the dedication and excellence of our faculty. Their commitment to the highest quality teaching reflects their dedication to our students and their future.” Off the top of my head I can think of many professors who exemplify these words and overall, I would agree that most Queen’s faculty live up to this standard. Unfortunately I can also name professors who not only possess a complete lack of teaching skills, but also have no desire to improve.
In general, when they’re first hired, new professors are thoroughly unprepared to teach university classes; they lack the basic instruction that will allow them to reach their full potential. But can we blame an instructor for his or her poor performance when he or she has received woefully inadequate training on how to teach?
Can we blame our professors for placing too great an emphasis on research rather than teaching, when research is what they have been trained to do and need to do in order to further their academic careers, obtain promotion, tenure, etc.? No, we cannot expect quality teaching without first teaching them how to instruct others.
High-school teachers are required to have a degree in education before they can become licensed teachers. Are we seriously saying that the class of 2011, many of whom have just recently graduated from high schools across Canada, have now reached such a pinnacle of achievement that they no longer require instructors who have been taught how to teach?
It’s generally accepted at most Canadian and American universities that professors should allocate 40 per cent of their time to research, 40 per cent to teaching, and the last 20 per cent to administrative and service duties. The reality of the situation, however, is that research is often given greater emphasis in hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions.
One reason this happens at Queen’s is our need to brand ourselves a research-intensive institution. Our university’s strategic plan states, “Recruitment will be focused on attracting individuals with the potential to make a substantial contribution to targeted areas of research excellence.”
Why aren’t we also attracting professors who can make a substantial contribution to teaching? Of course, high-quality teaching doesn’t have to mean mediocrity in research, but we must be careful that our emphasis on research doesn’t devalue our teaching.
We have taken a number of positive steps in the past to
improve our learning environment. The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has existed at Queen’s since 1991 and affects every student in countless ways. The Centre provides optional educational development programs to professors and teaching assistants, where they learn to be better teachers.
More broadly, the CTL works to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning at Queen’s. Because it doesn’t directly affect us, most students will never know it exists, or that it was established in large part by a $750,000 endowment from the AMS. The CTL is exactly what we need to maintain a high-quality learning environment. What better way is there to improve the ability of our teachers, and make quality teaching a strong priority on our campus?
Sadly, as is the case with most other departments at Queen’s, the CTL is chronically underfunded and doesn’t have the resources required to properly carry out its mission.
Considering the Queen’s strategic plan promises “A commitment to engaged teaching and learning and to the highest standards of excellence,” it’s time our administration affirmed its commitment through greater financial support for the CTL and its core of dedicated individuals.
But greater funding for one important resource isn’t enough. We must look for new policies and programs that will improve the quality of teaching at Queen’s.
One new policy I would suggest is instituting mandatory training in teaching for all Queen’s professors who are just beginning their teaching careers.
As I said earlier, we can’t expect our instructors to possess strong teaching skills when we don’t teach them these skills. It’s time to decide if we’re really serious about further cultivating our learning environment.
Alexi White is the AMS Academic Affairs Commissioner.
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