August 11th, 2021—I was recently talking to a mentor, a person who knows how to invite to the surface, forms of wisdom I didn’t fully appreciate in myself. That is why they are a mentor to me and others. I’m blessed by their presence in my life. What/who are your mentors? Have you reached out and talked with them lately? Give that conversation a try. You might be surprised by the wisdom that emerges in the conversation. It can help to share a question or experience you are grappling with, but an agenda-less conversation can be equally powerful. The learning I did not anticipate occurred when my mentor shared a teaching story of taking over a required course from a professor who has taught the course for ages. At the end of the narrative, they asked: “What are the secrets of your successful teaching?” They were interested in my thoughts because my mentor struggled with the challenge of both teaching someone else’s course (historical inertia) and offering students an authentic presence (their unique perspective). At the heart of his question was a curiosity around the key elements of teaching with integrity, while addressing the parameters of a required course in the student’s academic program? Is it possible for structure (requirements) and freedom (autonomy) to work in tandem?
Without hesitation, which surprised me, I noted that there are four core elements to successful teaching, 1) forget about the course label and program standing, 2) use poetry and other wisdom stories, 3) frequent use of hospitality, and 4) honor the paradox of openness to self-transformation and the structure of content/assignments. It was the simplicity and genuineness of the question, imbedded in the lived-story of teaching, that invited me to speak wisdom that I had never formulated before. Effective mentoring, it seems, is often a conversation at the interface between story and concrete action.
At their prompting, I shared my thinking on these four elements. But before I expand on each element, I ask you; what are the secret elements of your successful teaching? How do these elements keep you pointed in the right direction without straying too closely to objective-standards or subjective-personal stances? What brings you alive and engaged in the teaching/learning process?
1) Forget about the course label and program standing. It is important to begin planning and teaching strategies with a goal in mind, otherwise it will be hard to correct when learning strays from intention. But focus on the end-state that is too narrow can run the risk of removing the authenticity and integrity of the educator from the learning process. This is not a denial of structure, but rather an invitation to foreground self and background external requirements/framings when beginning the planning process. Starting fresh and unencumbered allows for innovation and the unexpected to emerge in teaching and learning.
2) Use poetry and other wisdom stories. Effective teaching, I believe, is an integration of the known (lesson plans, content, activities) and surprise (awe, unexpectedness, wonder). Poetry and wisdom stories used as conversation starters or for framing of a lesson invite students to enter sideways into the learning moment. The process of knowing is often dominated by the head and rationality. The arts bring the heart into the conversation about outcomes. Just like my mentor’s question, a well-chosen poem or wisdom story can create openings for learning that might otherwise remain unexamined or expressed.
3) Frequent use of hospitality. Hospitality and humanization share a similar intent in my teaching. They create space where the full humanity of the student is invited to show up. I’m more interested, as an educator, in how the courses I teach change students, then I am concerned about the mastery of facts, dates or content. In a hospitable space, the content serves the student as a unique learning organism, instead of the learner serving the abstraction of goals. Hospitality can take the form of greeting students as they enter the classroom, asking individual students how their program is going, or providing food/snacks during an instructional break. Humanizing learning can bring the full person to the task of engaging the course material and ultimately learning content in ways that it is personalized and internalized.
4) Honor the paradox of openness to self-transformation and the structure of content/assignments. Students enroll in courses and programs because they promise learnings and forms of knowing that are important for career advancement or personal understanding. Educators have a responsibility to provide that content and learning outcomes to students. Structure is necessary but not sufficient when learning is considered. Structure must walk in tandem with openness and the possibility of the unexpected. I can tell endlessly the stories of unexpected learning outcomes for students that emerged from a planned question or activity in the classroom. But that is the point, openness allowed the student to take the given content (my planning) and to truly learn what was valuable to their journey, not my imposed learning outcomes. They were empowered to own their learning and therefore the course content was more likely to follow them into their work world, instead of becoming a transaction culminating in a grade.
What is the secret sauce of your teaching success? How do these elements work in conjunction with each other to enhance learning? Who are the mentors in your personal and professional life who can help you refine these understandings?