I read the editorial by Joanne Roepke in today’s Daily (1/29/97) with great interest. It raises some excellent points that deserve thought by the university community. In that spirit, please consider publishing the following commentary as an editorial response, rather than as a letter to the editor:

The university has a secret, but it doesn’t keep the secret very well, so I guess it’s OK to repeat it out loud: “Professors aren’t trained to teach.” That may surprise you, as it surprised the Daily’s editorial writer Joanne Roepke the other day. The fact is, though, that Iowa State is not alone here. Visit any college campus in the U.S. We all share the same secret.

That’s the bad news, if you care to view it that way. You’re being taught by talented amateurs. The good news comes in several parts, and you ought to hear it, too.

First, the job market for professors is highly competitive. People who choose this line of work, and succeed at it, tend not only to be experts in their fields, but they also tend to be people who genuinely like to be with students. They’re predisposed to try to teach well, even if nobody ever required them to take a course in how to teach. In my experience, the most common source of anxiety among new, young faculty members is fear of failure in the classroom. They really care about being good teachers. Also, in my experience, most of them get better with practice.

Second, faculty members, like students, complain about imbalances in the reward system. Teaching demands a lot of hard work, and a lot of teachers feel as if the work isn’t given appropriate recognition. You should hear the arguments about this in faculty meetings. The bottom line, though, is that faculty members are not only expected to teach, they are also expected to create new scholarships, work with the Iowa public, advise students and share in the day-to-day operation of their departments, colleges and the university. Because this professor business is competitive, none of us can afford to ignore any of these expectations, regardless of how evenly we are rewarded for meeting them.

Third, the university does care about the quality of teaching. The Center for Teaching Excellence, an arm of the Provost’s Office, works very hard with faculty groups and with individual teachers to enhance the educational environment, particularly at the undergraduate level. In addition to offering topical seminars and workshops at Iowa State, we send professors to conferences on other campuses where they can learn about teaching.

We offer grants to support innovative teaching ideas. We have a popular library of books and journals. Most importantly, we carry on private, one-on-one consultations with teachers who want to polish their methods. We visit their classes, talk with their students, and suggest detailed strategies for change.

I won’t fool you by claiming that the system is flawless, or that every professor puts as much effort into teaching as he or she ought to. That’s just not so. However, I will claim that the good news far outweighs the bad news. Iowa State has a lot of truly superb teachers, and it’s fair to say that the majority of professors enjoy teaching and want to do a good job of it. We do as much as we can to help them.

As a final thought, consider that education is not a performance art form, it’s a team sport. An effective teacher doesn’t work alone. Learning requires active participation from students as well. If you think it’s hard to stay awake in a dull lecture, imagine what it’s like to face an unresponsive class. It’s refreshing to find students like Joanne Roepke who care enough to agitate for teaching excellence. Do you care enough to join with your teachers in a quest for learning excellence?

Steve M. Richardson

Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, ISU