For this last and final entry in this teaching blog, I wish to discuss Eble’s final chapter, as well as relate these readings to the actuality faced within the classroom. I will cover, in my final post, the rewards of teaching, the ways in which one may teach, and the ways in which we may affect teaching ourselves. It is interesting to note that although this book was written by a man who died before I was born, it is still so completely relevant. Education has changed so much in the last 50 years – yet it has remained the same in many ways.

Teaching can be as rewarding of a profession as one makes it. Eble calls it a service industry, as we – as teachers – are serving our students the meat of knowledge and understanding. As Eble points out, “from this perspective, teaching is most satisfying in what happens day by day and in some glimmerings that suggest the impact of teaching upon learning over the long span.” Teaching has an immediate satisfaction of the daily learning process, and it has a satisfaction-over-time as one watches their students learn, grow, and become working professionals of their own.

The ways in which one may teach are not always ‘dictated,’ but they may hinge on one’s college or institution. In this sense, teaching is affected by all committee debates, department actions, and, lastly, the university’s regulations. When constructing one’s method of teaching, Eble states that “in those complex and changing and important matters like the substance, integrity, and emphasis of the curriculum, I see no better way than group deliberation and action.” Group work continues beyond simply being a student: it exists the same in the real world. Working with one’s faculty may lead to a better understanding and grasp of the education process as a whole. Go team!

Continuing with the same subject, this “also reflects a general indisposition, marked among the younger faculty, to work with others or to come to agreement about principles, values, and practices in scholarship as well as teaching.” As new professors, we must seek out the knowledge acquired by our (now) peers that has been learned and handed down for years. He continues and states that “mentoring, discussed previously as a highly regarded but seldom achieved aspect of teaching, might be expected to arise among college faculties where the younger and inexperienced could well learn much about teaching from their faculty mentors,” and as we may have noticed, “being a teacher involves all these things: cooperating in many ways and at many points of affecting learning; affiliating with the profession outside one’s institutional and subject matter domains; and learning from one another.”

As we once discussed the rewarding system in place to encourage students, one exists for educators as well. Whether it be through evaluations taken by the students, or some other form of feedback, the best way to help improve one’s teaching is to first improve the reward system itself – we must acknowledge our own successes. At the same time, student evaluation is the most common form of scrutiny; faculty development becomes that major source of support. Both can be taken as a positive or a negative. It is important to note, here, that the faculty’s development is in fact linked with that evaluation of teaching. Eble points out that “if weaknesses and strengths of teaching can be identified, then it is the responsibility of faculty development to remedy one and reward the other.” Once again, we see that concept of reward.

Eble tells us that we must pursue our passions and our fields of study. Just because one is in the teaching industry, they aren’t kicked out of their own fields. We must, as educators, remain active in our areas of professionalism. As is written, Eble encourages the new and young professors to “pursue their bent, not necessarily with both eyes on the main change, but mindful of ways in which one can grow in personal accomplishments and satisfactions and serve others at the same time.” Teachers grow in the same capacity as their students grow; at least: they can.

It hasn’t always been so easy, however. Education hasn’t always been so fluid and open as it may appear today (especially considering the time at which this book was written). As Eble reminds us, “prior to the revolt of the sixties, the professoriate was adamantly opposed to most proposals for seriously evaluating teaching; since that time, defensiveness has characterized a gradual acceptance.” We must – without sounding too reserved – know our place in the education environment.

As the conditions of teaching change, they must then affect and become a part of the new faculty member’s responsibility. Part of this responsibility is to assert one’s efforts towards the common good. The way we may think we should go about teaching may not be the same as the university’s practices. We must learn to adjust our styles to fill the requirements of the college, but, at the same time, we must retain what makes us who we are: we were (hopefully) hired for a reason – don’t forget it.

At the same time in which we adjust to fit our university, we can adjust the university to fit the professors. As Eble writes in this final chapter, “we give up some things to some degree for some period of time – teaching and formal scholarship – to engage in the necessary work of, say, setting new directions for a department or college, to disappear into an administrative position, or to give top priority to committee work.” We may, ourselves, affect our own teaching environment, ensuring that the college keeps up not only with the time, but with the demands of the individual students and the student body.

We need to be open to the students around us, as well as building the credibility we claim to have with our faculty title. As Eble states, “occasionally, a professor will lose credibility with students by falsely purporting to accept their style, manner, or values.” We must accept the differences within our student body and refrain from throwing something out just because we may disagree with it. As I pointed out in previous chapters, we must encourage our students and their own personal styles and techniques. This isn’t to say that every student’s way is the right way; it isn’t the case. What it means, however, is that our way – the way in which we choose to relay our information or the way in which we expect assignments – is not the only way.

And so comes the end of this blog. Throughout these courses I’ve served as a TA, I believe that these readings are so incredibly relevant, I don’t know how one could instruct without its familiarity. Teaching is a fun, rewarding occupation that comes with its ups and downs. If I’ve learned nothing else from this course, it is that I, Connor Scott, want to be a professor.