How professors develop as teachers

ABSTRACT

Like the learning abilities of their students, the teaching abilities of college professors seem to develop in stages. In this paper I want to offer an account of how this development sometimes, and perhaps often, proceeds. Typically, when they begin their teaching careers, professors focus their concern primarily on their own role in the classroom (stage 1: self). When they have mastered this role, at least to their own satisfaction, the focus of their concern shifts, first to their understanding of the subject matter they teach (stage 2: subject) and then to their students' ability to absorb what they have been taught (stage 3: student). With this last shift comes a more general shift of focus from teaching to learning, that begins, in stage 3, with a focus on helping their students become more absorbent (stage 3: student as receptive). Concern then typically shifts to helping students learn to use what they have been taught (stage 4: student as active) and then to helping them to learn on their own (stage 5: student as independent). My account of this development is based on the informal observation of a few cases and it suggests a framework for thinking about the development of professors as teachers. With further work, it might lead to theories that will describe what does happen and predict what will happen.