By: Jeffrey L. Bernstein (Director of the EMU Faculty Development Center and Professor of Political Science)

This blog entry is dedicated to the memory of Robert Kraft, Eastern Michigan University Professor of English and founding director of the Faculty Center for Instructional Excellence (FCIE), forerunner of the Faculty Development Center, who passed away recently. I had the honor of taking a seminar with Bob early in my career and learned a great deal from him back then. I am grateful for Bob’s campus leadership in the area of teaching and learning and am proud to follow in his footsteps. May his memory be for a blessing.

As I write this blog post, I am midway through the second year of my tenure as director of the Faculty Development Center. I have enjoyed this role very much, and find it tremendously gratifying. I have loved the opportunity to work with an impressive group of faculty, lecturers, and staff at the FDC, and to learn so much about their work in the teaching and learning realm. Together, we’ve addressed issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice; challenges of student wellness; and techniques for effective practice around teaching and learning. I daresay, we’ve done some good things. My colleagues’ work has provided us with a wide variety of high-quality workshops and learning communities, not to mention the engaging sessions they have offered at our conferences! I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

As I consider where we go from here, I find myself returning to a text I cited during my interview for this position, which continues to motivate me. In his classic essay on the scholarship of teaching and learning, “What’s the Problem?” Randy Bass argued for the inherent value of problematizing teaching and learning. Problems in our research, Bass suggested, are a force that propels our work, and asking someone about problems in their research is viewed as an invitation to conversation, and as a germinative stage in scholarly work.

Teaching, however, is different. For most of us, the suggestion that we have problems in our teaching would cause us to recoil and retreat; asking someone about a teaching problem they're having seems less an invitation to conversation than an accusation. This concern, I would suggest, hampers the world of faculty development. As people who take pride in our teaching (often justifiably so), the notion that we are not succeeding to the extent we would like disturbs us. Taken to an extreme, it may make faculty reluctant to participate in the programs we offer.

But what if we took the problematization of teaching more seriously, as an opportunity rather than as a threat? What if we viewed our teaching struggles (and, trust me, we all have them) as a conversation-starter? From my own experience, and the experiences shared by my friends and colleagues in the scholarship of teaching and learning community, I have come to see that careful, rigorous interrogation of our own practice is vital to the work we do as instructors, and also is very much part of the ethos for the work our Center does.

Problematizing teaching is challenging. It is uncomfortable. It makes one feel vulnerable to talk about problems or challenges we have in our own classrooms. However, it is only by doing so that we may enhance the work we do, and lead the field of teaching and learning to improve.

Let’s start doing this together. As some of you know, the FDC has begun an initiative we have named Try One Thing. The idea behind Try One Thing is to acknowledge the exemplary job so many of us often do in the classroom, but to also acknowledge that no matter how well we are doing in our teaching, there are always things we can do better. By suggesting you “Try One Thing,” I encourage you to continue doing what you do well, but to problematize what may not be working. Can you find one thing you can do differently, to address a teaching problem? Could you start next week, when classes begin again?

As this semester unfolds, the Faculty Development Center will be doing more in our programming, in our newsletter, on our website and our social media, to offer up ideas that might work for you. We will encourage you, as strongly as we can, to share the One Thing you’ve tried. Your work to problematize your teaching, and offer up your own solutions for others, will help us, collectively, serve our students better.

So, if you are happy with how things are going in your classroom, keep doing what you're doing. But maybe, just maybe, open yourself up to trying one thing and, if you like that one thing, maybe try a second thing. If that works, keep it going. And, please, don’t just try new things, but also share with others the things that you are doing. We don't ask you to change your teaching practice completely (unless you need to…), but rather to think of small tweaks you can make, and share with your colleagues. We also invite you to join us at our programs, in our learning communities, and at the CONNECT Conference in February and at New Beginnings in August, to participate in this sharing of expertise and knowledge. If you’ve joined us before, come back, and bring a friend! You’re always welcome here!

As the new year has barely begun, I hope you’ll forgive me a measure of optimism when I envision a community that problematizes teaching together, where we all can try something new, and share what works with others. Picture how, with all of our efforts in this regard, we'll take one of the strongest aspects of this university - the high quality teaching for which we are well known - and enhance this traditional strength even beyond where we are. Join me in Trying One Thing, and daring to dream, as we begin our new semester together.