Educating educators
by Benjamin on May 11, 2009
A topic close to my heart is the quality of teaching in universities, or sometimes the lack of it. A good lecturer inspires us while a bad lecturer can truly kill the wish to study any subject. In this sense it baffles me that we do not teach ‘presentations & teaching’ to graduate students, or at least to Ph.D. Students. Even the undergraduates could benefit from such a subject.
Creating interesting and good presentations is a skill which people retain for life. The ability to pitch a project to investors, present a technical subject or convince 100 undergrads of a theoretical idea all fall under the same heading of ‘presentation’. So why don’t we focus on doing more about it in higher education?
I suspect part of the answer lies with the fact that the academics who actually put on a really good lecture, don’t know how to teach that skill to others. When I say “Really Good” I am talking about the stuff that Al Gore does in his environmental talks, I am talking about Steve Jobs MacWorld Keynote Speeches, I am thinking of documentaries like Planet Earth and adverts which resonate and stay with us, like this 2006 Argentinian election ad. They are all memorable, interesting and informs the audience, much like the “Lost Generation” clip below, inspired by the Election Advert:
As lecturers and Teachers we should be inspirational. So I think that we in academia can learn a lot from people who give good presentations, and we can use it to our benefit in lectures. I am not suggesting that technical subjects should become cartoonish or silly entertainment, what I am suggesting is that lectures can be delivered (regardless of the topic) in interesting ways which motivates students, and not as repetitions of the text-book, (which students will read without you anyway). Not every talk needs slides, and not every talk needs problem solving, the issue is to know when each tool is appropriate as an interested audience is always key.
Some of my best lectures were on Gerrard Debreu’s Theory of Value (free here), a book I would recommend to no-one, but which was taught in a manner that made the topic and its author come alive. For those in the know, Debreu’s book is anything but fun, so if there is hope for that, imagine what can be done with exciting subjects like the development of whole nations or the political intrigue of growth policies?
So what can be done? Can we teach people to do good presentations, not meaning 1 slide, 7 bullet points, 7 words, but something you could get on a stage with (a lecture hall is a stage) and interest your students – or friends? – with for two hours. (I invited a friend of mine to a lecture I gave after having harped on about teaching at home, and must admit I was a lot more nervous about her [educated] reaction to my presentation than my undergrads’ – I recommend it, it’s a good experiment in self-improvement / flagelation). I think teaching ‘presentation skills’ can be done, but I do not think that we are properly equipped to address the issue as academics yet. Simply because we haven’t been taught anything about doing good presentations or good lectures ourselves. For us it was assumed that we would catch on to good practice (or more likely, avoid the worst practice) as we sat through conferences, lectures and seminar talks. Osmosis, however, can only do so much, and there’s a lot to do learn before we can teach the next generation how to take to the stage in the world around us. Personally I am reading much more, and have been contributing to the British Economics Networks series on their ‘New Lecturers Workshop’ where I’ve just finished a quick 2k article on undergrad teaching [yup, shameless self-promotion, you spotted it], with some videos and references to things which I feel have impacted my own teaching in the last six months, It’s a long road ahead, but hey, it’s been a lot of fun so far.
Tags: academia, Economics Network, education, Graduate School, Lecture, Talk, Teaching, Undergraduate
