IF YOU WANT TO:
Treating students like colleagues.
A faculty member in a professional school says, "I talk to upper division and graduate students the same way I talk to professional colleagues. I don't talk down to them." This attitude is reflected in his assignments where he typically tells students, "I don't want you to write a paper on something I already know. I want you to teach me something I don't know. Write your paper for professional architects."
He feels that this approach motivates students to select their research topics and to write their papers more carefully.
"Papers should have an audience broader than the teacher," he explains. "IF YOU WANT TO motivate students to do their best work, assignments should never have a `make-work' quality. Their chief purpose--for either the students or the teacher--should not be to determine a grade in the course but to provide a meaningful learning experience."
A faculty member in entomology espouses the same general philosophy. "I'm not just teaching," he says. "I'm learning with the students. These graduate students know more about some subjects than I do. I stress a collegial atmosphere."
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Copyright 1983 by the Regents of the University of California