Reframing Teaching Problems into Teaching Opportunities

What is the difference between research problems and teaching problems? Based on my experience, research problems are often viewed as the “good” kind of problems to have; discussed with vigor and excitement by colleagues and students alike. On the other hand, teaching problems are viewed as the “bad” kind of problems to have; ones to be kept to yourself to ponder quietly. Why is this? I am not 100% sure, but it seems that when teachers have problems, they are quick to think the problems are their fault and, perhaps, that they are the only ones who have ever experienced such problems. But nothing could be further from the truth! Problems in the classroom are part of every teacher's life and learning to view and work through these problems is what makes teaching exciting, challenging, and very rewarding.

One challenge with instructional problems is the way we tend to perceive them – as annoyances, progress stoppers, somebody's fault, troublesome, time consuming, and so on. What if, instead, we reframed our teaching problems into teaching opportunities? Opportunities, unlike problems, are viewed quite positively, like doorways to a better future. This reframing is more than just putting on rose colored glasses and hoping our teaching problems go away. Rather, reframing1 is taking our focus off the problem and placing it on the possible solutions that lie just on the other side of the doorway. Reframing teaching problems into opportunities also makes it easier for us to talk to others about what is happening in our classroom. And it is this type of dialogue that fosters the development of and membership in a community of practice2 around teaching, similar to the research communities many academic faculty members are a part of based on their specific research interests. I am exceedingly grateful for my community of practice around teaching. There are numerous individuals that have informed and enriched what I do as a teacher (my pedagogy) over the years, sharing best practices and offering possible solutions for my small and large teaching opportunities!

In addition to a community of practice around teaching, there are additional resources that can help us with our “teaching opportunities.” The education and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) literature is replete with research-based theories and practices that can provide us with insight and guidance. Also, many campuses have Teaching Centers with professionals who are well trained to help instructors with their teaching and learning needs and concerns.

There is one more resource that can help us, one that we might not readily think of – our students! By the time they start college, students have had 12 years of schooling under their belts. They have had good, not so good, and hopefully, at least a couple of masterful teachers. I have always been a big fan of listening to students as a source of input (Schmidt, 2004), but recently, I have added “studentsourcing” to the list of ways to obtain student input. Studentsourcing is the same idea as crowdsourcing (putting many minds to work on a single problem), but with students as the crowd. In Fall 2018, we3 employed studentsourcing in the introductory food science and human nutrition course I teach to enhance students’ understanding, ownership, and timeliness of the exam wrapper assignment.

The exam wrapper is a metacognitive tool that we have used in FSHN 101 since Fall 2015 to assist students in thinking about their exam preparation and performance with a focus on adjusting their future learning practices (Gezer-Templeton, Mayhew, Korte, & Schmidt, 2017, Lovett, 2013). Traditionally, the students complete an exam wrapper assignment designed by the teaching team after each of four hourly exams. However, in Fall 2018, at the end of the first exam wrapper, which consisted of three foundational questions (1. How did you prepare for the exam?, 2. What kinds of errors did you make on the exam?, and 3. What could you do differently next time?), we asked the students to provide us with their suggestions for improving the usefulness of the exam wrapper assignment. We encouraged the students to share with us any and all of their suggestions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they seemed. The students were also informed that their suggestions were going to be used to improve/redesign the exam wrapper assignment for exam 2. This iterative improvement process was also carried out with exam wrapper 3; however, before turning in the assignment, the students were given time during class to develop, discuss, and refine their suggestions for improvement with a small group of their classmates. For exam wrapper 4, students were asked to think out of the box and create an assignment or activity that would accomplish the same purpose as the exam wrapper (to improve students’ study habits and exam performance), but to start from scratch. Overall, we were very impressed with the ideas the students generated to enhance the effectiveness of the exam wrapper assignment. Based on this experience, studentsourcing was a big hit with my students and with me!

I hope that by reframing your teaching problems into opportunities, by joining a community of practice around teaching, and by employing resources, including your students, you are encouraged to talk about and tackle the “teaching opportunities” you see in your classroom. All you need to do is walk through the doorway of opportunity where a variety of solutions await!