September 2006  |  Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 3

The Best Way to Learn is to Teach
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A friend and I co-taught a course called "Schooled by the Media: Representation and Education in 20th Century Fiction." As an English major who is passionate about education, I designed this class to be a marriage of my two favorite things.

We teamed up with an amazing professor, who served as the advisor for our students, and the three of us created a low-key, discussion-based classroom. Each week, students would complete an assigned reading or viewing (our assignments ranged from Dahl's Matilda to My So-Called Life to Shaw's Pygmalion), and we would discuss the educational implications and literary qualities of the work in class. The material was so much fun to teach, mostly because I was so interested in it myself.

Going into it, I thought teaching this class would be a great way to improve my classroom skills (I plan to go into education) and share what I'd learned in my three years at Tufts. Being an Explorations instructor turned out to be more learning than teaching. Creating the syllabus alone forced me to think about how to best approach our topic. Planning and executing each class discussion really helped me to solidify my ideas about education and about literature.

Our students were by far the best part of the class. As a senior teaching freshmen, I first envisioned myself as a sort of benevolent older sister figure, generously bestowing my wisdom upon the eager young'uns. My first impression turned out to be very wrong: I was less of a leader and more of a participant. My students often swiftly shot down the brilliant ideas I had planned to impart to them. Though freshmen, they were sharp, insightful and hilarious. We laughed all the time.

All of these interactions taught me how to be a better leader, but also showed me when it's best to be a follower. As upperclassmen, you have a chance, not only to help guide a rowdy bunch of bewildered freshmen through their first college semester, but to help yourself grow as an educator, a leader, and a human being. (This article was reprinted from the Tufts Daily issue of April 6, 2006).

... from the Desk of Robyn Gittleman
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Additionally, we have been supporting some special programs that are not able to offer academic credit themselves. We are happy to offer a home to the pedagogical seminar offered by the Writing Fellows Program for their undergraduate fellows, to have the International Global Institute’s EPIIC program offer their seminar through the Experimental College, and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service offer many of their classes through us as well. In addition, the Communications and Media Studies program continues to offer their courses through the ExCollege.

This ability to be flexible and supportive to other Tufts programs helps the University offer courses that are at the cutting edge in new academic areas. Many of you may remember that the first computer courses for liberal arts students were offered through the ExCollege by two Tufts faculty members and several computer language classes were taught by undergraduates to their peers through the ExCollege. In this way, we continue to use our unique ability to offer important new subjects to our undergraduates, ones which may eventually become accepted parts of the departmental structure.

Educating the Ne(x)t Generation Conference

This past spring, a committee of six faculty from different departments and programs, along with the director of the new teaching center, met to brainstorm different ideas and issues that would form the backbone for a conference on innovation in higher education. The conference which will be sponsored by the Experimental College is supported by a gift from a recent graduate.

February 2nd is the date set for our conference, where we will explore innovative educational practices in the new millennium. Our working title is "Educating the Ne(x)t Generation" and our primary target audience is faculty, administrators and graduate students interested in higher education. However, if any of you are interested in attending, please consider this an official invitation. Just let us know of your interest, and we will put you on our mailing list. We expect the discussion to focus on such questions as how to best educate the students about to enter or having just entered college, are they different from past generations, what should faculty be thinking about when they plan classes, and how does this generation best learn.

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