I believe that the desire to learn is instinctive in humans.  Learning is an intrinsic and natural source of delight and curiosity. More important, it is critical to all people as they strive toward their highest potential.  I also believe that learning is the key to solving many social and world problems and the best foundation for a modern democracy.  The job of a teacher is to help learners discover their own natural questions and preferred learning modes.  Helping any one person to learn, enjoy learning, and apply learning is worth tremendous investment of energy and resources.  Participating in the learning of others through teaching is one of the highest callings any human can follow.

The teaching of teachers is a particularly important enterprise.  In my case, I help to prepare school librarians.  If I do my job well, each successful graduate goes out into the world and works with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of children each year.  A good school librarian directly supports the teaching of all teachers within a school, helping to spread best practices, technological advances, and learning resources to them and each of their students.  The role of a school librarian is to broaden access to information from the confined world of textbooks to the infinite resources beyond, and to help each learner personally access those resources.

In keeping with those general aims, I believe that learning takes place most effectively in the presence of motivation and relevance.  Part of a teacher’s skill must be in finding motivation within students, and connecting content to authentic life experience.  Knowledge is vast and must be collaboratively distributed across many people, and it is far more reasonable for people to learn how to think and learn than to absorb any one set of facts.  Instead of arguing about what must be learned by all students, it is better to equip each with literacy and then the habits of mind that will lead to life long learning.  Inquiry, based on natural curiosity, is perhaps the most effective and comprehensive of pedagogies, tapping into each learner’s natural interest and stimulating genuine personal effort to answer authentic questions.

A critical part of my teaching methodology is cyclical evaluation and strategic improvement.  Students are the best teachers of teachers.  Every midterm, I ask a facilitator to interview each class in my absence to find out which parts of the class work well and which parts could be improved.  I try to address each anonymous suggestion, either within that semester or later.  (I learned this practice from Dr. Margaret Holt.)  Over the years, assignments have improved as a result, along with collaborative learning designs.  I am currently interested in discovering how we can follow alumnae into the professional arena and find out how to improve current instruction based upon their experience.  I am also curious about how to help students construct better webs of connections between the various pieces of our curriculum; this would help all of them relate concepts to professional practice.  There will always be room for improvement in my teaching, and I enjoy the stimulation of solving problems and applying students’ ideas.

My personal teaching strategy involves mastery learning instead of competitive grading.  I have given no tests throughout my entire higher education career, but instead assign projects that students complete to apply their knowledge.  Often, students work in collaborative teams to complete projects, because I also believe that the ability to work collaboratively is an important professional competency.  These projects are always congruent with some authentic task required in the school library profession.  I provide feedback and encourage students to continue working on projects until a professionally acceptable level is reached.  This professional acceptability threshold is where I set my “A” standard, defined as closely as possible in a comprehensive and detailed rubric.

It is impossible to prepare each student with all the skills they will need for professional practice within one degree program.  Another important aspect of teaching is to select the most important skills and concepts for focus, and to provide practice in solving problems.  Most of all, I believe that it is a great privilege to participate in the teaching enterprise.   My job provides not only the opportunity to help adult learners reach their personal professional goals, but also to touch each child they will help throughout their careers.  I am grateful each day for the opportunity to work toward these aims.