C545 Introduction to Pedagogy in Communication & Culture

[note: this description is for general information only; students enrolled in the class should download a complete syllabus from Oncourse]

Description:  This course is intended to help graduate students in communication become more confident and effective educators.  As I understand it, this requires some familiarity with current critiques of and prescriptions for higher education as well as with strategies and techniques of effective teaching.  Teaching tips, in other words, should not be understood as context-free formulae but rather as cultural practices deeply embedded within long standing but constantly shifting traditions, narratives, controversies, and expectations.  Techniques have consequences, often regardless of the specific subject matter, and an effective critical pedagogy entails a self-reflective understanding of those consequences.

Because the Department of Communication and Culture is motivated, in part, by an effort to recover a central place within a Liberal Arts curriculum for the study of human communication, much of our discussion will center on the place and purpose of the Liberal Arts in general -- and communication in particular -- in preparing citizens to become active participants in contemporary public culture.

A consistent theme that will animate our conversations will be the relationship between our scholarship and our teaching.  While few of us are drawn to graduate school specifically by a desire to become teachers, the truth is that our teaching activities consume a tremendous portion of our time and energy and form no small part of our public identities.  In this course, we will continually think about our scholarly interests in relation to our teaching duties, and vice versa, exploring the ways that they might not only be most fully integrated but also the ways that they might nourish each other.

One learns to teach by teaching.  Theories, strategies, models, and tips are at best ancillary to the continuous project of improving one's pedagogy.  Because all students enrolled in the class are concurrently teaching -- many for the first time -- our own classroom experiences will provide both examples that illustrate the ideas introduced in the readings and counter-examples that demonstrate the limitations of those same ideas.  In a course like this, then, stressing the importance of participation is redundant; simply, the course relies upon your ability to put the readings and your own teaching experiences into lively and critical conversation.

Course Materials:  Most required readings are available through E-Reserves <www.ereserves.indiana.edu>.  I will give you the password on the first day of class.  There are also three required books.  I have not ordered them through the IU Bookstore or other local outlet, because I assume that you will be able to locate these books more quickly and efficiently on your own, either on-line or through local new or used bookstores.  Used copies are perfectly acceptable, as are other editions.

Richard H. Hersh and John Merrow, editors.  Declining By Degrees: Higher Education at Risk.  New York: Palgrave, 2005.

Paulo Freire.  Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  New York: Continuum, 2004.

bell hooks.  Teaching to Transgress.  New York: Routledge, 1994.

Assignments:

Teaching Statement.  A "statement of teaching philosophy" is becoming a standard expectation for job applications in higher education across all types of institutions.  Such statements also, typically, are required for tenure and promotion.  You will compose such a statement, drawing on course readings and from your own teaching experiences.  It should be understood as an initial draft of a document that you will update and revise throughout your career, and should be approximately 5 pages in length.  (25% of grade)

Journal.  I ask that you keep a teaching journal, in which you reflect critically upon your experiences as a teacher.  I will collect these journals three times throughout the semester.  These should be sent to me as an e-mail attachment as a word processing document; they will be returned to you as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word format.  The journals will not be graded, but for full credit I would expect to see at least one substantive entry per week.  (25% of grade)

Presentations.  Over the course of the semester you will be required to make four short presentations.  The specific expectations for each of these short presentations will be made clear during class discussion.  (25% of grade, collectively)

Book Review.  You will select one recently-published book on pedagogy and write a 1000-word review.  For example, this may be a book dealing with teaching strategies or lesson planning, it may define and critique the state of liberal education, it may consist of an extended attack or defense on higher education; there are other possibilities as well.  The goal is to draft a critical review that may revised and submitted for publication.  (25% of grade).

Incompletes

A grade of incomplete can be assigned only after the student and instructor have mutually agreed that this is the best course of action under the circumstances.

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