By Melora Sundt, Vice Dean for Academic Programs
Part of USC Rossier’s series of faculty blog posts
I’m going to reveal a secret. It’s about many of us who teach in colleges and universities.
We were never formally taught how to teach.
Many of us have been figuring this out on our own for years. For all the certifying, “traditional” and “alternate” routes, and debate about accountability we engage in for k-12 teachers, we have virtually no coordinated preparation for faculty in higher education.
Amazing, right? (It’s not kind, at this point, to say “No surprise there, it was kind of obvious you guys didn’t know the first thing about teaching…”)
What’s amazing is that some smart people, like most faculty in colleges and universities, can and do figure out effective ways to teach – but they shouldn’t have to “fend for themselves.” Interestingly, I learned the most about teaching when I started teaching online. In my next couple of posts I’ll share some of those lessons.
Dr. Melora Sundt
Melora Sundt is the Vice Dean for Academic Programs at the USC Rossier School of Education. When she’s not teaching, she can usually be found with her ever-growing pod of small dogs.
