Teaching the Undergraduate: Authority vs. Responsibility

E who here discuss teaching the undergraduate are far different teachers from what we were when we first began our university teaching nine years ago. We write out of a love for teaching, and with the hope that our experiences may benefit other teachers. The first term was agonizing. We prepared and taught new courses; classes were something to endure. We sighed with relief when they went well, and sank into depression if they did not. We were uncertain about what the university expected of us: must we really spend so much time preparing our classes, and also keep our office door open to students, or were we to allot most of our time to research for pub'ication? We were lonely outsiders in a town new to us, our older colleagues seemed inaccessible, and our peers so inundated by their own anxieties that they could do little to give us a feeling of belonging. Changes began during our second quarter. Gradually we became acquainted with our colleagues and ac customed to our new surroundings.. Slowly we managed to pursue our own goals instead of worrying about uni versity expectations of us. We had developed some self confidence and were taking our classes more in stride. As our fears and uncertainties began to fade and we envisioned our job in new ways, we began to experiment with our teaching style. The changes we tried brought new problems, but also a new sense of satisfaction in teaching. As we gained confidence in ourselves and began to examine our teaching, we were able to see our students more as individuals. Most of them had no clear concept of why they were in college. For some, undegraduate education was an ordeal they endured because, lacking definite directions of their own, the expectations of others dictated their enrollment in college. High school had been a sorting house for college and jobs; the uni versity was a sorting house for graduate careers, pro fessions, and business. For many students at that time, college was a means of avoiding induction into military service. Students at this respected state university attended class feeling apathetic or quietly negative about the value Seidman