Happy Thursday, and welcome to Teaching, a weekly newsletter from The Chronicle of Higher Education. This week’s newsletter was compiled by Beckie. First up: Some thoughts on how improving faculty offices might encourage professor-student collaboration. After that, I’ll share a few thoughts from my new article on inclusive teaching, summarize a new report on near-completers, and pass along a book recommendation from a reader.
Where Students and Professors Meet
Private faculty offices have long signified prestige. But they can also intimidate students, especially if they’re first generation, and discourage them from knocking on the door to seek help. And so some colleges are rethinking the use of these spaces, or creating new ones, to foster learning and student-faculty collaboration.
The move is part of a broader effort to improve student success, as Jeffrey J. Selingo, a former editor, recently wrote for The Chronicle. One idea is putting “huddle spaces” outside of classrooms, so that students who want to talk to a professor before or after class can do so more privately. Another is providing a neutral location, beyond faculty offices, where students and professors can meet.
Given professors’ ability to work from just about anywhere, some colleges are questioning whether private offices still make sense. But even private offices can be designed to expand student-faculty interaction. Jeff’s article describes how Richland College designed its Science Corner with a tutoring and advising center ringed by professors’ offices. The college says that visits to faculty offices jumped 57 percent the year after the space was finished. That reminded us of the math department’s space at Hamilton College, which we wrote about in this newsletter in the fall. When its building was redesigned, the department’s faculty offices were placed around a study area, which they open into. In addition to making faculty members more approachable, the arrangement can change students’ perceptions of math, Hamilton professors told us, showing them that the discipline is collaborative and attracts diverse students.
Even if their building wasn’t designed with collaboration in mind, individual professors can take steps to encourage it. Years ago, Jim Friedman, a clinical professor of creativity and entrepreneurship at Miami University’s business school, replaced the desk in his office with a round table. It comfortably seats five, Friedman said, but sometimes seven or eight students can be found working there — even when he’s away from the office.
The setup fits Friedman’s teaching philosophy. Too often, he says, professors tell students the answer, which does little to prepare them for a world in which “you never get a job and the boss tells you exactly what to do and how to do it.” His students know, he says, that if they ask him what they should do, their classmates have been trained to respond by asking them what options they’ve thought about so far.
Friedman offers office hours in 10-minute blocks. Signing up for a time means a student will get a turn to ask a question, he says, but typically other students will be in the room, too, and may weigh in if appropriate. If a student needs to speak with Friedman privately, he or she can indicate that, and the professor will either ask the other students to leave for a bit or take the student on a walk.
What are some things you do to encourage students to visit your office? And how do you try to put them at ease and foster conversation once they get there? Share your strategies with me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, and they may appear in a future newsletter.
