Mentorship: the

New Master-
Apprentice Model in
Higher Education

Bruce M. Mackh, PhD ©2019

Contents
Why? ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Who?....................................................................................................................................................... 4
What? ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Pedagogical Histories ......................................................................................................................... 10
Expanding Our Instructional Repertoire: Who We Were is Who We Need to Be................................. 11
Master-Apprentice: Intentional Mentoring ....................................................................................... 13
Workplace Connections ................................................................................................................. 15
Mentoring...................................................................................................................................... 16
Types and Benefits ......................................................................................................................... 17
Master-Apprentice – Back to the Future ........................................................................................ 19
How? ..................................................................................................................................................... 19
Student-focused ................................................................................................................................ 20
Learning-Centric ................................................................................................................................ 21
Deliberately Planned.......................................................................................................................... 21
Deeply Thoughtful ............................................................................................................................. 22
Creativity, Action Research, and Effective Teaching ........................................................................... 22
Where? ................................................................................................................................................. 24
Establishing a Culture of Care ............................................................................................................ 25
When?................................................................................................................................................... 29
Recap ................................................................................................................................................ 29
It Begins With You ............................................................................................................................. 29
The Last Word ....................................................................................................................................... 31
References ............................................................................................................................................ 33

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Mentorship: the New Master-Apprentice
Model in Higher Education
Our purpose as faculty and administrators should be to provide our students with an excellent
education that not only imparts the knowledge, skills, and competencies of a given academic discipline
but develops graduates’ capacity to lead successful and sustainable lives as well.

All of us who work as faculty members know what we do: we teach our discipline to our students. At
the same time, we also serve our colleges, universities, professional communities, and we maintain a
scholarly, creative practice. These are the conditions of employment for full-time tenure-track faculty at
most institutions of higher learning.

We also know how we do this: we build a syllabus that communicates our classroom policies, provides a
schedule for instruction, and informs students about the assignments and assessments in the course.
Then we teach the course much as we were taught, ourselves.

Questions of when frequently arise in our teaching, too. When is the assignment due? When is my
committee meeting? When is ____ [name of event]? These time-based questions impact our daily lives,
as do matters related to location or place related to questions of where.

How often do we consider, though, the reasons why we do these things and for whom we’re doing
them? The purpose of this paper is to lead faculty through a reflective journey in which we’ll explore
questions of why, who, what, how, where, and when relating to our practice as educators.

Why?
The hectic pace of our daily lives leaves us little time to contemplate the deep questions that should
drive our professional choices. Let’s start by examining the “why?” of teaching in higher education.
Every course we teach has a purpose. For instance, a history course might allow students to meet a
general education requirement. The instructor should also understand why history is required, why the
particular course meets that requirement, and why students should choose that course from among all
of the other available options. Not only should the course’s instructor know those answers – they
should be able to communicate the information to students on the first day of class.

Now let’s dig deeper: why have we each chosen to become members of the faculty? Why do we
continue to come to work and teach our students? Each of us probably has a slightly different answer to
this question. Nevertheless, many of us might say that we entered teaching because we love our area of
scholarship or creative practice and enjoy teaching it.

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The more difficult question is this: why do our students need to know what we’re teaching them?
Here’s where we sometimes bog down. We believe we know what our students should know and how
to teach it to them. Nevertheless, we don’t often question why they need to know it. We’re even less
likely to share how they can apply their learning outside the confines of our classrooms. When we
understand why our course content is valuable or important, it shapes our attitudes and actions, which
directly impacts our students.

Here’s the formula we should think about:

• I teach _____ [what] so that my students can _____ [why].
• Or we might say, I teach _____ [what] because it will help my students to _____ [why].
In other words, we should able to pair the content of our courses with one of two ideas. Every course
should support students’ learning of subsequent material, or it should be essential to their future
careers.

Two examples:

I teach Introduction to Philosophy so that my students will learn the conceptual foundations of
culture and society because these are fundamental to being a well-educated citizen capable of
contributing to the community.

I teach College Algebra so that my students will grow in their skills and competencies as
mathematicians and prepare for advanced study in the STEM fields.

There’s no question that our course content is worthwhile all on its own, but that’s not why students
enroll in our colleges and universities. They invest their time and money because they want to pursue a
career in a given field of professional engagement. We should also acknowledge and embrace the
instrumental value of what we teach by building explicit connections between the classroom and the
workplace. Taking this step allows students to internalize their learning, perceive its long-term
significance, and apply it in professional settings.

Our knowledge and expertise are essential to this goal. Students choose to come to our classrooms
because they rely on our status as disciplinary experts and our ability to transmit the information and
experiences we possess. Each of use is a primary conduit through which our students connect to
professional practice. Each instructor makes a unique contribution to their students’ knowledge. These
varied perspectives combine to help students to construct a more comprehensive worldview. The work
we do in our classrooms, studios, and online is important! Instructors powerfully shape their students’
comprehension of course content, which not only becomes embedded in the learning they do in the
present but impacts their futures as professionals. In short: individual instructors really matter.

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 Who?
We teach so that our students can develop their skills, competencies, and knowledge towards achieving
successful careers. But what can we learn about our students?

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac presents data based on the 2017 Freshman Survey
conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles.1 Among the survey’s key findings:

1. 67% of students identify as White, 19% as Latino, 13% as Asian, and 13% as African-American.

NATIONAL DEMOGRAPHICS 67 19 13 13

White Latino Asian Black

2. 20% of students are the first in their family to attend college; 59% have at least one parent with
a college degree.

FIRST GENERATION 20 59

First to Attend College One or More Parents with College Degree

3. 42% of students identify as politically moderate; 33% as liberal; 20% as conservative; 4% as far
left; 2% as far right.

POLITICAL VIEWS 42 33 20 4 2

Moderate Liberal Conservative Far Left Far Right

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 4. 80% of students consider job prospects and learning about things that interest them as very
important reasons to attend college. 78% consider training for a specific career as very
important. 73% cite making more money as a very important reason to attend college.

80
73
REASONS TO ATTEND COLLEGE
78
80

68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82

Learning Things of Interest Making More Money Training for a Specific Career Job Prospects

5. 65% of students said their college’s academic reputation was an important consideration when
choosing where to attend college; 55% cited alumni career success; 47% cited the cost of
attendance, and another 47% identified financial assistance as important.

47
47
REASONS FOR COLLEGE CHOICE
55
65

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Financial Assistance Cost of Attendance Alumni Career Success Academic Reputation

Findings regarding students’ reasons to attend college and their choice of institution reinforce the fact
that students come to us because they want to prepare for a well-paying career. The Strada-Gallup poll
provides additional support. “Fully 72% of those with postgraduate educational experiences say getting
a good job is their top motivation, as do 60% of those on a technical or vocational educational pathway.
Four-year degree holders (55%), two-year degree holders (53%) and non-completing students (50%) are
also most likely to identify work and career motivations.”2

When we link this information to the insights we gained as we considered the “Why?” of our teaching, it
clarifies our vision of the role we play in our students’ lives. The education we provide is not complete
in itself – it’s also a means to an end: to establish a successful career.

Non-Traditional

Today’s students frequently demonstrate characteristics contrary to those we’d see in traditional
undergraduates. We presume our freshmen are 18 years old, having just graduated from high school.

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We also assume they’re unmarried, childless, still supported by their parents, and are pursuing college
full-time, with perhaps just a part-time job on the side. Contrary to these expectations, the National
Center for Education Statistics reports:3
• 1 in 5 undergraduates is at least 30 years old.
• Half are financially independent.
• 1 in 4 is caring for a child.
• 47% go to school part-time, at least at some point.
• 25% take a year off before starting school.
• 2 of 5 attend a 2-year community college.
• 44% have parents who never completed a bachelor’s degree.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

Even for those “traditional” 18-22-year-old undergraduates, their memories and experiences are
decidedly different from previous generations of students whom we may have taught during our
careers.
• They were born after the year 2000, so they have no memory of the tragedy of 9/11 and little
understanding of the geopolitical and socio-economic forces that have shaped the world since
that event.
• They are “digital natives.”
o The iPod debuted in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007 when today’s traditional freshmen
would have been first-graders.
o Most cannot remember when their families did not have a computer at home. They
cannot imagine using multiple devices to perform the functions of the powerful
computer in their pockets euphemistically referred to as a cell phone.
o They never experienced a world without cable television, digital recording technologies,
or omnipresent electronic gaming.
o Technologies dominate their lives, especially those delivered through cell phones.
Students regularly sit among a group of friends with each person absorbed in their
devices, oblivious to one another.
• Our traditional-age students interact with technology differently than older generations.
o Faculty tend to communicate with students and colleagues via email. Students,
however, communicate with one another primarily through text messaging or social
media apps like Instagram or SnapChat.
o Checking email is a low priority for them, which can become quite problematic when
students fail to receive essential communications from their instructors or the
university.
• Diane Dean and Arthur Levine report (2013):
Unfortunately, being a digital native does not mean having innate digital literacy
or a sense of digital decorum. Students too rarely know how to discern the
validity and value of information found online, or how to use that information

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 appropriately; they also have few constraints on using personal technologies in
public settings. Today's students need help acquiring these abilities and
behaviors. Deans of students at half of the campuses in our study for Generation
on a Tightrope, reported that faculty comfort with today's students and their
behavior has decreased, while faculty complaints about students and their
behavior have increased.4
• Poor student behaviors include using technology at inappropriate times and increasingly
troublesome issues with plagiarism or academic dishonesty.
• Non-traditional students, especially those in their 30s or older, are termed “digital
immigrants.” “They were born before the digital revolution, grew up without ubiquitous
technology, and have adapted to it as adults.” Dean and Levine observe:
Their priorities differ from those of their digital native counterparts. They tend to
view higher education institutions as they would any other service providers and
purveyors; akin to banks, telecommunications companies and retail businesses.
Many nontraditional students have become accustomed to online service from
their banks, utility companies, shoe stores, and children's schools. They need and
expect the same convenience, quality, quick service, and low prices from their
colleges or universities.5

Faculty members and administrators may bristle at the notion of being regarded as “service providers”
on par with banks or utility companies. We see ourselves and the education we provide as superior to
such mundane concerns, yet this is precisely the way our students view us. We also become frustrated
by our students' behavior with technologies. They use their devices in our classrooms when they ought
to be paying attention to our instruction. They don't read or respond to email. They also don't
understand why copying and pasting text from the internet into a research paper is a problem, among
other things.

We must teach our students that they are not purchasing a degree in the same manner as they would a
cell phone plan. Higher education is a social contract in which students enter into a developmental
learning experience that, if and when successful, allows them to earn a given credential. They are not
customers, nor is the university a service provider, per se. Instead, they must engage with the
opportunities provided under the social contract of higher education. A parallel exists in purchasing a
gym membership. This entitles the member to use the facility’s equipment and perhaps receive
individual fitness coaching. However, the member must still put forth considerable personal effort if
they wish to become physically fit. Just so, students must make an effort to earn their degrees. The
university provides the facility, faculty, and other components comprising the educational experience,
but the student must still do the work necessary for success.

We should also examine our frustrations with a grain of salt because every generation of faculty in
higher education has complained about their students. Here’s a gem from the thirteenth century:

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 They attend classes but make no effort to learn anything…. The expense money which
they have from their parents…they spend in taverns, conviviality, games and other
superfluities, and so they return home empty, without knowledge, conscience, or
money.6

Or this from the 1920s:

We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never
before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly
thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.7

These quotes help put the following into perspective:

The tragic truth is that America’s millennials are a bunch of phone-addicted, selfie-obsessed,
hashtagging, snapchatting, kale-munching, twerking, lazy, whining, ill-informed, politically
correct, cossetted narcissists who find absolutely everything mortally offensive and believe there
are 165 ways to sexually identify.8

Be that as it may, we faculty don’t choose our students. Whether or not they measure up to our
expectations, demonstrate all manner of difference from students in previous generations, split their
attention to their studies with full-time jobs or families, or treat us no better than the customer service
agent at their cell phone provider, our duty remains the same. We must teach them to the best of our
abilities.

What?
What do we do in our college programs? Most of us would have a ready answer to this question, and
we’d be able to describe both our own actions and the program in which we teach. However, we’re not
always good judges of the effectiveness of what we do. Significant differences exist between the quality
of the educational experience we presume we offer to students and the demonstrated results of our
efforts. “A classic study found that more than 90 percent of professors rate themselves as above-
average teachers. And two-thirds believe they’re in the top quarter.”9 Clearly, these figures don’t add
up.

Likewise, Gallup reports that 96% of college and university chief academic offers think their institutions
are very or somewhat effective in preparing students for the workforce. Only 11% of business leaders
strongly agree with this view, and only 16% of the general public feel that earning a college degree
prepares students for a well-paying job.10 The Strada-Gallup poll (2017) reveals that just 34% of
students are confident they will graduate with the skills and knowledge to be successful in the job
market or the workplace. Only 53% think their major will lead to a good job. 11 The following graph
illustrates this data set, showing the significant discrepancies between the beliefs of these different
groups.

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 Belief that Students are Prepared for the Workforce

STUDENTS 34

GENERAL PUBLIC 16

CEOS 11

ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS 96

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

To frame this differently, we in higher education think we’re doing an excellent job of preparing our
students for careers, but those who hire our graduates, the general public, and our students themselves
fail to share our confidence.

These views are unfortunately borne out by statistics about retention and graduation. If we define
“success” as graduates’ attainment of a job requiring the degree they earned, nearly two-thirds of those
who begin college will fail. According to the EAB Student Success Collaborative, 22 of every 100
students who enter college will drop out, 12 are still enrolled after six years, 3 earn an associate degree,
28 graduate but are underemployed, and just 35 graduate and secure work in a job requiring a
bachelor’s degree.12

Considering public opinion about higher education from a different angle, Tamara Hiler and Lanae
Ericson of the think tank Third Way (2019) surveyed nearly 1400 likely 2020 voters. Their report
demonstrates the mixed opinions Americans hold regarding higher education. Select findings include:13
• 55% rate the higher education system overall as favorable.
• 51% rate institutions as good or very good at providing students a return on their investment,
yet 49% rate them as poor or very poor.
• 84% say rising student loan debt makes them worry that higher education is not worth it.

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 • 72% state that the cost of higher education is out of control.
• 77% think institutions have a responsibility to make sure that most students graduate.
• 83% feel institutions have a responsibility to make sure students can repay their student loans.

The report’s authors write:

Voters on both sides of the aisle believe higher education is essential when it comes to
helping more students secure the jobs they need to be successful in today’s economy.
They also believe that institutions can and should do more to provide value to the
students they are supposed to serve -- not just enroll them and cash their checks, but get
them to graduation and equip them with the skills they need to get a good-paying job
and pay off their loans.14

What does this mean for faculty and administrators? We must recognize public opinion that we should
do more to control rising tuition costs and ensure that our students graduate prepared for successful
careers. These issues are increasingly important in political rhetoric, particularly during a Presidential
election cycle. Federal and state legislation will shape what we in higher education can do and how we
will do it. The pending Congressional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act will have a decided
impact on our institutions.

Pedagogical Histories
Instructional methods and methodologies in higher education are rooted in the guild system of
Medieval Europe, which formalized a contractual relationship between masters and apprentices. From
the dawn of human history, however, those who have gained mastery of a skill or body of knowledge
have shared their expertise with those who seek to emulate their achievements. This ancient
relationship remains the heart of instruction.

Our present higher education system shares many characteristics with the guild system.

Apprenticeship Higher Education

Instructor Apprentices studied under the guidance of Students study under faculty with
Qualifications a master graduate degrees – proof of mastery of
a discipline
Student Profile Began training between ages of 12 and 14; Enter college at age 18. BFA at 22; two
served for 1-8 years or three more years for a Master’s
degree.
Formal Arrangements Contract made with parents: master Students enroll at a college or university
provided food, housing, clothing, and and are accepted into a program.
instruction. Students may live on campus, where
they pay for room and board.
Disciplinary Standards Local craft unions/guilds set standards for Disciplinary organizations, accrediting
apprenticeships: length of contracts; agencies, and institutions of higher
number of students a master could train; learning set standards for instruction.
whether students could switch masters
during apprenticeship or sell works
independently.

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 Apprenticeship Higher Education
Proof of Mastery At end of apprenticeship, students created Students’ course of study ends with a
a piece of work the guild could judge, demonstration of their mastery of a
proving the student had mastered their discipline. This may take many forms
craft. such as a qualifying examination,
written thesis or dissertation,
exhibition, and more.
Variations Training varied from one master to Programs vary between institutions and
another and from one discipline to disciplines; students receive varied
another. instruction from individual instructors.

In both cases, instructors have proven their mastery of a given discipline, a formal arrangement for
study is made between the student and instructor, disciplinary standards are determined externally,
students demonstrate their mastery by meeting established standards, and specific training varies
between disciplines and individual instructors. Nevertheless, the guild system was built entirely in the
workplace – students learned in the master’s place of business, and all training was designed to produce
new professionals in a given field.

Expanding Our Instructional Repertoire: Who We Were is Who We Need to Be

The task before us is not so much to change what we do as instructors but to expand and add to it so
that we may better meet our students’ needs. It’s also a shift in mindset more than a transformation of
our teaching practice.

The Gallup-Purdue Index report (2015) identified six essential experiences that strongly influenced
whether students felt that their colleges prepared them well for life. Just 3% of those surveyed strongly
agreed that they had received all six.15 Four of the six directly relate to their experiences with faculty:
• Professors who made them feel excited about learning
• Professors who cared about them as people
• A mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams
• The opportunity to work on a long-term project
• Taking part in an internship or job where they could apply what they were learning in the
classroom
• Being extremely active in extracurricular activities and organizations during college.

Let’s look at each of these more closely. First, we should never underestimate the impact that our
attitude and demeanor as instructors have on students’ experience in our classrooms. Our passion for
our discipline is contagious – the more excited we are about what we teach, the greater the positive
effect it will have on our students. Actions such as the following can dramatically affect students’
perceptions about the instruction they have received in our classrooms:
• Sharing our ongoing research or creative practice to link classroom learning to professional
settings.

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 • Bringing interesting examples to class, such as an article from a new professional journal that we
can’t wait to share with our students.
• Consistently demonstrating enthusiasm for our course content.

Next, no matter how upbeat or enthusiastic we might be with the whole group, our interactions with
individual students can make or break their learning experience. Students need to know we care about
them individually. Every interaction, no matter how insignificant it might seem to us, can have a marked
impact on students. For example, when a student emails their instructor about a late assignment, we
face a choice of whether we will remain firm on our stated policies or to react with empathy and
kindness. We might be within our rights to insist on applying a penalty, but compassion has a much
more significant impact on students’ perceptions of their experience in our classrooms.

Mentorship is another area with a powerful positive impact. Students who major in our particular
discipline should feel that there is a faculty member who is a kindred soul – someone who sympathizes
with their hopes and dreams and will work actively to help achieve them. Standard student advising
duties usually require us only to meet with students when they select courses for the next semester, or
when the student is in danger of failing. Mentors, in contrast, take a personal interest in the student.
They ask what the student plans to do after graduation. They work with the student to explore graduate
programs, complete grant applications, or write their resume. They write letters of recommendation,
celebrate their students’ successes, and help them through their disappointments. They express belief
in their students’ potential to succeed. The more skillful we are in building appropriate mentoring
relationships with our students, the better the chance that students will view their educational
experience positively. Mentoring is closely related to the master-apprentice relationship. We’ll talk
more about this shortly.

Long-term projects, including problem-based learning or project-based learning, provide a more

impactful and meaningful educational experience than our standard approach to instruction through
lecture, reading, and discussion. Projects are still more impactful when they can mobilize as many of the
“Six Cs” as possible:
• Collaboration and the ability to work well with others
• Communication across contexts and audiences
• Critical thinking and the ability to solve complex problems
• Creativity and innovation
• Content area knowledge
• Confidence in one’s own abilities
Students can learn these skills regardless of the area in which they choose to major. “Broad learning
skills are the key to long-term, satisfying, productive careers. What helps you thrive in a changing world
isn’t rocket science. It may just well be social science, and, yes, even the humanities and the arts that
contribute to making you not just workforce ready but world ready.”16

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Providing students with practical experience through internships, externships, co-op, and practicum
requirements allows them to apply classroom and studio learning to settings they’re likely to encounter
in the workplace. Furthermore, such opportunities help to build the student’s professional network,
broaden their understanding about career options, and introduce them to the norms of the adult world
– all of which are essential to success after graduation. These requirements often exist at an
institutional or departmental level, but individual courses can also incorporate real-world connections to
the workplace. Students might engage in job shadowing, or the instructor might require a certain
number of volunteer or community service hours with an organization related to the course’s content,
as but two examples. The more we can build connections between the classroom and the workplace,
the more likely that students will see our course content as meaningful and personally relevant.

Co-curricular engagement isn’t directly under the control of the instructor, but it is worthwhile for us to
promote it to our students. Research by scholars such as Astin (1993), Cress, Astin, Zimmerman-Oster,
and Burkhardt (2001), Kuh (2008), Wolf-Wendel, Ward, and Kinzie (2009) demonstrates that students
who participate in purposeful co-curricular activities experience positive effects on their academic
success, retention, and persistence. George Kuh (1995 and 2011) also reported positive outcomes such
as an enhanced sense of belonging, capacity for humanitarianism, and growth in student’s interpersonal
and intrapersonal competence.17 Furthermore, students tend to sign up for co-curricular activities
sponsored by faculty members they know. If they have a good relationship with a professor who
happens to sponsor a club or student organization, they are more likely to participate, especially when
encouraged to do so by that professor. Even the most gifted instructor cannot fulfill students’ every
need in the classroom. Co-curricular engagement helps to round out their student experience.

Master-Apprentice: Intentional Mentoring

The guild system of the Middle Ages may have given way to more academically-structured education for
artists, but it still exists in trade-based education to the present day. In fact, many professions retain a
three-tiered system for professional accomplishment.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Faculty Assistant Professor Associate Professor Full Professor
Students Bachelor’s Degree Graduate Degree Professional
Trades Apprentice Journeyman Master
Food Service Prep Cook Sous Chef Executive Chef
Sports Rookie Starter Veteran
Law Lawyer Law Clerk Judge
Medicine Intern Resident Physician

As this table shows, we can observe a commonality between many fields. Calls to emulate or even to
restore the guild system have taken place over the intervening centuries. In 1906, Arthur Penty18
offered this explanation:

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 In the Middle Ages . . . the masons’ and carpenters’ Guilds were faculties or colleges of
education in those arts, and every town was, so to say, a craft university. Corporations of
masons, carpenters, and the like, were established in the town; each craft aspired to
have a college hall. The universities themselves had been well named by a recent
historian ‘Scholars’ Guilds.’ The Guild which recognized all the customs of its trade
guaranteed the relations of the apprentice and master craftsman with whom he was
placed; but he was really apprenticed to the craft as a whole, and ultimately to the city,
whose freedom he engaged to take up. He was, in fact, a graduate of his craft college
and wore its robes. At a later stage the apprentice became a companion or a bachelor of
his art, or by producing a masterwork, the thesis of his craft, he was admitted a master.
Only then was he permitted to become an employer of labor or was admitted as one of
the governing body of his college.

We can see that our degree titles reflect the guild system terminology in the progression of our students
from bachelor’s-level artists working alongside those who have mastered an artistic medium (professors
or graduate instructors), to graduate students studying towards a master’s degree who may also teach
beginning students under the supervision of professors. Like journeymen in the trades, graduate
students have proven themselves competent in their area of study, but when their studies are
completed, they must prove themselves to be masters of their discipline by creating a masterwork such
as a doctoral dissertation or MFA exhibition to qualify for faculty positions themselves.

More recently, in Expanding Apprenticeships (2010), Robert Lerman described present-day

apprenticeship like this:
[Apprentices] work with natural adult mentors who can guide them but allow them to make their
own mistakes. [They] see themselves judged by the established standards of a discipline,
including deadlines and the genuine constraints and unexpected difficulties that arise in the
profession. To quote Robert Halpern, “Young people learn through observation, imitation, trial
and error, and reiteration; in other words through force of experience. Though professionalism
and care are expected, perfection is not. Adult mentors hold the discipline for the apprentice,
sequencing and controlling task demands to keep them on the constructive side of difficulty.
They direct apprentices’ attention, demonstrate and sometimes collaborate.”19

The situation Lerman describes exists in the trades today as well as select fields in higher education.
Aspiring professionals too, “learn through observation, trial and error, and reiteration” and skillful
faculty “sequence and control task demands” to build their students’ skills and competencies, keeping
students “on the productive side of difficulty.”

Apprenticeship programs are more prevalent in Western Europe than in the U.S., providing job training
to 50 – 70% of youth in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. They are expanding in Ireland, Australia, and
the UK. For example, the City of Glasgow College offers scores of job training programs which utilize
classroom-based instruction, workplace simulations, and practical experience through partnerships with
business and industry. The Faculty of Creative Industry20 offers training programs in:

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 • 3D design • Digital Media • Broadcasting
• Furniture • Graphic Arts • Marketing
• Acting & Performance • Digital & Web • Construction
• Fine Art Technologies • Building Crafts
• Photography • Media

Classroom instruction these areas supplemented by robust connections to the professional workplace
creates career opportunities uncommon in U.S. higher educational settings. Students who enroll in
tertiary education can transfer to an institution of higher learning if they wish to earn a bachelor’s
degree. However, their Glasgow education sufficiently prepares them for productive careers on its own.

Apprenticeship models of education benefit both the apprentices and their future employers. “Since
apprenticeship is driven by employer demand, mismatches between skills taught and supplied and skills
demanded in the work place are less likely to occur than when training is provided in school-based or
community-based courses.”21

Workplace Connections

Here we see the essential difference between an apprenticeship model and an academic model of
education. From their inception, apprenticeships have taken place in the thick of professional
workspaces, driven by the needs and demands of a particular business or field of professional
engagement. Present-day apprentice programs place students in both classrooms and workplaces,
allowing students to acquire a conceptual foundation with practical application in the setting where the
student hopes to work upon graduation.

Centuries ago, the master was the proprietor of an entrepreneurial venture in which the apprentice
played a vital role as a laborer, completing essential tasks towards the success of the enterprise. Little
the apprentice was asked to do was done simply for the sake of practicing a skill. Even seemingly menial
labor such as keeping the workspace clean was intentional and meaningful: a clean workspace was vital
to the successful operation of the business. Tools must be cared for and stored properly; the shop must
be organized to minimize lost time looking for stray items, and so on. As apprentices took part in this
maintenance, they absorbed the values of cleanliness and orderliness, developed personal diligence and
perseverance, and began to envision the type of workplace they’d like to own someday. The point is
that every task, no matter how small, clearly fit into a greater whole understood by both the apprentice
and the master.

Now contrast this with an academic model of education. Students and instructors are removed from
professional contexts and work in spaces dedicated solely to learning, whether classrooms or studios.
Instructors assign tasks in isolation from the greater whole of professional practice, often consisting of
work done strictly to practice a skill and earn a grade. Apprentices observed the master’s business
practices as well as receiving the benefit of the master’s disciplinary expertise. When do university

15
students watch their instructors engage in the professional exercise of their skills and knowledge?
Generally speaking, never.

Origination Instruction Production Evaluation Completion

Apprenticeship Client Master Observe the The master The client
Model request provides master and first judges the purchases the
instruction in assist with the work to ensure item
necessary task or complete quality. The produced in
process to the task under work is then the master’s
fulfill client’s the master’s presented to workshop.
request supervision. the client for
approval.
Academic Course Instructor Student The instructor -----
Model assignment provides completes the evaluates the
teaching in a task, sometimes student’s work
given creative with assistance and assigns a
process from the grade.
instructor

In both cases, instruction takes place, the student/apprentice practices a skill, and the
student/apprentice receives an evaluation of their work. But in an academic model, this is where the
process ends. We don’t generally close the loop by considering what happens next in a professional
context.

Mentoring

When working with apprentices, the master serves in many capacities: instructor, supervisor, role
model, and mentor. Mentoring describes any relationship in which “one person shares their knowledge,
skills, and experience to assist others to progress in their own lives and careers.”22 Teaching is, itself, a
form of mentoring, as are coaching or tutoring. Nevertheless, when we use the word “mentoring”
today, we’re generally talking about relationships between faculty and students that go beyond
standard classroom engagement.

Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs conducted a 10-year longitudinal study of students at a small
college, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The authors discovered:
. . . personal relationships with both peers and faculty members, starting from direct
contact, were fundamentally important to undergraduate success and could readily be
facilitated by institutions. The influence of friends, teachers, and mentors on students’
careers can be truly pervasive, running from start to finish. Especially for traditional-age
students at residential colleges, research has shown that . . . peer and professor
connections are the central daily motivators for exploring, discussing, studying, and
learning, and that relationships of all kinds are often tied to a major positive result.23

16
Most of us can recall individuals who served this function for us in the past. They offered advice and
guidance, treated us with kindness, respected our goals and aspirations, and provided support intended
to help us achieve success as students or as professionals.

Before we get into the heart of what mentoring is, however, it might be helpful to explore what it is not.
• Mentors are neither counselors nor therapists, although they may refer mentees to those
services where needed and appropriate.
• Mentors do not attempt to make-over the mentee in their own image. Instead, they support
the mentee’s academic and career success.
• Mentorship is not limited to formalized relationships under an institutional structure. Many
effective mentor-mentee relationships evolve naturally, without deliberate intent by either
party.
• The role of a mentor is not restricted to faculty members. Anyone can be a mentor: peers, staff,
faculty, administrators, alumni, community members, and more.
• Mentoring is not a lifetime commitment. The mentor and mentee may choose to maintain
contact over long periods of time; one or the other may choose to leave the relationship; or it
may reach a natural endpoint such as the student’s graduation, the professor’s retirement, or
other milestone.

Types and Benefits

Although mentoring is common across many fields of human endeavor, our focus here remains on
approaches to mentoring found in university settings. Each partnership will be unique, characterized by
individual circumstances, area of study, and career goals, as well as being shaped by the mentor’s
academic discipline, experience, knowledge, and university policies.

In general, we can recognize two basic types of mentorship – formal and informal.

Formal: A master-apprentice relationship involves formalized mentoring, but this is more common in
technical job training programs than in higher education at present. Colleges and universities often
establish formalized mentoring programs matching students with faculty willing to serve in this capacity.
The degree to which the institution manages this arrangement varies. In some cases, all full-time faculty
will mentor a given number of students majoring in their discipline as a regular part of their professional
service expectations. In others, mentoring is a voluntary program in which both students and faculty
participate. And, of course, countless other variations occur as well.

Formal mentoring is not limited to faculty-student pairs. Peer mentoring is well known and very
effective when conducted under conscientious supervision. Faculty themselves may also receive
mentoring. For instance, some institutions provide new faculty members with a mentor to help them
become familiar with the institution, explain departmental expectations, offer support for teaching, and
more.

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Formalized mentoring generally follows institutional standards and expectations for both the mentor
and mentee. This may include the number of times they will meet each term, the type and frequency of
communication, and the topics to be covered in their meetings. The institution may provide training for
mentors to help them perform this task according to established best practices. Institutions sometimes
hold events for the group of mentor-mentee pairs such as a kick-off breakfast or luncheon at the end of
the academic year.

Informal: Informal mentoring is more difficult to define since it can take so many forms. Either the
mentor or mentee can choose to initiate an informal mentoring relationship, or these might evolve
naturally. For example, students may choose a mentor from among faculty with whom they have
studied, cultivating a relationship with someone who possesses expertise a particular academic major or
field of professional interest. Likewise, faculty, staff, or administrators may choose to develop a
mentoring relationship with a student whom they feel shows promise or demonstrates interest in their
scholarship, creative practice, or other professional activities beyond the classroom. Mentoring can also
grow spontaneously from casual interactions. A student’s request for assistance with an assignment or
an instructor’s recommendation of an internship that might be beneficial to a student could lead to a
mentoring relationship.

Informal mentoring can be of nearly any duration, from a single meaningful encounter to a years-long
relationship. Similar to the idea of “teachable moments,” such mentoring opportunities occur
frequently. Chambliss said,

While conducting research for our book, How College Works, we saw how a single
meeting with a professor to work through a paper could have a decisive effect on a
student’s writing, and how just a single visit to a faculty member’s home could
significantly shift a student’s entire vision of the college experience. Time and again,
finding the right person, at the right moment, seemed to have an outsize impact on a
student’s success.24

Mentoring, like any high-quality human relationship, can benefit both the mentor and the mentee.
These benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:

(continued on next page)

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 Benefit to the Mentee Benefit to the Mentor
• Advice and counsel • Personal skills development and expanding
• Recommendations of scholarships, one’s own knowledge
internships, job opportunities • Evidence of professionalism towards future
• Introduction to professionals in the field the career advancement
mentee wishes to pursue • Personal satisfaction when seeing the
• Letters of recommendation mentee achieve success and knowing that we
• Encouragement and support were instrumental in this process
• The ability to achieve one’s goals more • Knowing that one’s efforts will be of benefit
effectively than working alone to the profession by adding a competent
member to its ranks

If both the mentor and mentee stand to gain from the relationship, and if even small yet positive
interactions between faculty and students can produce lasting impact, there seems to be little to lose
and much to gain by exploring this issue further.

Master-Apprentice – Back to the Future

Our very degree titles remind us of our guild system roots, and we retain the essence of that history in
our pedagogies. Mentors, masters, and faculty share many common traits, most notably in the direct
transmission of procedural knowledge through observation, trial-and-error, and structured
accomplishment. These also rely on building relationships between learners and teachers, which can
have a powerfully positive impact on students’ experience in higher education and their subsequent
professional achievement.

All of this leads us to the conclusion: who we were is who we need to be. Re-claiming our heritage from
the guild system will allow us to connect our students with meaningful professional opportunities.
Linking this strength to the best part of our present-day pedagogies would counter the negativity
associated with higher education by improving our alumni outcomes as we produce graduates who
attain rewarding careers.

How?
We’ve examined a great deal of information about what we do as educators and what we can do to
improve our teaching practice. The next step is identifying how to put this knowledge into practice to
enhance the educational experience we afford our students. By drawing inspiration from the master-
apprentice system, we can implement a model of mentorship that strategically optimizes teaching and
learning, mirroring concepts from the previous sections of this document.

The Trenfy Innovative Instruction Center, in collaboration with a taskforce formed by the Faculty Senate
at the Colorado School of Mines, conducted a study of the characteristics of effective teaching, drawing

19
from information published by institutions including the University of Oregon, the University of
Southern California, the University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State
University, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. When we combine these observations with
data gleaned from additional research, a clear set of strategies emerges.

Effective instruction is defined by four dynamic and interactive characteristics.

1. Student-focused:
a. Key question: Whom do we serve?
b. Key concepts: Human-centric, empathetic, diverse, respectful, positive

2. Learning-centric:
a. Key question: Why do we do what we do?
b. Key concepts: Purposeful, brain-based, outcome-aware

3. Deliberately planned:
a. Key questions: What will we do, how and when will we do it, and how will it allow us to
achieve our purpose?
b. Key concepts: Mindful of both process and product; beginning with the end in mind:
student acquisition of crucial disciplinary content

4. Deeply thoughtful:
a. Key questions: Were we successful? If so, how? If not, why not? How can we improve
what we do?
b. Key concepts: Informed by data gathered about prior iterations, re-created in a cycle of
continuous improvement. All data is considered formative – used to make decisions
about instruction.

Student-focused

Effective instruction takes place within an environment in which students are valued as individuals and
as learners.25 Supportive learning communities encourage students to ask for help when needed26 and
to persist even when tasks are difficult.27 Encouragement and support are central to mentoring.
• Instructors’ policies are written in positive terms rather than stating punitive measures when
students fail to meet expectations.
• Course content encompasses inclusive examples, approaches issues from a variety of
perspectives, and ensures all materials are accessible to all learners (ex: closed captioning)
• Instructors communicate care for students as learners. They practice physical and verbal
immediacy, they are fully present in class and available during office hours, and they teach
students that mistakes are part of learning.

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 • Instructors also communicate care for students as people. They use students’ names, act as
mentors, demonstrate compassion when students have personal problems, and take an interest
in students’ lives outside of the classroom.
• Effective instructors also communicate structures for collaboration and community-building
within their classrooms.

Learning-Centric

High-quality teaching focuses on students’ learning of disciplinary content, not on the content itself.
They are familiar with research about how the brain learns best. They also structure their course
content to make connections to their students’ future careers and the quality of their lives after
graduation.28 Likewise, a mentoring approach to instruction continuously links classroom learning to
professional application.
• Skillful educators deliberately activate their students’ prior knowledge and make overt
connections between what students already know and what they are being asked to learn.
• Effective instructors develop their students’ disciplinary thinking by modeling their own thought
processes and allowing students to practice new skills through authentic tasks.
• Maintaining a focus on learning involves communicating the value of the course content,
emphasizing learning over grades, making expectations clear, and setting an appropriate level of
challenge.
• Student learning is enhanced through multiple opportunities to practice new skills accompanied
by high-quality feedback tied to course outcomes.
• Effective instructors create classrooms that are safe, respectful, and open learning communities.
• A focus on learning helps students acquire the ability to monitor, assess, and adjust their own
learning.

Deliberately Planned

Effective instruction doesn’t happen organically. It begins with intentional and thoughtful design that
supports students’ learning, provides motivation, leverages the strategies identified in the previous
section (Focused on Learning), and ensures a reasonable student workload. This aligns with the
mentoring philosophy of sequencing and controlling task demands to build students’ skills and
competencies, “keeping students on the productive side of difficulty.”29 It also upholds the model of
maintaining a focus on career preparation.
• Instructors should frequently remind students of the course’s purpose and how it is relevant to
their lives and future careers.
• Clear, relevant, measurable student learning outcomes align with instruction, assignments,
assessment, practice, and feedback. Each aspect of the course fits together seamlessly. Students
are always aware of why they are being asked to do something. They know what to do through
clear directions; and they understand how the instructor will evaluate their work before
beginning a learning task.

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 • Course assessments are both formative and summative. They measure students’ learning in
progress and the instructor shapes subsequent instruction in the course based on this
knowledge, tailoring their efforts to the students’ demonstrated needs.
• All learning activities which provide developmental skills and knowledge are accompanied by
high-quality feedback regarding the student’s progress and current level of mastery.

Deeply Thoughtful

Skillful educators reflect on their teaching and put the insights they gain into action in their classrooms.
This goes beyond the typical changes most instructors make to their courses from one semester to the
next. When instructors approach their teaching as a “reflective practitioner”30 who engages in “the
intellectual work of teaching”31 or “scholarly teaching”32 the impact on student learning is considerable.
Mentorship, too, benefits from a thoughtful and reflective approach, considering what’s best for
mentees and their present and future wellbeing.
• Instructors take the time to examine and contemplate evidence of student learning and
motivation.
• Instructors are motivated to become better teachers and engage in professional development
specifically to improve their teaching practice.
• Instructors share their own knowledge of teaching with their colleagues in a supportive and
collegial culture of shared responsibility for students’ learning and their future success. They
willingly serve as instructional mentors to peers.

Creativity, Action Research, and Effective Teaching

Many fields of human engagement share what’s known as a heuristic cycle. (1) We plan a project we’d
like to complete. (2) We begin the project and (3) observe the work in progress, monitoring the
effectiveness of our actions as we go. (4) We pause to reflect on the project to decide if it aligns with
our original vision. At this point, we might seek feedback from others, or we might investigate processes
or materials that could improve the project. Then we make a new plan for changes to the project,
beginning the cycle again (and again) until the work reaches completion. This cycle has parallels in
action research, design thinking, and the practice of effective instruction.33

(continued on next page)

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 Step Heuristic Cycle Action Research Design Process Effective Teaching
Plan Determine the Determine the Understand the Understand
action to take in action to take in needs of the target students’ identities
order to create an order to achieve the audience through and needs as
artistic product or desired result. empathetic learners and as
performance. observation to people.
define the problem
to be solved.
Act Engage in the Engage in the Envision a solution Employ best
creative process, activity under study to the problem and practices in teaching
leading to an artistic (teaching, create one or more to deliver relevant
product or marketing, prototypes to apply course content
performance. healthcare…). the solution. supportive of
students’ successive
learning and career
attainment.
Observe Contemplate the Note the results of Employ the Employ assessment
work in progress, the previous action prototype solution mechanisms to
determining its and assess its and collect data measure students’
current level of effectiveness. about the results. achievement of
overall course outcomes.
effectiveness.
Reflect Determine which Determine whether Evaluate the Evaluate the
aspects of the work, the desired results observed results and assessment data to
or which creative have been achieved. consider how the decide what aspects
actions, were prototype could be of the curricula and
successful. improved or how instruction were
another solution most and least
might be employed. successful in helping
students achieve the
course outcomes.
Revise Make changes to the Set a new direction Refine the prototype Make changes to the
work based on for the research. solution and re- curricula and
reflection. apply it to the instructional
problem. methods to better
serve students’
educational needs.

If we consider teaching as an essentially creative activity, we can identify areas of commonality across
everything we do as members of the faculty. Indeed, the cycle of plan, act, observe, reflect, revise is
pervasive in human life. We decide what to do, we do it, we observe the effect our actions, we consider
whether our actions were successful, and we determine what to change the next time we undertake the
task again.

It’s not a giant leap to apply this process to our practice as effective educators. The key lies in treating
all assessments as formative rather than summative. Most educators view assignments and

23
assessments as summative. We give an exam or assignment, we evaluate the students’ work and record
their grades, and we move on to the next thing on the syllabus. This doesn’t allow instructors to use the
data they collected to improve either their students’ learning or their instruction. In contrast, formative
assessment provides data about students’ learning in-progress. Many courses reflexively employ
formative assessment. For example, when we teach a new process to our students, we allow
opportunities to practice. If we evaluate their results and notice that many students are making the
same error, we’ll then re-teach the process to correct the problem.

Summative assessment has an important place in higher education because instructors are required to
assign grades. Nevertheless, even assessments might be summative for the student can still serve a
formative role for the instructor. Final exams, for instance, are always summative for the student – the
grade they receive sums up their learning in the course. However, instructors can choose to treat the
results of a final exam as formative for their practice as educators if they note students’ areas of
difficulty and make changes to future instruction to address the problems they observed.

Maintaining a focus on our students, keeping their learning at the center of what we do, engaging in
deliberate planning of our actions as educators, and reflecting deeply on our teaching practice comprise
the framework within which effective instruction takes place. By making overt connections to the
workplace and adopting an attitude of mentoring towards our students, we become force-multipliers in
their journey through higher education. This cannot help but improve their personal and professional
outcomes as alumni.

Where?
The question of “where?” usually enters into our thinking as educators in a purely utilitarian sense. We
ask, “Where will my class be held?” or “Where is my ____ [name of any given object that’s missing]?”
We also think of “where” in terms of the physical environment of the campus and the facilities in which
we work. The quality of these spaces has a decided impact on our teaching, research, and creative
practice. Aging facilities, insufficient space, or malfunctioning equipment will hamper our efforts and
have a detrimental effect on our daily lives.

Few of those considerations are under the control of faculty, though. Furthermore, outstanding
instruction can occur in sub-standard facilities or under oppressive conditions. Exceptionally poor
instruction can take place in the most gleaming, state-of-the-art buildings. Far more than the quality of
our surroundings, the question of where is a matter of the internal environment, or culture, of the
department in which we work.

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Establishing a Culture of Care

When used as a noun, “care” can be defined as “(1) the provision of what is necessary for the health,
welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something; (2) serious attention or consideration
applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.”34

Sadly, higher education as a whole has a poor track record in this regard. Attitudes that students must
sink or swim on their own, that only the best students should survive a rigorous and demanding process
that forces out weaker students, or even exclusionary admissions policies cast higher education as a
system of winners and losers. Instructors sometimes act more like officials and referees, establishing
and enforcing the rules of a competitive arena rather than serving as coaches whose goal is to improve
their charges’ performance. If we are to overcome the factors that have caused higher education to
retain its exclusionary and uncaring practices, we must deliberately set out to create a new and more
inclusive cultural model built upon a multifaceted view of care.

institution

students

colleagues self

Care for Self: Americans tend to immerse themselves in their work, but in a profession as intellectually
and emotionally demanding as teaching, we run a grave risk of burnout, unmanageable stress, and
exhaustion if we fail to make a conscious effort to care for ourselves. Studies have shown the
professorate to be a very lonely career, with a significant amount of our time spent in tasks other than
teaching, such as sending and responding to email and attending meetings. We must also find time to
engage in research or creative practice, professional development, and service activities.35 No one can
effectively engage in caring for others if their own physical, intellectual, and emotional reserves are
depleted, at least not for long. This is why many workplaces offer employee assistance programs, gym
memberships, and paid time off, such as sabbaticals. It’s why higher education still operates on an
agrarian calendar in which we teach for just 30 or 32 weeks per year, not counting summer terms.
Academic breaks provide time in which we can meet expectations for research or creative practice, but

25
they also serve as a primary mechanism for self-care – to rest and recharge our energies before the
coming term.

Care for Colleagues: One might think that a group of like-minded scholars would create an ideal sense
of community in the workplace. Group members share a passion for their discipline, similar educational
backgrounds, and the decision to become educators, so this unity of purpose seemingly ought to
generate a bond between group members. Sadly, this is often untrue. Human nature being what it is,
we become competitive rather than cooperative. We establish hierarchies, vie for dominance, or
belittle one another’s accomplishments. At institutions where faculty members’ career advancement
depends on the evaluation of their peers, outright bullying can ensue. A culture of care establishes the
opposite. We come to see one another as colleagues rather than competitors. We celebrate one
another’s achievements. We build each other up instead of tearing each other down. We rally together
when one of our colleagues faces personal difficulty, and we celebrate life’s milestones together. Most
of us have established work friendships with a few individuals regardless of where we’ve worked, but
within a culture of care for colleagues, we can count on every member of our department for support.

Care for Institution: Each of us is part of a larger institution, the success of which impacts our ability to
continue our employment. When we take a myopic view of our employment, remaining focused only
with our own immediate concerns, we fail to care for our institution. We can demonstrate care through
our participation in professional organizations, where –for good or ill – we serve as ambassadors for our
institution. Likewise, the choice to engage with the community as representatives of our institution
demonstrates care. Assisting with marketing and recruitment of new students exemplifies care for the
institution, since student enrollment is crucial to the institution’s sustainability. Care for our institution
includes speaking positively of it when in conversation with individuals in the community or our broader
professional circle. It also means refraining from complaining about the institution to our colleagues,
since negativity spreads like a virus and undermines our colleagues’ morale. Certainly, each of us will
become frustrated by individuals or systems in the institution at times, but conversations that focus on
finding solutions to the problems we encounter are productive, whereas those intended just to express
negativity are contrary to the culture of care we hope to build.

Care for Students: On the surface, our duty of care for our students seems clear. We teach our courses
and fulfill our other obligations as educators. Although that may be true, it is only the beginning.
Faculty have generally spent a great deal of time as students: four years for a bachelor’s degree, two or
three years for a master’s degree, and perhaps another three to five years for a doctorate. Among all of
the faculty members with whom each of us studied, we can all name someone who demonstrated care
for us personally. We can also name those who did not.

Many instructors dismiss suggestions to be more caring and compassionate towards their students,
usually justifying their choice to maintain a brusque and imposing demeanor with statements like, “In
the real world nobody is going to coddle these students. We have to prepare them for life!” We can
identify two problems with this line of thinking. First, the instructor’s primary responsibility is to convey
the content of their courses, not to teach life skills unless these are (1) directly related to the course

26
content and (2) included in the course’s outcomes and objectives and linked to an assessment
mechanism of some sort, explicitly stated on the course syllabus, discussed on the first day of class, and
reinforced through the course. Second, it conveys a condescending attitude of “in loco parentis,” a legal
term meaning “in place of a parent.” Very few of our students are minors. Although they may be young
adults who lack relevant life experience, it is not within our rights or responsibilities to take on the role
of parent.

Another justification for some instructors’ uncaring attitudes is, “It’s not my job to be their friend.”
That’s true. In fact, it would be inappropriate if instructors treated students as though they were close
personal friends because friendship is a relationship based on equal status, which clearly is not present
between students and instructors. Nevertheless, nothing should prevent us from being friendly, kind,
approachable, and compassionate. Those are qualities we appreciate when others show them to us.
Why would we choose not to demonstrate them to our students, who depend upon us for so much?

Caring is not the same as coddling, babying, or acquiescing to our students. Sometimes the most caring
decision is to uphold our stated policies because it can provide a teachable moment. Jeffrey Selingo, in
an editorial for the Washington Post, relates the story of Chemistry Professor David Laude, now senior
vice provost at the University of Texas at Austin. Laude noticed a strong correlation between students’
demographic characteristics and their performance in his chemistry courses.

In fall 1999, [Laude] pulled 50 students from his 500-seat chemistry class who came from
low-income families, from families whose parents did not go to college, or had low SAT
scores. He enrolled them in a smaller 50-seat class he taught right after the larger class.
"It was the same material, it was just as hard, but I changed my attitude about these
students," he said. "We beat into their heads that they were scholars, that they were
great." In addition, he assigned these students advisers and peer mentors. When the
semester was over, the students in the smaller class had achieved the same grades as
those in the larger section. "These were students I would have failed a year earlier,"
Laude recalled.

Over time, Laude made other changes to his instruction as well. “He puts most of his lecture material
online for students to watch in advance and spends class time in discussions. . . . ‘It’s about creating a
culture that I’m on your side,’ Laude said. To some that might sound like he simply made his course
easier so more students could pass. ‘The class is just as hard,’ Laude [said], ‘but instead of having this
adversarial relationship with students, now we’re nice to them.’”

Laude demonstrates a fundamental truth: we can maintain academic rigor without being harsh or
uncaring. We can help our students believe in their own ability to master difficult course material and
uphold their success. We can empower our students by focusing on accountability and self-
determination. We can embolden our students as we instill self-confidence and assist them in
developing a professional identity. The following strategies can empower our efforts to establish a
culture of care.

27
 1. Choose kindness when interacting with colleagues and students. The hardest battle we fight is
inside ourselves as we overcome our knee-jerk reaction to stressful situations. We can choose
to modify our responses to those around us in favor of kindness rather than acting on our
feelings of anger, disappointment, and frustration. We can place the needs of others above our
own desires. When a student sends an email at the last possible minute and asks for an
extension on an assignment, our first response might be to say no. Caring asks that we initiate a
discussion with the student and to determine the best possible course of action. Yes, it takes
more effort. Yes, it might be inconvenient. But the student will benefit from this interaction
even if our answer remains a no when we explain our rationale kindly and provide them with
the support they need to overcome whatever the problem might have been that prevented
them from meeting the stated deadline.

2. Increase the frequency and quality of contact with students. Don’t limit interactions with
students to standard classroom or studio operations. Answer their questions thoroughly and
thoughtfully. Share interesting articles related to course content. Wish students a happy
birthday. Communicate a positive belief in their ability to succeed prior to an important exam or
assignment. Remind them that you’re available to help when they need it. The more and varied
the interactions between students and instructors, the better the rapport and the more
successful students will be in the course.

3. Educate students about expectations and clarify the difference between caring and enabling.
Faculty who resist efforts towards being caring and kind often fear that students will take
advantage of their largess. However, when we carefully explain our policies and expectations
from the beginning of the course, we mitigate this possibility. Telling students that we’re happy
to help them in whatever ways might be necessary can be accompanied by a reminder that we
also might require documentation of the mitigating circumstances they’re experiencing. We
should frequently remind students that our number one priority is their successful learning of
the course content, and repeat that when they are unable to meet a requirement, we’ll work
together to find an acceptable alternative that supports their learning.

4. Find a balance between providing instruction and personalizing that experience for individual
students. Because we set up our courses individually, we sometimes inadvertently create
difficulties for students when our expectations conflict with other instructors’ course
requirements. When these problems arise, find a way to ensure that your students can meet
your expectations without undue hardship

None of us, alone, can establish a culture of care in the department or college for which we work, but
each of us has the power to create a caring environment in our classrooms and offices. By caring for
ourselves, our colleagues, our students, and our institution, we make our workplace a better place, one
interaction at a time.

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 When?
Without a doubt, clocks and calendars rule our lives. We never seem to have enough time to meet the
expectations placed upon us, not to mention engaging in activities of our own choosing. Our course
load and the scheduling of our courses, our duties as instructors, expectations for committee service,
and engaging in research or creative practice – all this and more gives structure to our days.

The concept of “when” however, doesn’t only indicate questions such as, “When is the committee
meeting?” or “When is the first day of the new semester?” It also relates to the matter of cause and
effect: when a given event occurs, a corresponding action takes place.

Recap

We’ve covered a large amount of material together. Let’s pause to review.

Why? We teach disciplinary knowledge, skills, and competencies so that our students can achieve
productive careers.

Who? We know our students as learners and as individuals, meeting their needs in our classrooms and
studios to facilitate their achievement of our program outcomes and course objectives.

What? We are well-informed about the realities of higher education and draw upon our present
strengths and past excellence to engage in continuous improvement of our programs and professional
practice.

How? We maintain a focus on our students’ success and wellbeing in classrooms, laboratories, or
studios where we purposefully plan learning activities. We engage in deeply thoughtful, reflective
teaching to ensure we are highly effective educators.

Where? Our department is a place where we demonstrate care for ourselves, our students, our
colleagues, and our institution.

These questions are neither sequential nor hierarchal. Instead, they create a dynamic context within
which we maximize our individual efforts as educators under the driving purpose of creating the best
possible program and environment in which to facilitate our students’ academic and career success.
When we accomplish this, amazing things can happen!

It Begins With You

Of course, “when” also frames an important question: when should we begin? The answer is: Now.
Right now, today, at this very moment, each of us can decide to reach towards becoming a more

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effective instructor. There’s no reason to wait until next semester, or until the next course begins, or
until a current project is finished. Everything we need is already within us. It costs nothing to be kind to
our students and colleagues. It takes no time at all to decide to pursue excellence as an educator as well
as in our other professional endeavors.

Still not convinced? We’ve looked at many questions in the preceding pages, but a few more might help
identify the factors causing some of us to hesitate.

• Why should we make changes to our teaching practice?

o Our proficiency as educators is among the primary criteria by which we’re evaluated,
tied to considerations of retention, promotion, and tenure.
o Becoming a more effective instructor will be personally beneficial in this regard.

• Where can we turn for help?

o The university’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is a great resource, as
are our colleagues and department chair.
o When we become a team working for the common cause of programmatic and
departmental excellence, we can all rely on one another for help.

• How can we get started?

o We can look back at the strategies in this document and decide which one we’d like to
implement first.
o It’s not necessary to do everything all at the same time. Making one small change can
set each of us on the right path.

• When can we find the time to make changes to our instruction?

o Don’t try to tackle a comprehensive revision of every course all at once.
o By making adjustments to one activity or assignment at a time in a given course as these
occur, a complete revision will be accomplished by the time final grades are due.
o Time to do anything is always in short supply. Fortunately, most of the changes we
need to make are those of heart, mind, and attitude rather than physical or material
alterations. In that case, time isn’t the problem – it’s about having an open mind and a
willingness to change.

• Who will benefit if we decide to make these changes?

o We’ll receive the benefits of becoming better educators, which will be reflected in our
performance evaluations.
o Our students will benefit from our improved teaching practice.
o Our colleagues will benefit as we contribute to the departmental culture of care.
o The department, college, and the university will benefit from our contributions to
excellence and our enhanced professionalism.

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 • What should we expect?
o We can anticipate a renewed interest in teaching, enhanced engagement by our
students, and a more positive climate within our college, departments, and programs as
the direct result of our actions.
o We can look forward to these positive transformations continuing as each of us works
towards this common goal

The Last Word

No matter how euphemistically we phrase it, no matter how great the potential benefit, change is
always hard. Most of us resist it even when the outcome will clearly be desirable because disrupting
longstanding habits is so difficult. The following excerpt from the conclusion of Higher Education by
Design: Best Practices for Curricular Planning and Instruction (Mackh, 2018) offers a last bit of advice on
how we can overcome the forces that hold us back.

Focus on the positive: From Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking
(1952)36 to Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage (2010) psychologists have explored
the powerful impact of our thoughts on our quality of life. Achor delivered one of the
most-watched TED Talks in the organization’s history,37 explaining that our deeply-held
belief that hard work leads to success, and success then makes us happy, is
fundamentally wrong. Rather, happiness fuels success by making us more creative,
increasing our motivation, and enhancing our productivity.

Our mindset powerfully shapes our reality. If we focus on what’s good in our lives, we
see our lives as good. If we devote more attention to what’s wrong, we then think
everything is bad. . . . If we choose to focus on the annoyances, disappointments, or just
general stress of teaching, then we can’t be effective instructors. Instead, we should
focus our minds on the positive aspects of our jobs, allowing us to become the kind of
inspiring, motivational, and positive role models that our students will remember
throughout their lives. . . .

Turn theory into practice: Our ability to enact the goals we set for ourselves depends
greatly upon our level of motivation. Human nature dictates that we’ll usually take the
path of least resistance unless we have strong reasons to do otherwise. How many of us
spend New Year’s Eve making well-intentioned resolutions that we fail to keep for even
a few weeks? We know that we should eat more healthfully, exercise daily, go to bed
earlier, and any number of other worthy goals. Until we establish these intentions as
habits, however, they’re nearly impossible to sustain. The same is true of our
professional lives. We might resolve to become better educators, but we’re not always
able to put these worthy intentions into practice

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 The secret is to break our goals into manageable portions. Acclaimed author Stephen
King said, "Write a page a day - only 300 words - and in a year, you have written a
novel." Similarly, there’s an old adage that suggests, “How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.” If we want to transform our curriculum and instruction, we can’t
expect to jump directly to the end of the process – we only need to complete one task
at a time. . . . By making continuous improvement a habit, we’ll eventually become the
outstanding instructors we intend to be.

Persevere: Becoming an accomplished educator [isn’t] something that comes naturally

to most of us. C.S. Lewis wrote, “As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps,
you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t
notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about
eyes, or light, or print, or spelling.”38

Although Lewis was speaking of another subject, his remarks are quite appropriate to
good teaching. When we observe a highly skilled teacher, we don’t notice the syllabus,
the schedule of assignments, or the instructional technologies used in a lecture. Our
attention turns, instead, to the students’ rapt attention to the lesson, the excellence of
the students’ coursework, and their achievements after graduation.

Have faith: . . . . Each of us possesses the power to become a better instructor today
than we were yesterday, and we can be better tomorrow than we are today. Every day
presents a fresh opportunity to apply what we’ve learned in order to engage in the
continuous professional improvement that leads us step-by-step towards achieving
greater excellence. By making the choice to employ a growth mindset to our work as
educators, just as much as we seek to grow and improve in other areas of our
professional lives, we will eventually become the outstanding educators we hope to be.

From first-term adjunct instructors to full professors, each of us is capable of growing and improving our
practice as educators. The benefits are many, and the drawbacks are few. If we rise to the challenge as
individuals and as a whole, we’ll create a model that will become the standard by which others are
judged. That’s a goal we can all embrace and a bright future towards which we can each gladly apply
our best efforts.

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