Slatta Teaching Philosophy

last updated: April 3, 2018 [Note: This is not about how to teach philosophy; it's my meta- and micro- thoughts about how I teach history.]

  • In a Nutshell: I design courses following this thought by Albert Einstein: "I never try to teach my students anything. I only try to create an environment in which they can learn." To follow Einstein's dictum, I created an online active-learning environment Latin America: An Interactive History Lab, published in January 2016. This is the context is which you will learn history by "doing" history. I also consider the latest developments about learning from neuroscience.
  • Deep Background: People have been concerned with teaching and learning for a long time. Socrates died in 399 BCE, convicted and sentenced to death. His fellow Athenians believed Socrates corrupted youth by helping them question the status quo instead of simply accepting the conventional "wisdom" of the time. In the tradition of Socrates, I encourage questioning and inquiry among today's youth. As Socrates understood, the process of inquiry puts one on the path to wisdom and understanding oneself and much more.

    Promote Student Learning

    1. Let students learn by doing, using IGL, Inquiry-Guided Instruction, in which knowledge is constructed, not merely read and regurgitated. Read our approach to history page for a discussion of how IGL shapes the way we construct historical understanding.
    2. Keep instructor performance ("sage on the stage"), aka lecture or online talking head, to an absolute minimum. Explore this link for evidence of the shortcomings of lecture as a teaching/learning tool.
    3. Give students practice and measure improvement, especially in critical and creative thinking. Try, fail, regroup, refocus, rethink, and progress. The experiential learning model provides good guidance: ask yourself
      • what did I see (deep observation)
      • what did I feel (reflection, the affective)
      • what did I learn (cognitive, creative, interpretive).
    4. Embed practical "real-world" skills vital for the information economy: deep reading, critical evaluation, analysis, and clear communication Hone those qualities and skills that potential employers hold in high regard.
    5. Assist students in moving from dependent to more autonomous learning, a process tht involves three stages of intellectual growth during the semester.

    Fleshing Out the Above Thoughts

    Historical, Creative, and Critical Thinking

    Teaching history also means teaching historical thinking (imagination, interpretation.) Students need to learn to think historically and critically. I want students to think and work like historians, to apply a historical perspective when examining evidence. Students must learn to locate and evaluate evidence. To that end, I have students critique and analyze primary source documents and scholarly journal articles or a monographs.
  • Creative thinking making and communicating connections to think of many possibilities; think and experience in various ways and use different points of view; think of new and unusual possibilities; and guide in generating and selecting alternatives.
  • Critical thinking requires analyzing and developing possibilities to: compare and contrast many ideas; improve and refine ideas; make effective decisions and judgments; and provide a sound foundation for effective action.

    Promote Real-world Skills

  • Every course, including history classes, should have real-world applications. All students need to develop “real-world” workplace skills and learn to meet professional duties and demands responsibly. To that end, I teach sound, essential research and writing skills, using today's software, necessary to any job in our information age.
  • Students must learn to take responsibility for their actions and to meet requirements placed upon them-- again real-life demands for any employment. Some students erroneously think of college in general and history in particular as unrelated to the “real world.” Without pandering to superficial cries of relevancy nor caving in to crass vocationalism, we can help bridge this divide. I encourage students to think of my course as a “real world” job. The syllabus is set up something like a job description to reinforce the point.
  • Intellectual exchanges involving all students and the instructor enrich learning for all. Students must learn to communicate their knowledge to others. I use a variety of mechanisms to encourage students to communicate their interpretations of the past. Students write responses to "inquiries" based on a set of primary sources. They can then compare their interpretation of the evidence with those of Prof. Slatta, as found in the online Latin American History: An Interactive History Lab and in the emails and mini-lectures he sends to students.

    Teachers need to encourage deep, active learning, not mere short-term, surface learning.

  • Some students are satisfied to take a course at face value and to jump through the hoops. Deep learners wish to know more about the "whys" of a course. Why do we do what we do? What value is it to you? To explain the "whys" of the course, I use as my heuristic a "learning community." We each bring different experiences, interests, ideas, goals, commitment, and information resources to the course. Together we engage in a process of discovery and problem solving.
  • Another facet of deeper learning is metacognition--thinking about your thinking. To that end, we practice peer assessment and self assessment, giving you the opportunity to develop these important lifelong learning skills.
  • So embrace this opportunity to make history. It can be fun, and it's the opportunity of a lifetime!
    [Philosophy Provenance: The first version of this essay appeared as "Connecting Teaching Goals with Technology" in History Computer Review, 17: 1 (Spring 2001): 19-29. The philosophy has since morphed away from a focus on technology toward best pedagogical practices, based on additional years in the classroom, the study of pedagogical literature, and my years directing NCSU's First Year Inquiry program. I take teaching seriously but have fun doing it. If you take learning seriously, together we can do some great things--and have some intellectual fun! ]