Biologist Richard Goldschmidt presented a brilliant argument. Diagrams and formulas spilled across the blackboard; his class scribbled furiously. One student could not maintain his decorum. "Professor," he exclaimed, "I never could have solved that problem!" Goldschmidt regarded him with amusement. "Young man," he replied, "if you could have solved it, you would be the professor and I the student."
For current critics of higher education, this fond recollection of the student may represent an anachronistic and flawed model of teaching. Such commentators argue that the transmission of privileged information from an expert to worshipful spectators no longer fits‹if it ever did. To meet the needs of today's students, they propose that faculty reverse their teaching role by adopting a "learning" model, in which students are given primary responsibility to teach themselves.
Expanding on this concept in Change (Nov./Dec. 1995), two Palomar College (Calif.) professors, Robert B. Barr and John Tagg, suggest that the faculty member's role must change dramatically. No longer an actor ("the sage on the stage"), the professor would become a "designer," creating environments in which students write their own scripts. "Active learners" are required, but the "live" professor is optional. The paradigm envisions teaching without teachers.
Indeed, the key word in a number of arguments for redesigning higher education seems to be "without." The most familiar example is Phoenix University, an electronic college without a campus. At this year's IU Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) retreat, a presenter predicted computers will soon promote teaching without books. That time may be near: a new California campus recently announced plans to open with a bookless library.
It may be time to re-examine what we may be doing without. Learning without books seems inconceivable. Even Barr and Tagg would acknowledge that the lecture may on occasion be the best stimulus for learning. Certainly we can do without a hegemonic model of teaching. But are we, as a colleague suggested, criticizing a "straw professor?" Haven't excellent faculty always been responsive to students?
Barr and Tagg use theater disparagingly as a metaphor. I suggest we take the "master class" as a metaphor as well as an existing model for the ideal. Students learn through direct experience with a mentor to recognize and assess their limits in order to overcome them. They practice on their own ground, perform before and with peers, and expect to be critiqued and shown how to find their own voice.
We can smile at the style but still appreciate the impact of a Goldschmidt, and find his presence reflected in the subsequent accomplishments of his students. Even with new paradigms, we should not settle for the virtual professor.
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