Colloquium Addresses Teaching

Robert C. Di Iorio, News Office
October 23, 1991

A capacity Kresge Auditorium audience and a faculty-student panel, both stimulated skilfully by former governor and presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis in the role of interlocutor, engaged in a frank exchange October 9 on the gut issue of teaching and research at MIT.

The event, "Teaching Within A Research University," was the concluding event of MIT's inaugural year. President Charles M. Vest, whose inauguration the symposium celebrated, said he could think of no subject "more worthy of our attention-yours and mine-than the question we explore today.

"In his opening remarks, President Vest paid tribute to the late Professor Margaret MacVicar, MIT's first dean for undergraduate education, who died September 30 after a year-long battle with cancer. He called her "an educator par excellence" who would be asking the toughest questions if she were at the colloquium, and proposed dedicating the event to "our teacher, our colleague, our friend-Margaret MacVicar."

President Vest introduced the panelists and, in his words, "unleashed" the interlocutor. The panelists, seated on the stage, were: Robert J. Birgeneau, dean of the School of Science; Yonald Chery, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science; Woodie C. Flowers, professor of mechanical engineering; J. David Litster, vice president and associate provost for research and director of the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory; Joel Moses, dean of the School of Engineering; J. Mark Davidson Schuster, associate professor of urban studies and planning; Colleen M. Schwingel, a senior in the Sloan School of Management; Robert J. Silbey, head of the Department of Chemistry; Irene Tayler, professor of literature; and Jacquelyn Ciel Yanch, Class of 1958 Assistant Professor and assistant professor of nuclear engineering. Dr. Yanch also has an appointment at Whitaker College.

Mr. Dukakis moved about on the stage during the discussion, asking questions of various panelists, sometimes turning to the audience for a show of hands on a question and frequently making comments that brought out more focused statements. Video images of whoever was speaking or of the audience were displayed on a large screen at the rear of the stage.

Mr. Dukakis, in his opening request for comments, asked about the perception that teaching at MIT was seen as a burden, sort of a tax one pays to be a faculty researcher.

Ms. Schwingel said there is more lip service than serious attention paid to teaching despite the words of the Faculty Policy Handbook which state that becoming inspiring teachers is the primary duty of junior faculty. Professor Silbey, on the other hand, thought "lip service" was a bit overstated and said most faculty want to be good teachers. His department videotapes classroom presentations and requires that professors see themselves in action, he said. Dean Moses said the School of Engineering pays close attention to teaching and tenured faculty members attend the classes of those eligible for tenure in developing recommendations on whether to award it.

Mr. Dukakis, now a visiting professor of political science at Northeastern University, interjected that it was his impression, based on earlier discussions with the panel, that a great researcher who was a mediocre teacher was much more likely to be tenured than a great teacher who was a mediocre researcher.

There was discussion on the lack of an Institute-wide formal program to teach professors and graduate students how to teach. Professor Schuster said resources devoted to developing teaching were declining. He recalled the former Educational Video Resources program which he said was staffed with people who could evaluate videos of professors in the classroom. Now, he said, videos can be obtained, but no evaluation is provided.

Provost Mark S. Wrighton, who summed up the panel discussion and the audience interchange, called the colloquium "extraordinary" and "engaging" in terms of the level of participation and interaction.

Following the Kresge Auditorium event, each academic department had individual discussion meetings with students.

A version of this article appeared in the October 23, 1991 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 36, Number 9).

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