What Our Stories Teach Us A Guide To Critical Reflection For College Faculty

the long version

Faculty pursuing a deeper understanding of their teaching have long used critical reflection as a means to do so, but it is not always clear how to convert general insights into specific practices and teaching techniques that will ultimately improve student learning. What Our Stories Teach Us enables faculty to deeply and systematically examine their teaching experiences, stories, and choices to gain real insight into what these experiences can teach them. In the book, Linda Shadiow invites faculty to engage in a three-stage process. First, she encourages faculty to recall stories from their own educational biographies. Next, Shadiow demonstrates how to view these stories as critical incidents instead of mere reminiscences. Finally, she introduces an approach faculty can use to analyze and then interpret these stories for the benefit of renewal and professional growth in teaching. It is not likely that faculty have looked at a collection of their experiences to see where details offer dissonance or resonance, nor that they have considered linking threads in a repertoire of stories to understand how they have developed as college teachers. By doing so, faculty can see how personal touchstones suggest ways to proceed in their teaching practices. Moving beyond telling stories to gaining an understanding of those stories can be even more satisfying and ultimately have more impact in classrooms, especially when confidence in teaching may wax and wane over many years of service. What Our Stories Teach Us seeks to Build on the heart of curiosity, wonder, and commitment that faculty bring to their profession.