John Lynch – Teaching Statement 2001-02
Professor of Classics

Teaching the Ancient Past in the Immediate Present:
A Student-Centered Approach to Learning

I like students. Always have, still do. Even after almost 32 years of teaching literature and classical languages at UCSC, I keep feeling renewed by my interactions with students, and I am fascinated by the way students keep changing and offering new challenges. My students now are quite different from the ones I had when I arrived in 1970. That’s fine with me. Not better, not worse, just different--for both better and worse. I like change. Without it not only can you not do your laundry but you cannot grow and develop as a human being.

I like all kinds of students—ones fresh out of high school, transfer students, re-entry students, second- and third- chance students, and graduate students. I like high-achieving students, hard-working students, struggling students, underachieving students, and slackers alike. What I try to do is take them from where they are to where they want to be, to make them think reflectively about goals and values, and to infect them with the contagion of loving to learn. I have a special feeling and empathy for students who have barriers to overcome—students who have disabilities, students who are the first generation of their family to go to college, students who feel lost or lacking in direction, students who have been victimized by societal racism or discrimination, students who have to support themselves with time-consuming jobs, students who are embarking on a new life through education, or students who have experienced personal traumas from health, loss, or family situations. I try to keep the doors of learning open as widely as possible for all of them. Over the years, I have chaired, or participated in, numerous student life committees that address such barriers and that have helped me to think of students as whole persons, not just as individuals in my classes. Working on student life issues (and as a college Provost for six years) has made me a better, more empathetic teacher. As a teacher, I have often been inspired by glimpses of students in the context of their larger lives, including the obstacles they have to deal with.

For what it is worth, my personal view is that faculty and institutions tend to be too concerned about “the quality of students” that come in their doors. I am much more interested in outcomes, the value we add to students’ lives, the journey on which we take students during their time with us, the doors we open up for them in their lives after school. Teachers and institutions, in my view, ought to be evaluated more by such measures, not by the SAT scores of their entering students. From an educational point of view, it’s not where they start that matters, it’s where they end up. That’s what matters most to me at least.

I feel privileged to be able to participate in the lives, the growth, and the stories of students. That’s what keeps me in the business of teaching. I enjoy serving students in all kinds of ways both inside and outside the classroom. I also still love studying and teaching ancient languages and literatures, and I hope that my passion shows through and distinguishes my teaching in the classroom.

I do not consider myself a naturally gifted classroom teacher. I do not have exceptional voice modulation, oratorical powers, or dramatic ability. I am pretty low-key, even a bit shy, and I have to work extra hard to overcome and offset my deficiencies. In my preparation, I try to look at learning from a student’s point of view and anticipate and provide what students need to learn successfully. In addition to the subject I am teaching, I spend time in class reflecting and encouraging students to reflect on educational philosophy and learning strategies—how they learn, why they are learning it, as well as what they are learning. Even in larger classes, I strive for a workshop atmosphere, where we are all rolling up our sleeves and producing an outcome together. I try to make each course a learning community rather than a series of performances by a teacher and by students. I want students to learn how to participate in a learning community and how to learn from each other as well as for me. I stress active rather than passive learning, learning by doing and by taking personal responsibility for one’s own education. My goal is not simply to rank, rate, or certify students but to produce a generation of lifetime learners, dedicated to learning for themselves and to teaching others.

In recent years I have been running an electronic bulletin board and discussion list in conjunction with each class. Though this requires a major commitment of time, I like it because it keeps the energy of the course going in between class meetings and because it invites wider participation, including the participation of those who may feel intimidated for personal reasons or by the class size. I always find it enlightening and surprising to learn what students are thinking when they can express themselves more uninhibitedly in the electronic environment. As in the classroom, I devote time in my messages and responses to encouraging students to participate and to keeping them aware of the aims, purposes, and value of discussion in the learning process. In general, I think of teaching in the electronic environment as well as in the classroom as searching for answers to the questions why? and how?, not just what?

I am also a firm believer in consulting students periodically about their learning experience, asking them directly in class or on the discussion list to let me know what is working and not working for them. I benefit a lot from such consultations, which enable me to adjust and to address problems. In what I say in class I am always bouncing off issues that students raise.

I keep trying out new teaching strategies. I give lots of quizzes and exercises of various kinds, not necessarily graded. I think of them (and encourage students to think of them) as active learning opportunities rather than as examinations testing mastery. I help arrange study groups among students who want to work together, and I take every opportunity to encourage collaborative learning. I have been having success lately with extra study halls in which students work together in a room while I am just around and available as a resource. In the classroom, I especially like giving group quizzes during which I leave while students work on the material together (a group leader is appointed beforehand with the charge of resolving differences of opinion by majority vote). In most of my classes I also provide (sometimes as early as halfway through the term) a sample final examination which makes clear what the level, format, and expectations of the final examination will be. I do not teach toward the test, but I encourage students to use the sample as a learning tool and to get familiar with it as a way of fending off test anxiety or shock. I think my examinations are comprehensive, challenging, and fair—similar to the sample in difficulty but requiring understanding and analogizing, not just memorizing.

My examinations are not easy or meant to be so (though I do try to grade them generously, with appreciation for effort and improvement during the term). I believe in giving challenging examinations and in supporting students in their responses to the challenge. Before the final examination, I schedule an array of optional extra sessions for group and individual work, and I make myself available by telephone switchboard the whole night before the final examination. Although I realize that teaching is much more than giving examinations, my experience has been that students learn a lot by being challenged at the end to sort out and synthesize what they have learned. That is the spirit behind my final examinations. I want to give students a final opportunity for active learning, synthesizing, and showing the progress they have made. In addition (and perhaps most scandalously in the eyes of some of my colleagues,), I announce in advance of the final examination a time and place for a retake, to be given at the beginning of the following term so that students do not approach the exam as a “do-or-die” experience. Though usually only a few students take advantage of the retake opportunity, most find it psychologically comforting to know that it is available. From my point of view, there are lots of valid and understandable reasons why at a given date in the final exam schedule some students might not be ready to perform at their best. Lives are complicated, fragile, and vulnerable. I like giving second chances, and I think that pedagogical strategies of this kind enhance rather than undercut student learning. A course is not a contest to see who comes out on top and does not make it on a given day.

From what I have written in this reflective mode, I may sound a bit too serious, even earnest. Have no fear of that. A major ingredient of my teaching is that I have a good time in the classroom, I cultivate a playful atmosphere, I have a light touch, and I encourage students to enjoy themselves too. In the end, the simple fun of teaching and learning is probably what is most important to me.