Teaching Lessons Learned: The ExCEEd Teaching Model

While the first five articles in this Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice JPI series covered a variety of teaching tools and techniques such as the chalkboard, questioning, drama, board notes, physical models, and demonstrations, the previous issue took a broader view and introduced a model instructional strategy. This strategy provides a conceptual framework that an instructor can use to develop classroom instruction in an organized and coherent manner. The strategy reflects the way that students actually learn and prompts the instructor to make conscious decisions about allocating responsibility for student learning and sequencing the contributing activities. This article takes an even wider perspective and attempts to answer the question, What constitutes good teaching? The ExCEEd Teaching Workshop strives to demonstrate and then develop good teaching skills. To do this, good teaching, at some point, must be defined. The ExCEEd Teaching Model represents our best attempt to do this. The ExCEEd Model was developed by examining what attributes make a good teacher, how students learn best, and what tools are available to assist the teacher. The model is based on teaching and learning theory from the literature, supported by years of practical experience from veteran instructors. This article traces the development process of the ExCEEd Teaching Model shown in Fig. 1. Once established, this model serves as a definition of good teaching that can then be used consistently throughout the workshop. Admittedly, many others have attempted to answer this same question, and no two answers are the same. Nevertheless, the ExCEEd Teaching Model is relatively simple; and if an instructor is doing everything in it, he or she is most likely teaching well. Defining high quality teaching is a controversial and perilous task. Teaching is a very personal activity, and no two people do it the same way. Teaching effectiveness is often dependent on the personality and individual talents of the instructor. What works superbly for one teacher may totally flop for another. The answer often becomes, “I can’t define good teaching, but I know it when I see it.” Evidence of good teaching can be seen in the infectious enthusiasm of the teacher, the obvious engagement of the students, the clarity of the presentation, or the successful measured evaluation of what the students have learned. Although there are an infinite number of ways to teach well, there are some consistent elements, activities, and attributes that seem to be present with all good teachers. The ExCEEd Model attempts to capture these.