Center for Teaching and Learning (OSU)

Assumptions about Teaching and Learning

This survey is from William E. Cashin, Kansas State University’s Center for Faculty Evaluation & Development. (1992)

Below are 72 statements about college teaching and learning: statements which some college teachers have supported. Most likely you will agree with some, and disagree with others. Please read each statement and record your reaction in the space provided. Use the following key:

SA		Strongly agree with the statement
A		Agree
?		Undecided or cannot say
D		Disagree
SD		Strongly disagree

____	1.	The teacher’s primary role in the classroom is as “information dispenser.”
____	2.	Only cognitive objectives can be taught. It is unreasonable and unfair to hold the instructor responsible for anything else.
____	3.	The teacher’s primary role is to provide students with a model of the way people in the field think and attack problems.
____	4.	Instructors should help students understand themselves (their strengths and weaknesses).
____	5.	The personal development of students should be one of the teacher’s primary goals.
____	6.	Students learn most from real experiences outside the academic setting. The best a teacher can do is help students understand these experiences.
____	7.	Effective teachers are first and foremost masters of their academic discipline.
____	8.	The instructor should ask questions of specific students to determine if they have read the materials, done assignments, understood the lecture, etc.
____	9.	Student thinking process is a teacher’s most important product.
____	10.	Instructors should help students develop a sense of personal responsibility (self-reliance, self-discipline).
____	11.	Too many teachers teach only intellects, not total people.
____	12.	Each student should set his/her own pace for learning the course material.
____	13.	The instructor has knowledge that the student needs and the instructor is able to transmit that knowledge.
____	14.	The instructor should answer most of the questions asked in class.
____	15.	Students need to be challenged by teachers to formulate and defend their ideas.
____	16.	How students learn is more important than what they learn.
____	17.	How a teacher relates to students is as important as what the teacher knows.
____	18.	Learning comes from student experience
____	19.	The student’s primary goal is to gain factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends).
____	20.	Discussions are a waste of time: an exercise in pooled ignorance.
____	21.	The student’s primary role is to learn fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories.
____	22.	Teachers should share with students their expectations, hopes and fears concerning a course.
____	23.	Students should feel free to express their feelings in the classroom.
____	24.	The aim of teaching is to lead the student to re-examine and reformulate that experience.
____	25.	Most of what students learn, they learn from lectures and books.
____	26.	Students go to school to become employable. It’s the teacher’s job to make sure they learn the “tools of the trade.”
____	27.	Students should understand the principles or reasons for various practices or procedures.
____	28.	The instructor should help students to discover the implications of the course material for understanding themselves (interests, values, talents, etc.).
____	29.	For many course objectives only the students themselves can decide if they have achieved the objective.
____	30.	Students learn best when they are able to formulate their own frameworks for the content of the course.
____	31.	The aim of teaching is to transmit well-organized bodies of knowledge from teacher to student.
____	32.	Teaching is 80% knowledge and 20% patience.
____	33.	Teaching students “the facts” is a waste of time. They have to learn how to think.
____	34.	Students enjoy discussing ideas about course content with the instructor and other students.
____	35.	Students and teachers should plan course content together.
____	36.	In order for students to get the most out of a course, they must take responsibility for learning.
____	37.	Teachers should clearly state what they expect from students.
____	38.	Student motivation comes primarily from positive reinforcement by the teacher.
____	39.	Most of what students learn, they learn from their teachers.
____	40.	Students enjoy applying ideas they have learned in a course to problems that they encounter outside the classroom.
____	41.	If a student’s personal beliefs and values are not challenged in a course, the instructor has failed.
____	42.	A teacher has to use all of him/herself in the classroom - intellect, intuition, feelings - in order to be effective.
	43.	The teacher should make it clear how each topic fits into the course.
____	44	Teachers have no business challenging student’s basic attitudes and values.
____	45.	The instructor should find ways to help students answer their own questions.
____	46.	Most of what students learn, they learn on their own.
____	47.	Student motivation comes primarily with student success in grappling with course content.
____	48.	Classroom methods which maximize student-teacher and student-student interaction also maximize learning.
____	49.	Students learn best when they have a clear outline of the course and of each individual class supplied by the instructor.
____	50.	Professors are often too personal with their students.
____	51.	Teaching is the cultivation of rational activity.
____	52.	Instructors should draw on their personal experience in their teaching.
____	53.	The objectives of a course should be different for each student.
____	54.	Teachers learn as much from students as students learn from teachers.
____	55.	Students learn most by following a detailed, clearly defined instructional program.
____	56.	Teachers should repeat student comments so the whole class may hear them.
____	57.	Student motivation comes primarily from teacher enthusiasm about the subject matter.
____	58.	If a student gets an “A” in a course, but has learned to hate the field, the teacher has failed.
____	59.	If an instructor knows the answer to a question, that question is probably not worth asking.
____	60.	An important part of class is to learn to get along with other people.
____	61.	The objectives of a course should be the same for all of the students.
____	62.	An instructor’s personal feelings have no place in the classroom.
____	63.	A teacher should try to persuade students that particular ideas are valid and exciting.
____	64.	Incorrect answers from students are more interesting and more conducive to learning than correct ones.
____	65.	Students learn best when teaching other students.
____	66.	Students learn most by working with other students.
____	67.	Students should be expected to learn material at about the same rate.
____	68.	Students can learn more by working on their own than by working with other students.
____	69.	The instructor is the best judge of the student’s mastery of the course objectives.
____	70.	There are no “wrong answers” from students. An unexpected response just means the student was answering a different question. The teacher should explore to find out what question the student was answering.
____	71.	Teaching is 20% knowledge and 80% patience.
____	72.	One of the most important things a student can learn is to tolerate some ambiguity in the search for understanding of course material.