Section 7.1 Responding to students
One of the new faculty members expressed appreciation of that perspective:
I would have found a way to personalize...I never teach the same class again myself, I am an incurable improviser, good and bad, that's how I am...I think just the way students react to things, you can not just go in with a set of preconceived ideas. I think it is fairly easy to see when a concept surprises them or something is unexpected or if they have a kind of ‘ah ha’ moment in which they suddenly link two concepts and whenever I notice that, I try to take advantage and stimulate a conversation about that
This new faculty member recognized the importance of noticing student reactions and making spontaneous decisions about what content to address next:
...like you see two students discussing about something you said...it becomes a judgment call to decide whether it's going to be something that everybody benefits from or not but I always try to stop and ask
Watching videos of the prior instructor's classes had deepened this new faculty member's understanding of the curriculum when contemplating more substantial changes:
If I decide to change something, at least I know, because if I want to do it differently I know differently with respect to what.
Access to the videos had enhanced this new faculty member's awareness of what a contemplated change would be changing.