Craig Butz :: Teaching Portfolio

Teaching Philosophy

As I have become a seasoned teacher over the past two-and-a-half decades, my beliefs about teaching have developed enormously. Though I started my career knowing that students' minds weren't empty vessels waiting to be filled, through years of experience have I developed and refined more effective approaches than what I experienced as a student. Today, I strive to be an innovative and truly progressive educator. To me, that means practicing pedagogy that is constructivist, social, student-driven, transdisciplinary, and project-based; it means learning that is focused on depth, feedback, revision, and communication--a combination of values and approaches that guide how I plan the overall arc of courses and teach day to day.

Though there is a place for memorizing terminology and procedures, usable understanding comes from actively engaging material and constructing working mental models of your own. Understanding sticks when students practice what they've worked out for themselves. Even when students are learning from experts, they do so by creating their own understanding. My constructivist approach aligns with a conviction that the ability to puzzle your way through a novel problem is far more empowering than the ability to follow directions.

I often structure classes so that students can construct understanding with their classmates. Learning is, in large part, a social process. We take in and "figure out", sort and share ideas through human interaction. My classroom is usually a lively place where groups of various sizes grapple with the material at hand. I also try to make learning take place out of the classroom. I take students into the field to gather information, to connect with adults, and to see how their learning can be applied.

Most teachers today expect students to be much more active participants than we were when I was a high school student. Yet I still get students whose innate curiosity has already been quashed by the first decade of their formal education. Student-centered classrooms seek to get students more actively involved in the content being delivered, but rarely ask students what content they want to study. I strive to make much of my teaching not just student-centered, but student-directed. I work to energize students with rigorous and in-depth content that is relevant to their present and future lives. I give them opportunities to explore the topics that matter to them because that is what cultivates curiosity.

When student interests are put at the center of education, dividing learning into traditional subjects makes less and less sense. Discipline boundaries dissolve when learning is truly connected to the real world. Some of the most rewarding classes I've taught were interdisciplinary collaborations with math, science, and art teachers. I am also skilled in collaborating on transdisciplinary studies with students themselves, drawing on both their curiosity and my own long-time interest in a range of fields that I joyfully explored in my college liberal arts requirements and adult reading. Even though my official job title is usually "English teacher", biology, sociology, astronomy, government, and statistics all make their way into my classes. No one can be an expert in every area that is relevant to the problems facing the modern world. But we can cultivate in ourselves and our students expertise in working effectively outside our comfort zones and getting ourselves up to speed on whatever issues we face.

Even as my interests are wide, I whole-heartedly value depth over breadth in learning. While it is important for young people to be exposed to a wide variety of subjects to build well-rounded perspectives on the world, and cross-disciplinary projects present myriad paths to explore, students benefit more from delving into and becoming expert in a smaller number of topics than from covering more topics superficially and forgetting what little they learned. Education is not a race. Students benefit from slowing down and doing whatever they are doing well.

Much of this focused exploration occurs in my classroom through projects aimed toward tangible products. People learn the most when they have a reason to learn. Students want to know when they need to know. Producing a meaningful product for a real audience is one particularly potent way to generate that need to learn. At the culmination of projects and studies, students benefit from sharing what they've discovered so they can reflect on the process and take pride in what they've accomplished. Publication and exhibition help set a high bar, reinforce learning, and make work relevant.

Aiming for a high-quality product requires a process focus, and learning is an iterative process. My students engage in informal design thinking and practice prototyping and revision. I have high expectations for my students and myself , but this does not mean I expect them to achieve perfection on the first try. I believe that failure is an essential ingredient for success. I help students make mistakes and learn from them. I push my students to revise repeatedly so they can produce the best work they can, just as I constantly evaluate and modify my own teaching.

In order to iterate and improve, students need feedback along the way far more than final evaluation. Feedback should be information that students can use to improve, not a judgment of their worth as students. Effective feedback holds a mirror up to a student's work and helps them see it more clearly through descriptions, questions, and suggestions. As much as possible, I steer students to focus on learning rather than grades, because good creative work is motivated by experiencing autonomy, mastery, and purpose--not reward and punishment.

Finally, underlying all education is communication. Language connects every field of study. Beyond observation and practice even, the ability to communicate clearly is the most essential tool we have for creating and sharing knowledge, understanding, and ultimately wisdom. So my expertise with the written word in particular underpins whatever I teach: teaching students to effectively communicate helps them see the world more clearly and empowers them as they endeavor to shape the future.