0.3 Findings

Each pedagogical biography includes short excerpts of the participants’ own words so the reader can become familiar with their ways of expressing themselves, and more importantly, quotations are the data of qualitative research. Unfortunately, some of the emotional content of their words is lost to the reader, who cannot hear the intonation of their words. Instead, this type of information is provided through reflective comments on these conversations. Their stories about teaching are presented here through the filter of the researcher’s point of view. The researcher brings to the interpretation of events her own experience with instructional technology, her teaching experience, and research studies in both education and psychology.

What follows is a group of nine different stories that provide insight into who these instructors were, how they taught, how they used instructional technology, and why. The biographies are ordered by the number of years the instructors had taught in the field of counseling psychology, from least to the most.

Laura, the reluctant adopter

Teaching experience

Although Laura had taught at the graduate level part-time for two years, this was her first year of full-time teaching. She was part of a small staff that made up the counselor education program of a private college in New England.

Course format

Laura taught the theories of counseling and psychotherapy course face-to-face. Laura expressed two major concerns in teaching the theories course: learning to use a variety of teaching techniques, and figuring out how to prepare the students adequately for the professional licensing exam, which all the students would have to pass to become certified. In her words:

A challenge to me as a new professor is to walk the line between providing all of that detail in class, speaking at breakneck speed from the beginning to the end, and relying on students to learn that detail on their own.

Philosophy of teaching

Laura’s philosophy of teaching centered on identifying and building on students’ strengths. She described herself as “a connected and relationship-oriented kind of a professor.” Laura’s professional mission was to help her students learn about, join, and participate in professional organizations. Her high level of activity in this area was partially motivated by her need to build a portfolio of activities toward tenure requirements. She received support for her coaching of students in professional activities by her supervisor, who also coached her in developing her pedagogy.

Teaching methods

Laura’s teaching methods were greatly influenced by her mentors in graduate school, who taught in a strictly conventional lecture format. She considered her main strengths to be the ability to convey their interest in and enthusiasm for the subject, to show concern for the students, and to use every minute of class time in carefully prepared and structured lectures.

With encouragement, however, Laura was learning to extend her repertoire of teaching strategies to fit with different learning styles.