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TEDx Talks
Published: 2012-05-23
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3QfhMX5ESU
%HESITATION wow that's a hard act to follow and I don't think I can belly dance but I could give it a shot I want to start off by thanking Ted acts and all of you for being here this morning to listen to a message is it about which I have great great passion I thank you for that I'm John Zubizarreta I'm professor of English and director
of the honors program and director of faculty development and former dean of undergraduate studies at Columbia College and last year I had the great great delight and and lucky fortune to have been selected by the Carnegie Foundation the council for the advancement support of education as the U. S. professor of the year for baccalaureate colleges thank you it's the first time ever in the status that
anybody from the state of South Carolina has been selected for that award some very proud of that and if you've driven up and down north main street in time recently here in Columbia probably noticed the banners that are on every light post on both sides of the street up and down north main street and one of them has a picture of me on it makes me
look like F. B. I.'s most wanted are and another one has a picture of one of my beloved students Diana Lynn who graduated this past spring last spring and she was selected by the national collegiate honors council as the national honor student of the year she's actually the third student from Columbia College who has receive that award in the eight years that the price has been
given something else I'm very proud about now that the news you know often here in higher about higher education in the media is always bad news and you know there's that episode and star track where Scotty the engineers down there in the bowels of the starship enterprise somewhere the calls up to captain Kirk up on the bridge because their captain keeps asking for more more what
speed and Scotty calls up and says captain captain a terrible Scottish accent captain captain I don't think she could take much more she's about to blow captain well that's me I'm about to blow because I'm really sick and tired of hearing all the negative press about higher education when in fact in my own experience as a director of faculty development as somebody who is passionate about
teaching and learning and somebody who's had the great fortune of being invited to lead workshops and give keynote presentations all over the world on the value of teaching and learning I see a very different picture I hear and see a very different story and I want to share some of that story with you today the Carnegie Foundation %HESITATION US professor of the year award is one
that %HESITATION will has been widely celebrated on our campus and I'm very very proud of that but I want you to know that the award is not my award it's this the award of my colleagues it's the award of the city of Columbia state of South Carolina and in fact it's your award because teaching and learning are fundamental to building AS then Rick a society that
is impact that is passionate about life long learning and that's what we're dedicated to as educators but those are stories that are hardly ever told all you hear is all the bad news the Carnegie Foundation award privileges many many characteristics and I know how arduous it is to make your selections because I was asked to be on the selection committee for this year's round of recipients
and it's agonizing to make that decision but I can tell you that the number one criterion that's used in selecting the U. S. professor is the professors impact on students what difference does teaching make in the lives of the students how our students lives transformed by education and I'm very very very happy that Columbia College and that our students have been recognized as so many ways
by this award but not all the news is good it's not always so heartening and you can see that arm when I returned back from the award ceremony in Washington DC and I arrive at the Columbia airport see a E. aren't there were are a number of students who were waiting for me at the airport and these are students who showed up because they were proud
of not only their professor but of their college and of higher education in general and they put up a big roar at the airport and the TSA people walking around with their hands on their guns wondering if this was a takeover of the airport but in fact it was not it was just the celebration good teaching and deep transformative learning and now I was just in
tears practically when I arrived at the airport but remember that not all the news is good but I'm here to tell you a different story because teaching transform students lives I know because I'm a living example when I was my parents are Cuban immigrants and we grew up in Harlem New York City and when it came time for me to go to college I was resolve
that I was not going to go to college but we sacrificed I worked at Florida power and light company at nights while I went to school at Miami Dade junior college and there I met a professor named Margie Bueller and she took a great interest in me and when it came time for me to graduate from with my bachelors degree from a higher %HESITATION university in
Miami she stepped up to the plate but the story is somewhat tragic because I was not going to be able to go to graduate school and she was not going to allow that to happen and tragically and coincidentally that very same year that I was getting ready to graduate her eldest and beloved son Michael killed tragically in a motorcycle accident sorry I still get emotional about
it Margie used to some of the life insurance and settlement money to help send me to graduate school and it changed my life and that's why I'm here today and you know what there are many many many stories just like that one out there but they're never told all you hear is about failing universities higher education is a disaster teachers are teaching students aren't learning I'm
about to blow the stories I can tell you are totally contrary to that story that you read about and hear about in the public eye and media all the time another story for example is home Hassan story homo was the student that I asked to introduce me at the awards ceremony Washington DC for the U. S. professor of the year and home out comes from a
family of three three girls all of them went to Columbia College all of them have graduated from Columbia College and all of them of doing remarkable things in their lives their lives have been changed by education Holman introduced me in Washington by telling her own story about her life about how her life was changed through the agency good teaching caring education she told a story about
how after her father died suddenly she was very very close to her father sold the event was catastrophic for her it was traumatic and she took a few days off from school asses only a few and when she turned back when she turned up back at the college she came straight to my office and she looked terrible not something you often say to a young lady
and I said Homer you look terrible sit down I could tell she hadn't eaten in days and I grab some of the snack food in there we go button the fruit that I brought with me that day Sattar down I said homa you have to eat and you will eat now and she ate and chi was replenished both intellectually and emotionally he told that story of
course being arm nam a softie I cried during the ceremony and embarrass myself and I had to apologize to the audience in DC about that well let me tell you the news the stories don't often get told and the news isn't always very good for example after the awards were given %HESITATION there was a blog entry there several blog entries in the chronicle of higher education
which featured a story that was titled U. S. professors put students in charge of learning and the blog entries were in some cases vicious and this is just one example not so vicious but this person wasn't putting students in charge of learning forget it you educators are wasting time you're wasting money tell the students what they need to know testimony weed out the ones who don't
get it and move along the ones who do end of story also army when aunt or she went on to say that you know this whole notion of engaged learning is in this country gone way too far we're wasting too much time too many resources on all this junk called active learning problem based learning critical thinking get over it teaching the facts and use the money
in a better way the reason the block continued saying that the responsibility of learning is not the professors students you marry if you're clever have already noticed the contradiction between the last statement and the first statement right well that's the kind of press that higher education seems to get these days I'm here to tell you a very different story and at the awards ceremony again home
my introduced me and that's home was sitting right there and I don't fantasize I can't help it thinking that she's sitting there with her head with her head on her hand with that look on her face with me up there in tears want thinking to herself his message is the message that ought to be getting out everywhere that higher education does make a difference we'd do
change lives we do transform people why is it that story told now all of you remember I'm sure the movie Ferris Bueller's day off and this is the model of education that I think the public seems to have been mind when they think about the impact of higher education remember the economics professors up there lecturing about what was it voodoo economics and all the students are
sitting there right this and the fact that the guy was Ferris had his head down on the desk in a pool of drool okay I'm here to tell you in the work that I do at Columbia College in the work that I do in fact the development of teaching and learning circles again all over the world I see a very different picture of higher education I
see many professors working their hearts out right out of their chests and given to the students and saying this process of being educated is important it matters and we're here to encourage you to port you to care for you and yes to transmit knowledge and skills but transmission of knowledge and skills is not enough we need to engage students in the deep transformative lifelong process of
reflection and critical thinking problem solving and really applying their learning across disciplines and it between what happens in the classroom and what happens outside the classroom I see that everywhere happening in higher education in an increasing level why isn't that story being told about to blow I see it very differently and so I want to engage you in a couple exercises because after all what kind
of but engage creative active teacher would I be if all I did was lecture here to you today right so I'm gonna ask you to I participate with me and some interactive exercise can I get the lights up in the house here for just a moment I'm gonna give you about twenty seconds to look at these images of the U. S. pennies now mind you all
of you have handled the penny hundreds maybe thousands maybe tens of thousands of times you would think that after having experienced that piece of knowledge that you would know it hands down no question right take a look at these images because you know what only one is the U. S. penny only one and because I'm not a cruel teacher I am making it a little bit
easier for you and I've eliminated at least two of them okay just to give you a head start so fifteen seconds figure out which one is the penny turn to your neighbor and see if you can reach a consensus of opinion go do as I say I'm a teacher okay let me get you back but we have to act well then time out time now yeah
command yeah because they say in the trucking business tomorrow back them all back now actually remember me come on back thank you now actually that response that is your unwillingness to come back to me as the all forty of knowledge is the response that I and good teachers count on all the time because it shows you that once you engage students in the process of learning
in the process of collaboration in the process of learning from each other not necessarily from me you can't that the costume back they go out of control that's a positive response that's what education is about so I have another another quick fifteen minute exercise in the last minute and a half that I have I'm gonna move on to them no I you don't want to leave
without knowing the answer fair enough fair enough I won't talk to you anymore actually the answer is one day okay I think you learn some lessons about engaged learning an active teaching from that little exercise okay that's the story that isn't being told here's another one I'm gonna use myself as content Terrill here it could've been mass Goodman physics Pippin English Pippin dance could have been
history but it happens to be me okay getting to know something about me John Z. has taught college for more than thirty five years and because of my Cuban heritage a Spanish language I earn the Fulbright in Chile well our John Z. has been awarded six gold medals and four silver medals in U. S. national whitewater championships one of the statements is not true which one
fifteen seconds talk to your neighbor okay come on back make it a little quicker this time okay the jets are actually because we're running out of time was the second one about the third right I have been teaching college for more than thirty five years than anybody say that can't possibly be true yeah I started when I was five I don't want six bare metals and
four silver medals the national championship my so I want to end with by just giving showing you one last saw photo this is the end of the awards ceremony at the library of Congress and Washington DC where there were many many big a terrace and legislators there none from the state of South Carolina I might add and I think that this picture tells you something about
the relationship between good teachers and great students the students all were there at the ceremony in Washington on their own dime okay because they wanted to celebrate so I hope that the next time you see all this bad press about higher education maybe you'll put a big acts on that news and instead help me figure out how to keep that starship enterprise from blowing up thank
