Some of the most innovative instructors I’ve known were at the very beginning of their careers. Fresh out of graduate school, they were immersed in current research and experimenting with new technologies and pedagogies. And, perhaps most importantly, they remembered what it felt like to be a student. They understood the pressures, uncertainties and learning habits of the people sitting in front of them.
That advantage doesn’t last forever. As I’ve progressed through my career, I’ve become increasingly aware of the distance between my students’ experiences and my own. The technologies they arrive with (and the ones they don’t), the ways they communicate, the challenges they face and even the careers they’re preparing for continue to evolve. Without attention, my teaching could easily become anchored in what worked for students five or 10 years ago rather than the ones I’m teaching today.
- Great teachers simplify before they complicate
- Teaching is a verb: what sets good teachers apart
- Developing a narrative, evidence-based teaching philosophy statement
That realisation has changed what excellent teaching means to me. I no longer think of it as something we achieve; I think of it as something we continually pursue.
Experience certainly matters. It helps us recognise patterns, anticipate where students will struggle and respond with confidence when things don’t go as planned. But experience also carries a risk. The assignments that have always worked can become the assignments we never question. The lectures we know by heart can become the lectures we stop revising. Confidence can quietly harden into certainty.
The challenge, then, is not simply becoming an experienced teacher. It’s remaining a curious one.
The best teachers maintain their curiosity
Sometimes curiosity is sparked through formal professional development. Developing an expertise in universal design for learning (UDL) has encouraged me to rethink assumptions about how students access course material and demonstrate what they know. For example, rather than designing a course around a single pathway for every student, I now think more carefully about where barriers exist and how different forms of engagement might help more students succeed. The UDL framework is valuable, but what matters more is the habit it encourages – continually questioning our own teaching.
The same has been true of artificial intelligence. Like many educators, I’ve had to reconsider long-held assumptions about assignments, assessment and student learning. It’s prompted questions that I probably should have been asking all along: why do I teach this concept this way? What am I asking students to learn? Is this assignment measuring the outcome I care about or simply reflecting the way I’ve always taught it? Those questions matter far more than any particular technology.
Students, I think, notice when their instructors remain curious. They notice when we try something new, acknowledge when an activity didn’t work as intended or revise a course because we learned something from the previous semester. They also notice when we ask for their feedback before the course is over, giving ourselves the opportunity to respond while they’re still in the classroom rather than waiting for end-of-semester evaluations after they’ve moved on.
Stay attentive to the audience
My goals in teaching have grown to resemble my goals in musical performance. No musician expects to give a “perfect” performance; there’s no such thing. The goal isn’t to recreate yesterday’s performance but to grow as a musician with each one.
Teaching is much the same. Every class develops its own personality. One semester, a discussion flourishes; the next, the same approach falls flat. Some groups need more structure; others thrive with greater independence. Excellent teaching is about remaining attentive enough to recognise when students need something different. And that requires humility as much as expertise.
Teaching is an opportunity to model lifelong learning
It also prepares students for something larger than success in a single course. Higher education is, of course, about helping students build the knowledge and skills they’ll need in their careers. But it’s also about modelling what lifelong learning looks like. If we hope our graduates will continue adapting, questioning assumptions and embracing change throughout their professional lives, they should see those same qualities in us.
I hope I never reach the point where I believe I’ve figured teaching out completely. Experience has taught me that every course still has something to teach me. Expertise isn’t the end of learning and teaching excellence isn’t a destination; it’s the habit of continuing to ask better questions.
Kim Loeffert is an associate professor of music theory in the School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech.
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