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Faculty Interviews |
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Interview with Janet OttRecent Teaching History Recent and Current Areas of Interest There are two rather different, but faintly connected areas
of interest that I am working on. They both have to do with
how mindsets and practices which are at odds with our modern
scientific rationalism manifest themselves, affect our understanding,
and shape the ways we see the world. The first has to do with
the alternative healing practices and the physical mechanism
which underlie those approaches which attempt to connect mind,
body and spirit. The specific work I am currently undertaking
has to do with my study and certification in Jin Shin Jyutsu,
a Japanese form of acupressure. They call it an art and a
physio-philosophy. I am beginning work summer with an acupuncturist
to investigate the biophysical mechanisms which are at work
in this healing and to investigate how the body responds,
in terms of heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and the
like during treatment. In other words we’re just going
to stick electrodes in all over and see what happens. We are
really interested in how this kind of healing works and maybe
we can begin to get at why it works. Finally, I have a real but rather back grounded interest in the question of teaching sciences and mathematics effectively. I don't think we as a society are doing a very good job of it. I am interested in issues of analysis and assessment. We know lectures aren't very effective, so what do we do to get students engaged with workshops and labs. How do we transfer knowledge and skills. I am convinced that they are in some way qualitatively different from humanities and social sciences. I am interested in the pedagogy of math and sciences. Are there particular authors/artists/thinkers whose work you interested and which you often ask students to examine? Around particular topics there are specific works which I
would have student's read. But, with the possible exception
of Kuehn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, there
are not general pieces of reading which I feel student's need
to have read in order for us to work. But in a topic area,
for example Gothic cathedrals I would want students to have
read Otto von Simpson, or for gender issues I would want them
to read Caryl Churchill’s "Cloud Nine." In
the sciences I feel it is critically important for students
to read the primary literature, indeed in history as well.
Students have to build a framework. Frameworks are incredibly
important to me. You may change that framework. You may completely
dismantle it. But if you don't have anything to start with
your just building sand castles that will get washed away.
Specific Skills, Competence, Techniques: I try to teach clarity of thinking which can then be written,
spoken or presented as in a poster or presentation. It really
doesn't matter whether I am teaching sciences or history,
freshmen or advanced students, I want students to work on
clear thinking and writing. This takes constant work. I try
to get students to work together in groups, to serve as an
audience and critics for each other's work. I want students
to learn how to present what they have to say without extraneous
material. In general I think learning how to work in a small
group is a critical lesson and skill which students need to
learn. I am concerned to teach library skills and make sure
that students know how to use a library to form and begin
to answer their own questions. I don't think you can become
an educated person if you can't figure out how to use a library.
What are key qualities you look for and techniques you use to assess and help students assess their work? Put most succinctly, I look for clarity without filler. Are
students capable of finding a main point, answering a question,
defining a thesis in a precise and concise way. Is there enough
information to convey and support the point without extraneous
filler. It took me a while to recognize that I didn't want
the filler. I think becoming clearer and more precise in language
is a very slow process. I tend to use lots of workshops in
order to give people a place for constant response and reaction
to their work. I think this learning happens as much as a
result of effective response peers as it does from faculty.
Students need to make several drafts of a piece of work in
order to really learn about clarity of presentation. Teaching Style:How would you characterize yourself as a teacher? I think of myself as someone who is flexibly inflexible.
In other words, I think there really are pieces of work and
particular skills that the students have to learn in order
for them to know a subject and engage in the conversation
about it. I can become rather intransigent about these things.
Yet I am willing to flex when students have real personal
difficulties and work with me about how to learn the material
in a different way. Deadlines are deadlines to me. On some
things I am absolutely inflexible. Your work will be done
at the end of the quarter. But, I am also quite flexible about
issues of family, work and the like when there is a legitimate
issue in a student's life. I am absolutely engaged with my
students. I think I am demanding, yet I have really increased
my patience. I'm not great there yet. There are students who
might argue with that. I am enthusiastic. What types of students tend to do well with you? The students who do well with me are self-motivated, self
assured, but not arrogant. I really can't stand it when students
think they are better than they are. Bright students do well
with me. The other thing is that I am really good with the
other end of the spectrum to. I am really good with shy and
unassuming, especially those new to the environment. These
people need to be willing to work hard, but not necessarily
bright. What types of students have a hard time with you? The students who I have a difficulty with are the ones who
have a veneer of self assurance, but can't stand up for themselves
inside so at the first criticism they crumble. But because
thye can't deal with it in a face to face way, they end up
being very critical in evaluations and occasionally disrupt
other student's learning in the program. These students tend
to see their work as themselves and criticism of it tends
to be treated as personal criticism. Unfocused and/or lazy
students have a hard time with me. Unless we can work on the
issue of focus directly. What do your student evaluations say about the way you come across to students? Student evaluations are sometimes a mystery to me. They tend to be quite polar. Many students see me as there for them, listen carefully, help clarify work,with good suggestions, that I hear them and work with them as an adult. From the shy students I hear "I was scared to approach Jan, but when I did she was terrific and caring and thoughtful." "She pushed me in ways I needed to be pushed." "I like her sense of humor." These things turn around to be really sarcastic, condescending, "she doesn't listen." "She doesn't give enough positive stuff in her evaluations" although that is changing as I have made an attempt to change that. Expectations about Contracts, Internships, and Evaluations
I see contracts as advanced work. I think there are two different
sorts of work that are good to do in contact. The first is
advanced topics that are not covered by our curriculum such
as some gender issues, or Gothic Cathedrals, of a particular
physiologist or psychologist, but it can also be a senior
thesis integrative experience. In other words they can be
on a particular path or pulling together a lot of disparate
things. Internships are often misused, but when they are done
well they are an incredibly useful praxis, which allows students
to try out a possible career. For example someone who wants
to go into medicine, midwifery, or veterinary science, but
has no idea about whether they can stand the sight of blood.
Thus when a student comes to me they need to have a well thought
out idea for a contract. That means a clear idea about the
focus. the books they want to read, the papers they want to
write, the projects they want to undertake, how they want
to be evaluated and some real idea of what they want from
me. For internships students need much of the above and they
need to have made a firm contract with a field supervisor.
What information do you want to see when a person comes to look for a contract? I want a draft of their written proposal . More than that
it depends on who they are working with and what they are
doing. If it is a contract that includes work at another institution
then I want to see the syllabus for that class. If doing library
research I would like to see bibliographies. I do want lists
of references from other faculty. When writing evaluations what are the key qualities or attributes of student work you access? I attend to issues of timeliness, attendance, preparation, and completion of work as patterns. Thus if a student is consistently late it will get mentioned. I assess skills primarily, clarity in writing, oral presentation and other materials. I assess their ability to analyze content and to talk about it intelligently. I assess communications generally but seminar skills in particular. In many instances I assess their ability to work in small groups.
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