I’ve been doing some on-and-off thinking lately about teaching (summer is a great time for that, away from the pressure of the school year). One of the things I’ve specifically been thinking about is the idea of “transparency”. I’m curious to hear what you, faithful readers, think/do in terms of transparency when you teach.
So, here’s today’s discussion question, for those of you who teach: How “transparent” are you in your teaching? Do you spell everything out for the students up-front, or do you save the explanations for “why did we just do this” until after the fact, allowing for student discovery? Do you use different approaches for in-class activities vs. out-of-class assignments, or do you use a consistent approach across the board? Do you find that different approaches work for different students, or do you find that students at your institution prefer one approach to the other?
I have some thoughts on the subject, but they are sort of in flux right now, so I’ll defer my comments until later.