Teaching as Performance

Rubrics. Learning Outcomes. Assessment. As educators, we have become accustomed to developing and documenting the mechanics of teaching. In so doing, have we lost sight of the art of teaching? How do we embrace the performative facets of our craft without sacrificing academic rigor? Moreover, how do we ensure the connection between content and craft so that students retain the material as well as our delivery of it? The creative, improvisational aspects of teaching need not be confined to the liberal arts: techniques and principles from performance-based disciplines can be applied to enhance teaching in any classroom. Drawing on our previous research which focused on using humor in the classroom to increase student engagement and to mitigate professor burnout, Dr. Ann Glazer Niren and Dr. Rebekah Dement will demonstrate how good teaching may be considered a performance by offering strategies to provide balance between the competing demands of mechanics and art. Using scholarly research that emphasizes storytelling, class collaboration, movement, and improvisation in instruction, Drs. Niren and Dement will showcase role-playing and group discussion in this session as a means to demonstrate the value of performance in the college classroom: no previous performance experience required!