Faculty Discuss Academic Excellence in Workshops

As a component of the Academy’s multiyear strategic planning mission, faculty spent Wednesday morning discussing academic excellence at Exeter and methods by which students can most effectively learn. To facilitate conversation, the Strategic Planning Committee invited Dr. Zak Stein, an expert in human development and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as a guest speaker.

The meeting occurred in lieu of Wednesday classes, marking the second time this term a school day has been cancelled for faculty discussions. The first talk, which took place on October 8th, was dedicated to examining "goodness" and its role at the Academy, while this second talk focused on academics itself.

"Strategic planning requires thinking about what kind of school we want to be in the future; in that regard, we need to question how well we help students learn and what we may need to do differently to provide each of our students with a great learning experience," history instructor Giorgio Secondi, one of the faculty members of the Strategic Planning Committee, said. "As research about learning advances, it's essential for us to revisit our pedagogy and consider what we can do to enhance it."

English department head Lundy Smith had a similar viewpoint on strategic planning.

"We are ‘soul-searching.’ We're taking a deep look into our institution and thinking, ‘Are we doing things that are best for our students?’" he said. " Are we doing things that will keep us relevant as an institution of learning 15 or 30 years down the road? Those are important questions. If we just sit back and say, ‘We're Exeter, we’re great and we don't have to do anything to change,’ we’ll get lost and we'll get passed by."

Unlike the previous Wednesday meeting, which focused more on faculty looking at the Exeter community itself, this week’s meeting was more inherently educational; the Strategic Planning Committee hoped the talk would help provide faculty with a basis to enhance their teaching approach.

"Dr. Stein helped us learn more about the so-called science of the individual, which emphasizes the uniqueness of learners and the complexity of their development," Secondi said. "Dr. Stein also challenged us to think about how well Harkness works as a pedagogical approach given what we increasingly know and understand about student learning."

In addition to these topics, faculty considered academic support at the Academy and how various Exonians may flourish through different methods of learning.

"This made us think about the way we teach and how it is effecting individual learners. Every kid around the table learns in a different way," Smith said. "This brought the question: ‘what is successful Harkness teaching and what is not successful Harkness teaching and when is Harkness not a great fit for a kid?’ It raises a myriad of questions about how we do things [at Exeter]."

Indeed, the process of transitioning into a cutting-edge institution is not simple, and most faculty and students are grateful for the methodical approach that the Academy is taking.

Upper Margaux Morris commented on this, stating she believes the process of improving the school’s academics will be both difficult and long-term. "There are ways to improve the overall climate of stress and anxiety at Exeter, but for a school that is intentionally one of the most academically rigorous in the nation, the difference cannot simply be assigning less homework or having fewer tests," she said.

Smith echoed Morris’s assertion, noting that the acknowledgement of possible enhancements for the Academy is crucial, regardless of the difficulty of implementing these adjustments.

"What we are doing is important, and ultimately we may struggle and pull out our hair and come to the conclusion that we have to make some big changes," he said. "But the very process of asking these questions is a healthy thing for any institution."