My Five Major Challenges as a Teacher. Discussion. Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, September 8, 2017

Abstract

The discussion on My Five Major Challenges as a Teacher was the first meeting within professional development program for HSE faculty, namely, Teach for HSE. The program is designed to improve teaching skills and represents a working tool that will allow any committed teacher to either design a new course from scratch or to redesign an existing one. Participants will discuss teaching models adopted by the leading universities. In the first cycle, the focus will be placed on problem-based learning. The organizers hope that the program will stimulate an ever wider discussion on teaching to evolve. In this paper the reader is introduced to four personal reflections on teaching experiences by teachers in widely different domains: sociology, economics, political science, and English as a foreign language. Even though they have been teaching to college students for many years, every day they have to answer questions regarding what to teach, how to teach, what to teach for, and whom they teach.