How TED* Transformed My Teaching

Guest blog written by long-time friend, Certified TED* Coach, and 3VQ Certified Trainer, Christy Vincent, Ph.D.

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I was disheartened to read the student reviews I received from the university Capstone Course that I taught in the fall semester of 2018. It was clear that my intentions for the students did not match their satisfaction with the course. Their comments told me that their dissatisfaction was because they saw me as a demanding, uncaring, and even an oppressive professor.

As a university professor for almost 30 years, I had received many positive reviews for my high expectations and concern for the students and even received the coveted teaching award a few years earlier. I was puzzled about what had changed that semester.

Earlier that year, I had attended a workshop on TED* (The Empowerment Dynamic)^® that helped me analyze the students’ critical feedback through a new lens. The language of disempowerment in the reviews revealed that my students viewed me as a Persecutor and themselves as Victims, two of the primary roles of the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT).

Our education system generally invites students to feel like Victims when they have little control over their learning environment. Professors are viewed as Persecutors who are looking down on students, judging students, and controlling their schedules. This insight was eye-opening and helped me to understand their negative reviews. I could see how the DDT had more to teach me.

I now understood how my intense desire to prepare my students for the working world was rooted in the Rescuer persona. I rescued in two ways. First, I assigned their projects in stages so at each stage I could evaluate and give detailed feedback. This signaled to them that I did not have faith in their ability to complete the assignments without extensive help from me.

The second unintended result of rescuing was that I took from my students their choice to be innovative. By overly controlling their learning environment, my help-that-is-not-helpful Rescuer tendencies meant the students saw me as their Persecutor. As I read their negative comments in the student reviews, I felt like a Victim to their Persecutor-like critiques of me. After reviewing all this from the lens of the DDT, I had an epiphany about a whole new way to teach.

How did TED* transform my teaching? I began each semester with a presentation sharing with my students the DDT and TED* framework. We discussed the ways that their past college experiences may have made them feel like Victims and how they viewed me as a Persecutor when I was being overly helpful. What changed in me is that I treated students like Creators and facilitated discussions from the Coach role, asking them the important question: What is the outcome you would like to create in this class?

I shared with my students that I believed they could successfully complete the difficult project and that my role was to be Challenger and Coach to them as they created the outcomes they desired. And finally, I changed the course design. The students were given a deadline for the project. I told students that I was available to support them in class and outside of class when they wanted help.

The result? The students deeply appreciated this approach. The project curriculum was as difficult and complex as before. However, students now viewed me as one who held them to high standards but who also believed in them even when they did not believe in themselves. Because they were able to work on the project as their schedules allowed, they felt more creative and passionate toward the project. A bonus for me is that my workload decreased greatly because I was not giving feedback to 25 students on multiple stages of the project.

I retired in June of this year. The last five years of my work as a professor were more fulfilling and effective because I learned the lessons of the DDT and incorporated TED* to transform my teaching.