Mini-sermons for survival in hostile territory

Abstract

In recent years, many university teachers, prompted by such events as the Bologna project or the lockdown situation due to the pandemic, have implemented teaching innovations for more active learning, focused more closely on the development of skills and with more continuous educational evaluation, just as has long been demanded of universities. However, these efforts often face the difficulties posed by a scenario that should have changed to facilitate these efforts but has not done so. The new curricula continue to be just as they were before (comprising small monothematic subjects), the evaluation rules continue to focus attention almost exclusively on how grades should be given (summative evaluation), and the teaching quality evaluation systems remain focused on verifying that teachers explain their lessons well. Nor has there been any change in the mentality of many teachers, who are suspicious of the innovations made by their colleagues. Indeed, it is not uncommon for teachers to be asked to explain their innovations by colleagues who do not always have a genuine interest in listening to the answers, something which can make the path even longer and more exhausting. For these situations, it is advisable to have a good mini-sermon on hand that can help one to face the situation with dignity, without wasting much time and, if possible, leaving the other person somewhat disoriented. In this article, we propose some mini-sermons of this type. Although this paper is conceived for university teachers, it could also be of interest to teachers on other educational levels.