Jessamyn Neuhaus, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Syracuse University and author of Geeky Pedagogy, dives into the messiness of learning in the college classroom. She discusses the natural occurrence of mistakes and the pitfalls of perfectionism in academia. Neuhaus emphasizes that teaching is never perfectible and highlights the importance of embracing errors as opportunities for growth. She also explores the intersections of identity and systemic inequities, promoting a humanistic approach to education that values adaptability and authenticity.
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insights INSIGHT
Mistakes Are Normal in Academia
Humans make mistakes both in learning and simply living; mistakes are normal in academia too.
Teaching and learning will never be perfectible due to human and systemic factors.
insights INSIGHT
Teaching Is Not Perfectible
Scholarship often unintentionally promotes the myth that teaching can be perfect.
Teaching involves human challenges and will never be flawless no matter how much evidence we have.
insights INSIGHT
The Harm of Super Teacher Myth
The super teacher myth portrays professors as flawless, fascinating lecturers.
This myth harms both educators and learners by setting unrealistic expectations for teaching.
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Jessamyn Neuhaus shares about her book, SNAFU Edu: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom, on episode 577 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.
Quotes from the episode
Human beings make mistakes. We make mistakes as part of learning. We make mistakes just being in the world.
-Jessamyn Neuhaus
Academia generally attracts people with perfectionist tendencies.
-Jessamyn Neuhaus
Sometimes there is no positive outcome when something goes wrong. Sometimes things just get messed up because people are human.
-Jessamyn Neuhaus
Inadvertently we have a subtext that teaching is somehow perfectible. Teaching and learning will never ever be perfectible.
-Jessamyn Neuhaus
Resources
Snafu Edu: Teaching and Learning When Things Go Wrong in the College Classroom, by Jessamyn Neuhaus
Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) at Syracuse University
Picture a Professor: Interrupting Biases about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning, by Jessamyn Neuhaus
Geeky Pedagogy, by Jessamyn Neuhaus
Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America, by Jessamyn Neuhaus
Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship, by Mahan Khalsa
The Sleeper, by Mike Wesch
SIFT (The Four Moves), by Mike Caulfield
Our University Is Replacing DEI with Vibes and Vaguely Diverse Stock Photos by Carla M. Lopez for McSweeney’s
DEI? You’re Fired! with Heather McGhee on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
10 In the Moment Responses for Addressing Micro and Macroaggressions in the Classroom, by Chavella Pittman
10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People, by David Yeager
Critical Teaching Behaviors: Defining, Documenting, and Discussing Good Teaching, by Lauren Barbeau, Claudia Cornejo Happel
Dippity Do Girls with Curls Curl Boosting Mousse
MoMA Sliding Perpetual Calendar
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Hand Soap
Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education
International Journal for Students as Partners
Tea for Teaching Podcast
The Present Professor, by Elizabeth A. Norell
Thrifty Shopper
We Are Lady Parts on Peacock
Teaching in Higher Ed 
