Susan A. Ambrose

Susan A. Ambrose is Carnegie Mellon’s associate provost for education, teaching professor in the Department of History, and director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, which offers programs to improve the quality of instruction at Carnegie Mellon. Programs include private consultations in course design, implementation, and evaluation; discussions of teaching and learning across departments and colleges; and seminars on teaching and learning.

How would you rate the teaching at Carnegie Mellon?

Oddly, when you look at all of the national rankings, they don’t talk about teaching. But Carnegie Mellon does a lot of student surveys, and the thing that scores well with the most consistency is the teaching.

Are students today the same as, or different from, students a generation ago?

Enormously different. The students who began college around 2000—the “millennials”—are unique in ways both positive and negative. Of course there are exceptions, but the majority of students seem to share some characteristics.

On the positive side, they grew up with collaborative experiences. They find it interesting and even fun to work in teams or groups, so they’re better at it than previous students.

On the negative side, they’ve been protected all of their lives. At the first sign of faltering, their parents talked with the coach or hired a tutor. The apron strings aren’t cut before college, and, often, when students talk with faculty—for instance, about a paper on which they didn’t do well—they want to bring Mom into the office or have Dad on the phone. We’re even hearing this from post-college employers: These students want their parents to negotiate their salaries.

Let’s talk about the use of technology. Carnegie Mellon isn’t giving all of its students iPods as some other places are—and yet this university is a technology leader.

I have strong feelings about this: Education should lead technology, not vice versa. It’s irresponsible just to jump on the bandwagon. Instead, we identify gaps in teaching or learning and then ask how we can fill those gaps. The appropriate responses may be technology-oriented—or not.

Frankly, we get beaten up for this. But nobody has shown that the use of iPods or laptops enhances teaching or learning. Nobody.

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