Teaching as rhetoric : the teacher's ethos in the college classroom

Abstract

Synthesizing the components of good teaching at the university level has been a problem for educators. Although some commentators offer insight into particular skills that characterize effective teachers, no one has presented a satisfactory system for conceptualizing the art of teaching. I show that rhetoric provides an appropriate synthetic framework for conceptualizing the teacher's art. The utility of rhetoric for synthesizing the teacher's skills resides in its parsimony and generative capability. The structure, purpose, and methods of rhetoric accommodate the classroom situation neatly. The speak.er-subject-audience triadic structure describes the basic classroom relationships among teacher, subject, and students. The purposes of rhetoric--to teach, to delight, to move--are also the teacher's aims. The skills of rhetoric subsume the teacher's skills, for he is involved in inventing, preparing, and presenting messages. This deceptively simple basis generates further propositions about the teacher's art. The teacher, like all speakers, appeals through reason (logos), through emotion (pathos), and through character (ethos). As Aristotle says, however, ethos may be the speaker's most potent means to persuasion. Therefore, I have focused primarily on the teacher's ethical appeal. This focus does not deny the logical dimension of education, but recognizes the impact of the teacher's character in the learning process. To reflect the insight of contemporary rhetoricians and to accommodate the interpersonal, interactive nature of classroom communication, I conceptualize the teacher's ethos as "presenting intellectual self: expertise," "presenting essential self: personal stance," and "presenting performing self: intentions." I consider both content and presentational variables significant aspects of ethos. To facilitate an analysis of the teacher-rhetor's ethos, I suggest an analytical paradigm for studying the teacher's ethical appeal. The paradigm is a heuristic procedure in the form of questions which are a synthesis of teaching skills and rhetorical skills...