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News from the Dean

Jeffrey Shoulson has short grey hair and wears a blue suit.

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you know, before coming to Brandeis in August of 2023, I spent eleven years at the University of Connecticut. But even before my arrival at UConn in 2012, I was a huge fan of the UConn Women’s basketball team. So you can probably imagine that I am pretty thrilled by the team’s utterly dominant performance in this year’s NCAA tournament.

There’s a lot to love about this year’s championship team, but what has impressed me most has been its resilience. This is a team that had all kinds of expectations for success when it first began coming together five years ago with the arrival of its superstar, Paige Bueckers. But if you have followed women’s college basketball you will know that those expectations were deferred because of a series of injuries, not only to Bueckers but also to at least four other key players over the last several years. The team’s victory against South Carolina on Sunday marked the culmination of a lot of hard work and could only have happened because the team had the confidence and mental fortitude to persist despite significant challenges over the years. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They just kept fighting back.

In a post-game interview after the championship, Paige Bueckers was asked about her relationship with her coach, the legendary Hall of Famer, Geno Auriemma. Her response was moving in a lot of ways, but the comment that especially stood out to me was how Bueckers described Geno’s ability to get the very best from his players: “he's challenging me and making me better in ways I never even knew I could be.” I am sure Bueckers’s comment could have been said about many sports coaches and I am highlighting this response not because I think it says something unique about Auriemma but because it captures for me the essence of good teaching.

Let me offer another example, from an entirely different realm of activity. My family and I were early enthusiasts of the reality TV show, “Project Runway,” and we watched it regularly for the first five or six seasons it was on air. There was a lot I admired about the show and it was amazing to see the creativity and ingenuity of the contestants creating “looks” from unusual raw materials and in response to specific challenges. But the more I watched the show, the more I realized that what kept me coming back was Tim Gunn, the show’s mentor and guiding spirit. With his famous mantra, “Make it work,” Gunn was the epitome of a good teacher, pushing contestants to realize their own visions, not the assumptions or preferences of their teacher. “I pummel people with questions,” Gunn once said, “because I need to know what they’re thinking, what they’re trying to achieve, what they believe the final outcome is going to be.”

Scholars of education may recognize what I am trying to describe in citing these two exceptional teachers from such different domains as versions of what psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) called the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD describes tasks that are beyond a learner’s current abilities but are attainable with the help and guidance of a more knowledgeable teacher or mentor.

Pushing students into that Zone of Proximal Development is the essence of good teaching. It’s where growth happens and where our students are best positioned to realize their own distinctive potentials. And it requires a core humility on the part of the teacher, who must deflect and constrain their own personal ambitions and predilections to create the space for that growth to happen.

In my two years at Brandeis, I have met quite of a few teachers who understand this at the center of their being. I feel fortunate to call them my colleagues and, even more important, our students are fortunate to be in their classrooms, seminars, studios, and laboratories. As we near the end of another academic year, I write this to salute all of you for your dedication to our students and to their success in achieving their fullest potential.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey

For previous messages from the Dean, please see the archive.

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The School of Arts and Sciences features a division each month of the school year in its newsletter. To see a full listing of recent accomplishments in the School of Arts and Sciences, please see the Faculty Achievements page.

Note: Faculty who are interested in being featured can email Kathleen McMahan. Items must fall into one of the following categories: Book or Chapter Publications, Grants, Fellowships, Performances, Compositions, Exhibitions, Other Creative Works (e.g., Director, Set Design), Interviews or Guest Appearances. Due to the volume produced by our faculty each month, published articles are not accepted at this time.