(ESSAY NUMBER 345) One of my main goals every
semester is to help my students become better at being good students. I
want them to walk out of class on the last day as more efficient
learners. I’m often shocked at how poorly they have been trained as
students. Some of my smartest students struggle simply because they don’t
know how to succeed as a student. So, for example, over the summer, I
offer them extra credit for the fall if they will read either Make It
Stick or Outsmart Your Brain.
In addition, four months before
they enter my class, I try to start planting the concept of a “professional
student” in their brains. That is a student who knows how to be
successful as a student versus being an “amateur student” who always seems to
take the wrong approach. I’d like the idea of a “professional student” to
rattle around in their heads for a while before they meet me. That goal
doesn’t require smarts. It just requires being alert, paying attention,
and getting into the habit of doing things the right way. I want them to
walk in on the first day thinking, “I know this is a challenging course but if
I do things the right way I can be successful.”
So, yesterday, I emailed my 56
students for the fall (in Accounting 301 and 302) the attached note. It
is nothing brilliant. It just says, “In my class, there is a right way
and a wrong way to do things. If you do things the right way, I think
you’ll have a much greater chance to be a successful student. In that case,
this will be one of your very favorite courses. That is what I want."
In case you are interested, here
is the note I sent to my students yesterday.
I talk about accounting with them because it is an accounting
course. You can easily substitute
history, biology, or the like based on whatever you teach.
**
To: Intermediate Accounting Students for the Fall
Semester
From: JH
I hope you are winding up a
fantastic semester and that you are looking forward to a great summer.
You will be entering my class (likely
for the first time) next semester.
Virtually all of you have been students since you were 4 or 5 years
old. You probably have spent about 80
percent of your lives as students. After
so many years and so many teachers, you should be very good at being a
student. I often refer to college
students as “professional students” because they have spent such a long time at
it. If you spent that much of your life
playing pickle ball or poker, you’d be a pro.
Same for being a student.
I find that many of the students
in intermediate accounting really do qualify as professional students. They know how to get it done and done
well. They are often not smarter. They just know how this learning business
works.
However, some students strike me
as amateurs when it comes to being a student.
They are often the smartest people in the room, but they just cannot
seem to live up to that because they are not very good at being a student.
Over the summer, I want you to
think about what it means to have the talents of a professional student. I think that will help you do better in my
class next fall as well as in all your other classes. Stop being an amateur when it comes to school
and you’ll be a better student than you ever thought you could be. That’s what you and I both should want.
Here are a few of my
observations.
Most students are aware that my
class consists of three separate actions.
First, I give all the questions and problems to the students a day or
two prior to class. Second, I ask students
to discuss the questions with me and the rest of the class. They’ve had the questions for a day or two. They should be ready. Third, about 50 percent of the time (more in
302 than 301), I send out a practice problem a few hours after class for the
students to use for practice purposes. This is complicated college material, so
I suggest (strongly) that students spend 80-100 minutes every day (no more, no
less) on intermediate accounting.
--Within a week or so,
professional students figure out how to spend the suggested time (80-100
minutes) every day and just build that scheduled work into their daily
planners.
It becomes a daily ritual.
--Amateur students have a
different attitude, “I’ve never studied 80-100 minutes per day for any class in
my life and I don’t plan to start now.”
That attitude never changes even if grades are not what they would like.
--Professional students realize
that I send out a lot of information using emails so they read the emails. It just becomes part of the ritual.
--Amateur students get an email
from me and roll their eyes wondering what planet I’m from. They store these away to be forgotten. For these students, procrastination is the biggest
roadblock for success.
--In the 10-20 minutes prior to
class, professional students go back and re-read the daily handout,
highlighting any names or numbers they will need if called on for a particular
question. Or, they chat with other
students about what appropriate answers might be. If called on, they want to sound like a
professional accountant.
--In the 10-20 minutes prior to
class, amateur students scroll through their phones looking for some
entertainment. (You will be able to recognize
amateur students. When, I call on them
to describe a problem, they immediately begin reading it to me because they
aren’t really sure what it is about. Don’t
read problems [that I wrote] to me. Tell
me the facts that they contain.)
--Professional students learn to read
the professor and figure out what he really wants from them. They are flexible and willing to adapt if
that seems appropriate.
--Amateur students seem incapable
of anticipating what the professor wants from them. You will occasionally hear them say, “I never
thought he would do that.”
--Professional students realize
that the material is complex so they are going to need to get it down in
writing as quickly as possible after class.
They set up a system to clear up and organize their class notes within
just a few hours of class.
--Amateur students believe if they
understood a concept during class, they will understand it forever so there is
no reason to write it down or solidify it through organized note taking.
--Professional students do any and
every practice problem within 12 hours of receipt. If anything is wrong, they bring their work
to me for help just as soon as possible.
That’s my job—to be of help in learning this stuff.
--Amateur students file away
practice problems and try to figure them out right before the test (often in a
mad dash). They are not concerned about
understanding. Memorization rather than
understanding was stressed in their high school classes.
--Professional students read test
questions carefully and highlight the information that might be relevant to the
problem to be solved. They stay
methodical and don’t get rattled.
--Amateur students skim the test
and never quite get a handle on the facts that are being presented. They often start trying to answer the
questions before they even know what they’ve got to work with.
--Professional students come by my
office whenever there is any confusion.
They come by before class so there won’t be any confusion during
class. They come by after class to clear
up anything from class that they didn’t understand.
--Amateur students come by the day
before a test and try to ask three weeks worth of questions. Without a doubt, the biggest enemy an amateur
student has is procrastination. Redundant
point but still important.
My fundamental message is that you
will enjoy this coming semester ever so much more if you are successful. Heck, that just makes sense. So, I very much want you (YOU) to be
successful. I believe that success is
more likely if you start right away working to be a professional student –
meaning that you do everything we do in the best possible way.
One thing you can do in the fall
to help guarantee maximum success is to take 5-10 minutes after every class to
evaluate how well you did and why – were you prepared, did you listen to the
questions and think about how you would answer them, did you stress
understanding more than memorization. Nothing
beats learning from your own actions.
Maybe most importantly, did you
find joy in what we were doing? Did you
enjoy the discussion and thinking about how to resolve the problems we
faced? I’m a strong believer that the
best classes are the ones that create the most joy in learning. I find accounting fascinating like some giant
and intricate puzzle. To me, that is
what success should mean for a professional student.
