WHAT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS SHOULD I HAVE MADE?

I always like New Year’s.  I like the feel of freshness and optimism that comes from having the chance to start a brand-new year.  Except that it can be cold, it is one of my favorite days year in and year out.

I usually make one or two resolutions every new year.  This provides me with the chance to think rather deeply about what part of my life I want to focus on in the days, weeks, and months that are ahead.  How do I want to be better in 365 days than I am right now?  I take these resolutions seriously because they serve as a guiding light as I move through each new year.

This morning I was thinking back on the past 51.5 years of my teaching and I started wondering what teaching resolutions I should have made 20, 30, 40 or more years ago.  If I could go back to 1986 or 1974 or 1993 where should I have put my focus so that I would teach better right then (and, hopefully, be teaching better now).

If I were to discover a magic portal so that I could go back to a much younger version of myself, what resolutions would I have given to that poor, young, and inexperienced teacher?

Three things came to my mind without too much thought.  So, here are my new year’s resolutions for Joe for (let’s say) 1971.

1 – Learn how to test better.  If you test memorization, your students will assume that what you really want from them is memorization.  That is a natural conclusion.  I think this one resolution, more than any other, can help you grow as a teacher.  Testing just sets the tone for everything else you do in a class.

Here is one hint that has helped me over the last 10-15 years.  Type up a test for your students and give yourself plenty of time so that you don’t get rushed.   Then, immediately, type up a detailed answer sheet.  Typing up those answers will give you a sense of the true complexity of each question.  What percentage of A students should get this question correct?  B students?   C students?  Why would a student miss this question?  What knowledge is required to work this question?  What level of thinking is required?   Reading a question and then evaluating it is risky.  Take the time to type out your answer just as if you were one of the students.

I have not given a test in many years where I did not type out an answer sheet in advance and use that process to evaluate each question.  Why am I including the question?  How will it help me differentiate the depth of a student’s understanding? 

More than anything else you do, the time you spend writing a test and answering it will improve the learning of your students.  This is the easiest way to get their attention and show them what you really want them to learn.

2 – Do everything you can to get your students to prepare before they arrive at class EVERY DAY.  Let’s be honest.  Most students have rarely had classes that required them to prepare.  Preparation is a foreign concept to them.  Consequently, for many, note taking is a more important skill than preparation.  In my opinion, most students underprepare for every single class.  Therefore, when class begins, they don’t know what you are talking about so they madly copy down notes in hopes of figuring it all out later.  And, most professors let them get away with that.   That is embarrassing or, at least, it should be embarrassing. 

Don’t be innocently delusional.  Ask yourself one essential question at the start of every class, “If I stopped right now and asked five easy questions based on the suggested class preparation, how many students would get all five correct?”  I don’t expect perfection, but I would hope in my classes that 100 percent of my students would get at least 4-5 of those questions.  That will give them a foundation to build on during the class session.

You’ll be amazed how smart your students suddenly become if you can get them to prepare before they arrive at class.  And, you’ll be pleased by how much more readily they will become engaged in class.  Few students want to talk if they don’t know what the class is talking about.

I cold call on my students from the time they walk into the room until they walk out of the room.  The questions are constant, not now and then.  This is simply the way I teach.  I give students daily assignments in advance and then start probing into those assignments through my class questions. 

I do this for one reason – it forces the students to prepare. 

Students hate this approach for about one week and then they begin to realize that they like being actively engaged in the class.  Don’t let that first week frighten you off.  One anonymous student on my student evaluations for the fall semester wrote, “His system of calling on students during class makes it all more engaging. I think the Business School should make cold calling a mandatory part of every class.”

Last night, I was watching an old television show and they were discussing a line from Confucius that was written about 2,500 years ago.   “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” 

2,500 years might have passed but I cannot think of a single thing I would prefer for my students to ponder as they get ready for the coming semester.

3 – Don’t get caught up in grade inflation.  When I graduated as an undergraduate student, I had earned a grade point average of 2.72.   I actually have my transcript  sitting over here on a book case.  What I find most interesting is that I graduated in the upper 36 percent of my class.  Nowadays, because of grade inflation, a 2.72 would be looked at as the bottom of the barrel, but, for me, I was in the top 36 percent.  Grades have changed that significantly over the years.  Most grades at most schools are A’s.

One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from the movie A League of Their Own.   

   "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."   

The hard is what makes it great.   What a great quote.  I often think that grade inflation has robbed college students of some of the spectacular thrill of working hard and making an A and I think that is sad.  If 50 to 90 percent of your students make an A, why would anyone get excited by an A?  I’m not in favor of giving no A’s but, next week, on the first day of class, I will write on the board in big letters, “A means Excellent.”  I will then turn to my students and look them in the eye and say, “I know what excellent work is and so do you.  If you give me excellent work, you will make an A.  If you don’t give me excellent work, you will not make an A.”    And, they will understand what I mean.

Learn how to test better.

Do everything you can to get your students to prepare before they arrive at class. 

Don’t get caught up in grade inflation. 

I could have come up with 15 more resolutions.  Nevertheless, if I had told these three to my younger self way back in 1971, I imagine they would have helped me on my long slow path to becoming a teacher. 

Happy New Year!!!!

TWO PATHS TO TEACHING GREATNESS – FROM GOOD TO GREAT, PART II

 

In my previous blog posting, I wrote about the challenge of evolving from being a good teacher to being a great teacher.  I talked about the criticism that often surrounds college education.  In general, the argument is, “It is not good enough and it costs too much.”  I believe if more teachers moved from being good to being great, that criticism would largely die out.  Our world needs more great teachers and our colleges and universities should make that a number one priority if they want to survive.

On November 29, I suggested that college teachers should invent a teaching award that they would then strive to win in their classes.  My point was that working toward such an award (even if completely made up) would help focus each person’s teaching in a very personal way.  I still think that is a great idea.  (If you have read my blog over the last decade, you already know the two awards that I seek to win each and every semester.)

Over the past two weeks, I have thought a lot about moving from good teaching to great teaching.  Such deep thinking is helpful for teachers (especially me).  We need more in-depth consideration of what great teaching is and how to achieve it.  I believe every university should start that conversation on some serious level. 

I decided to follow up today with another blog essay on becoming a great teacher, but I wanted to approach the challenge from a different angle. 

There is a foundational imperative for great teaching that I believe many people do not understand and, therefore, fail to address.  For me, the essence of great teaching is being able to go down two parallel paths every semester at the same time.  The first is the conveyance of subject matter.  Whether the course is physics, accounting, Shakespeare, art history, political science, or whatever, every teacher has a plethora of information that must be communicated to students.  College courses are built on helping students learn sufficient basic information whether it is about Einstein, Botticelli, Prospero, or Machiavelli.  In my mind, you cannot discuss art history without knowing who Botticelli is.

The second path is more complicated and is often overlooked even by some very good teachers.  It is the development of each student’s critical thinking skills.  When people complain about college education, I rarely hear them complain about a lack of subject matter knowledge.  Instead, they complain that, “Students today cannot think.”

I recently discussed this concept with a friend and I slowly moved my two hands upward in parallel, “The right hand is the subject matter.  The left hand is the development of critical thinking.  For a class to be great, the two hands have to play off each other—pushing each student along to achieve learning that is comprehensive, thoughtful, and usable.”    

I suspect that many, if not most, college teachers do a pretty good job teaching subject matter.  I do not often find that to be a huge problem.  I am a much bigger cynic when it comes to developing a student’s critical thinking skills.  From my perspective, lectures and testing, the heart of many classes, often seem to never go beyond subject matter communication.  If that is the case, then it is no wonder that college education is criticized.  No matter how good subject matter conveyance can be, it will not create great teaching by itself.  That, to me, is a firm belief.

If I were a provost, I would issue a challenge to my school, “How do we go about being truly successful at both subject matter communication AND the development of critical thinking?   I am not speaking of senior honors courses.  I am talking about every single class that a student takes at our school from their first day to their last.” 

I have taught in college for 51 years and I believe that is the essential problem that we have to solve if our educational institutions are going to survive. 

The sad part is that I do not have an answer for you on how to do that.  I know how I try to develop critical thinking skills in my students, but every teacher has to attack this challenge in their own way. 

Here are some of the tactics that I use.

--I have not lectured in any form since 1991.  In my mind, a lecture is only leading your students down one of those two paths.  By 1991, I was sick and tired of being a “one-path” teacher.

--I give questions to my students 48 hours in advance of every class I teach.  Some of those questions are easy.  A simple reading of the book will suffice.  Many of the questions, though, ask the students to go a step (or two) further.  They require the students to think about a situation and come up with a reasonable idea or a unique response or a possible hypothesis.  I want to know what they think more than what the answers are.  My favorite quote is from James Thurber, “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”  Nothing probably defines my class better.

--In class, we discuss each of those questions.  Obviously, the students struggle.  Thinking is really hard.  I cannot make that easy.  One of my favorite class responses is, “Figure it out.”  Even if they arrive at the wrong conclusion, I want them to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.  It is good practice for them.  Being wrong is no sin. 

--For my tests, I always allow the students to have a couple of sheets of notes.  Why?   Because those sheets, force me to write more thoughtful questions.  Any test question that tests memory is simply leading them down one of those paths but not the other.  Plus, with the Internet, memory is no longer as important as it once was.  I want to put them in a position that they have never considered so that I can see how they respond.  (If you have ever wanted to be a coach, that sentence should resonate with you.)

--I often set class questions and test questions in alternative universes just to force the students to think differently.  “Assume you are on the planet Krypotien and you have the following situation, what would you do next?”  “Assume Shakespeare was transported to the current year, what play would he begin to write first?”

I could come up with other tactics but you probably get the point and I don’t want you to become a clone of me.

**

Okay, here is my challenge for you today.  Make a list of the specific tactics that you use that are designed to help your students develop their critical thinking skills.  That is a simple, non-confusing requirement.  A tactic should involve subject matter conveyance but it must also force the students to do something that will have a positive effect on their critical thinking skills. 

When you finish your list, send me a copy at Jhoyle@richmond.edu and then send a copy to the students you will be teaching in the spring.  Students will always react better if they understand what the teacher is trying to accomplish by the work that is being required.

 

 

Choose the Award You Want to Win

Quick Announcement:  On occasion, I make the following announcement and I usually have quite a few people contact me.  I post between 5-15 essays on teaching in college every year.  In fact, this is my 308^th essay covering a span of more than a decade.  At the moment, the blog has had a total of 631,721 pageviews (or an average of about 2,050 for each essay).  If you would like to receive a short email whenever a new essay is posted, send me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.  I will not use your email for any other reason.  You will always know when each new essay is available. 

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"The fact remains that declining domestic enrollment will force colleges of all political leanings to compete harder to provide genuine value to students.”  I read this assertion in my newspaper over breakfast this morning.  (“Colleges face fewer customers but more competition” by Matthew Yglesias, Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 29, 2021)  Colleges must compete harder to provide genuine value to students.  Now, that is an interesting assertion with implications that should make faculty and administrators both pause for a moment.  What does that really mean?

 

This past week, I had lunch with my dean (he had salad while I went for the oyster platter).  We talked about many things, but one topic in particular is a favorite obsession of mine.  In colleges and universities around the country, I believe most schools and departments have a reasonable number of good teachers.  I have had the pleasure of knowing many such people.  However, I do not think we have a sufficient number of great teachers.  I believe that is a primary reason why college education is so often maligned.  We are not able to coax enough of our good teachers to become great teachers.

To provide a great education, schools need great teachers.  That seems so self-evident that I am hesitant to say it. 

We could have an interesting debate over the definition of “great teaching,” but I will take the easy way out and fall back on Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography, “I know it when I see it.”  Maybe, rather than establish a definition, we should list characteristics. 

--Great teachers change lives. 

--Great teachers awaken student curiosity. 

--Great teachers promote a love of the subject matter. 

--Great teachers inspire students to do their best.

--Great teachers have an effect on students that carries on for years and even decades.

--Great teachers help students learn to think.

--Great teachers push students to work incredibly hard.

This list could go on and on.

Going from good to great.  I am sure that Jim Collins has made a fortune writing about specific businesses that managed to bridge the gap from good to great.  It is a tricky challenge.  How can we encourage more professors to make that leap?  If, after seven years, they are good teachers, how can we entice them to be great after 14 years?  That seems like a reasonable transition.  That seems like a reasonable goal.  How do we encourage more to make it?

Maybe more importantly, does anyone actually think about that?  Or, is it a subject that is simply ignored at colleges and universities?  When is the last time that an administrator looked at a faculty member and said, “You are a good teacher.  I want you to become a great teacher.”?  The true answer might be, “Never.”   We need more great teachers to change more student lives.  We have a large number of good teachers.  How do we prevent them from settling for good? 

I have taught in college now for more than 50 years and that is a conversation that I have never heard anyone bring up.  Most teaching conversations seem limited to helping poor teachers improve.  That is important, but more good teachers need to consider how they can grow into great teachers.

So, I want to offer one piece of advice today that I believe can help.  I was reading something yesterday that I wrote years ago and it contained the following quote from Ellen Johnson Eirleaf who served as president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”

I believe that one thing that prevents many teachers from becoming great is a lack of ambitious goals.

When it comes to teaching, do you have goals that are so big and demanding that they scare you?  Because it is the drive to achieve those goals that will push you to become great.   Be honest with yourself, in the upcoming spring semester, what are your teaching goals and do they scare you?

Here is my suggestion.  You belong to some group:  a department, a school, or a college.  Assume that the students within this group are going to give out teaching awards next May.  They will invent several awards and all the students will vote for the winners. 

What award would you want to win? 

Design a hypothetical award that you truly want to win.  Most demanding teacher.   Kindest teacher.  Funniest teacher.   Smartest teacher.   Trickiest teacher.  Most caring teacher.  Teacher with the best Power Point slides.

What award fits your goals?  Of all the teachers in your group, you want the students to name you as the winner of this specific award.  How would you make that happen?

This will help you focus.  Even though the award is not real, creating an idea of what you want to become can be transformative.  Ambition is so important for growth but it has to be specific.  “I want to be a great teacher” is not very helpful.

Focus on one area that you deem important and it will serve as a springboard for overall teaching greatness.  You have to start somewhere and identifying “your award” will help you establish a greatness that works for you.

I always know, each semester, what hypothetical awards that I would like to win from my students.  It is essential to know who you want to be as a teacher, the role you want to play.  So, design an award that you would like to win and then consider what it would take for students to vote for you over all of the other faculty in your group.  Trust me, that can be (and probably should be) scary.  Ambitious goals usually are scary.

We need more greatness in college teaching.  That begins when you think about what greatness means to you.  What award do you want to win in the upcoming semester?

WHAT ARE YOUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHIES?

Last week, Dr Paul Clikeman and I were installed as Robins Teaching Fellows here at the University of Richmond.  We had a nice ceremony where we each got to speak for 15 minutes or so.  I will include the URL for the video at the bottom of this essay in case you want to watch. 

We were asked to speak about our teaching philosophies.  As anyone who has followed this blog for long knows, I have dozens if not hundreds of teaching philosophies.  I could probably have talked for 15 hours instead of just 15 minutes. 

Over the summer, I had the pleasure of hearing Professor Bill McCarthy at Michigan State speak at a conference.  He said that he wanted his classes to be transformative experiences.  I liked the sound of that and it has become a theme of mine during the fall of 2019.  As I tell my students, “If this class isn’t going to make you different, I am not sure why you would ever do the work or even show up.” 

In developing my 15 minutes talk, I decided to focus on three teaching philosophies that have been transformative for me.  I figured if they had changed me maybe they could change others as well. 

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY ONE

In late August, I came to campus one morning and found that a student from the class of 1987 had left me a note on a 3 x 5 card that she had slid under my office door.  It said, “I wanted to thank you for giving me the kick in the rear that I needed as a college student.  My career would not have been the same without it.”  I smiled.  I had not seen this student in 32 years and this was her primary memory of the experience.

Two days later, I received a six-page hand written letter from a student in the class of 2013.  I had not seen her in six years.  The entire first page talked about how stressful my class was to her.  As I read, I feared that she had gone into therapy because of my teaching style.  However, at the end of the first page she wrote, “Your, albeit, stressful class prepared me for the real world, and for that, all I can say is Thank You.”  Again, I was pleased.

If this were an English literature class, I would probably comment that I am beginning to see a theme here.  It is that theme that leads me to my first teaching philosophy.  Approximately 50 years ago, I was watching television and a pro football coach was being interviewed.  I think it was Vince Lombardi but I am not sure.  He said, “There is something in every person that wants to be pushed to be great.”  I believed that completely 50 years.  I believe it just as absolutely today.  Those few words have formed the very foundation of my teaching.  From working with thousands of students, I do believe that there is something in every person that wants to be pushed to be great.  Sometimes it might be buried quite deep but it is there.

When I talk about my former students and provide you with this quote, you probably view my class as me leading a bunch of oxen out into a field where I whip them unmercifully to get them to do the work.  Well, that is not how I view my teaching at all. 

I tell my students that education should be like a beautiful dance where two parties come together and push each other to be great.  One party does half the work and the other does half the work and when it all clicks something absolutely marvelous is created.  When it goes right, there are days in class that are simply beautiful.  But it doesn’t happen by accident.  I have to push the students to be great and they have to push me to be great.  If either fails, then we both fail.  Go to Youtube and search for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and you will see what I mean. 

People often ask me if I have had favorite classes over the years and the answer is, “Certainly.  My favorite classes have always been those students that pushed me the hardest to be great.” 

My philosophy is simple – if you push your students as hard as humanly possible and convince them to push you back with equal vigor and excitement, you will be amazed by how great the learning can become. 

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY TWO

I came to campus 13 years ago and one of the members of our faculty had put a magazine article in my mail box with the simple words, “I think you will like this.”  It was from the October 19, 2006, issue of Fortune magazine.  The article was “What It Takes to be Great” by Geoffrey Colvin.  As the title implies, the article describes research on how people become great singers, chess masters, violists, and the like.  The article was interesting to me but there were two assertions near the beginning that really caught my attention.  “In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.”

These sentences seem so obvious that they are hardly worth noting.  If I take up playing the piano, I will gradually improve for a time but will eventually plateau and improvement will cease.  That happens all the time.  Nevertheless, it is the second sentence that caught my attention.  “Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.”  That has stayed with me almost daily for 13 years.

I love that concept – if I can continue to improve year after year, then eventually, I will become great.  Okay, it might take 135 years but it is inevitable if I just work to improve.

If we evaluate each of our endeavors, then we all fall into one of two groups.  For most activities that we undertake, we are probably in the plateau group.  We reach a level where additional improvement does not seem worth the effort and we become stuck.  In all honesty, many of the teachers I have observed over the decades are in this plateau group.  A few, though, continue to improve year after year and will eventually become great.

So, my question for you is simple.  Which group are you in?  Are you in the plateau group – stuck in place?  Or, are you in the improving group, still moving forward toward greatness?

My philosophy again is simple – to have a vibrant, active life, you need to find a few activities where you dearly want to remain in the improving group so that you continue to take the actions necessary to make that happen.  For me, that is teaching.  In 48 years, I have never once walked into my classroom when I didn’t want to be a better teacher.  I hope you have the same opinion.  For those things that are truly meaningful to you, stay out of the plateau group and reside in the improving group.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY NUMBER THREE

Paul Clikeman and I go to Taco Bell for lunch once each week and we have been doing that for about 15 years.  We talk about a lot of things over those tacos but the one consistent theme over the years has been teaching. 

If you want to remain in the improving group, find someone who has a similar philosophy as yours, a similar attitude, similar goals.  Find a person who thinks deeply about the same things that you think are important.  Then, meet on a regular basis and talk.  Don’t have an agenda or a check list.  Just talk.  The conversation will always come back around to topics that you both think are important.

--It is incredibly difficult to improve year after year if all the ideas must come from inside your own head. 
--It is hard to do the work necessary if you don’t have a foundation of support.

My third teaching philosophy is a bit more direct – make conversation a scheduled part of your work week.  Don’t wait for a formal presentation.  Don’t share an occasional glass of wine or beer.  Find someone who cares as much as you do and make sure that you have those discussions on a regular basis and not just when there is nothing else better to do.
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These three teaching philosophies have been transformative for me.  Hopefully, one or two of them might touch you as well.

--There is something in every person that wants to be pushed to be great.  View class as a dance where two parties come together and push each other to create something marvelous.

--Most people improve until they plateau but a few continue to improve year after year and go on to greatness.  Decide where you want be great and for those things (like teaching) stay out of the plateau group and reside in the improving group.

--Find other people who have the same goals and ambitions that you have and then have very regular conversations with them so you can inspire and push each other to stay in the improving group.

Here is the URL for the actual installation ceremony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFJAY1e2uw0&fbclid=IwAR2bNiuXPkIgagm9ybpZ1me_EQPKrRa-NhxQvKT_X0Mvy9Htz9tfVHRMAmE