TWO WAYS TO GET BETTER

One of my ongoing thoughts about teaching is, “Whether you are the best teacher in the world or the worst teacher, you can always improve.”  That is just common sense.  No matter what you teach or where you teach or who you teach or how long you have taught or how many awards you have won, you can always get better.  That aspirational realization pushes me forward every day as I seek to improve as a teacher.  Currently in the midst of my 98th semester as a teacher, that is a thought that I ponder every day.  How can I help my 65 students learn more, learn better, learn deeper?

Whenever I talk with other college teachers, I often encounter a sense of resignation, “No matter what I do, I’m never going to get better.  Why should I even try?”

That is utter nonsense.  Everyone can get better.  I have no doubt about that.  However, you must (a) honestly want to improve and (b) have a willingness to try new tactics and techniques rather than wasting your time explaining why every new idea will fail to yield positive results.  

Let me give you two ideas.  Perhaps, one or the other will help.  Or, possibly, these thoughts might push you to come up with you own innovations.  

(1) – As I have said multiple times on this blog, nothing improves the learning process more than having students walk into class prepared to learn.  Students often resist preparing because they see no benefit accruing from the work they are asked to do.  So, for every class, create a “Problem of the Day.”  Give it to them in advance and tell them they will solve it at the next class session.  Make it unique, creative, and as thoughtful as possible.  Don’t bore them.  Intrigue them.  Do it every day so that it becomes automatic for them.  Tell your students that you will help them address the problem during class.  Together you will analyze each “Problem of the Day” but they must walk in knowing the facts, understanding the issues, and being able to explain alternative approaches and solutions.  Create each as a puzzle – every college student loves to solve clever puzzles.  

If you teach art history, you might create a “Problem of the Day” like this:  Assume in 1498, a 15-year old Raphael is studying Primavera, one of the most influential paintings of all time.  The artist Botticelli walks in and Raphael shouts at him, “You are going to rot in Hell for creating this painting!”  At our next class, tell us why you think Raphael would have felt this way?  As Raphael grew older, how might his opinion of this masterpiece have changed?  How do you think Botticelli should have responded to his young critic?

Or, if you teach literature, a “Problem of the Day” could be:  We recently read and discussed Madame Bovary, a book written by a French author (Gustave Flaubert) and published in 1856.  It concerns a woman, her husband, and her lover.  In despair, she commits suicide.  Our current book is Anna Karenina, a book written by a Russian author (Leo Tolstoy) and published in serial installments between 1873 and 1877.  It concerns a woman, her husband, and her lover.  In despair, she commits suicide.  Select one key event found in Anna Karenina and compare it to a similar event found in Madame Bovary.  Describe how the resulting narrative might have been influenced by (a) being written by different authors, (b) being written in different countries, (c) being written in different times, or (d) being published in different forms.

Or, if you teach history, a “Problem of the Day” could be:  Stonewall Jackson died less than two months before the Battle of Gettysburg.  Speculate on how the results of that battle (and, hence, the rest of the American civil war) might have been different had he still been alive.

Or, here is a “Problem of the Day” that my introductory accounting students discussed in class TODAY:  Ace Company owns land that it bought 20 years ago for $40,000.  Now, it is worth $65,000.  Ace is preparing financial statements and trying to decide whether to report the land at $40,000 or $65,000.  Give one good reason for reporting each of these numbers.  If you were in charge of creating accounting rules, would you choose the $40,000 or the $65,000?  What is the real rule?  Why is that the rule?  Do you like that?

My students had a fabulous conversation about that “Problem of the Day.”  They came in prepared and the discussion was quite animated.

A “Problem of the Day” does not have to be overly complex.  It merely has to be (a) interesting/intriguing, (b) a topic that carries the learning process forward, and (c) a question that requires the students to do some thinking prior to walking into the classroom.  However, you absolutely must make use of that problem at some key point during the designated class or your students will not prepare for your next “Problem of the Day.”  Never ask them to do work and then ignore that assignment.

Create a new “Problem of the Day” for every class of the semester and, I think, you will be amazed by how much better your students prepare for class, how much more they learn during class, and how much more they enjoy the class.  

(2) – Students simply don’t know what they don’t know.  They leave class each day with no good way to measure whether their learning is adequate.  Previously, in this blog, I have discussed “Swiss Cheese Knowledge” which is student understanding that looks solid to them but is actually full of holes.  

Consequently, as often as possible, maybe once or twice each week, email them a follow up problem immediately after class (well, within 24 hours) and simply say, “If you can address the following question, then you successfully learned what I wanted you to learn in class today.  I have included a rubric to show how I would have graded this question on a test.  What grade do you believe I would have given your answer?  If that grade is what you want, then move on to something else.  Your knowledge is solid.  If that grade is not what you want, ask yourself (or me) what do you need to do now to attain the level of understanding that you want.” 

I have the benefit of decades of teaching so I usually know what they do not yet know, where the holes in their knowledge are most likely to be hidden.  Over the years, I have developed a series of test-like questions to follow up each topic of conversation.  I email a new question to them as needed.  I usually set a time-limit to help them gauge the difficulty level, “You should be able to come up with reasonable answers in 15 minutes.  Then use the rubric to grade yourself.  Let me know if you need assistance.”  I find that students are more likely to do a post-class problem if you provide time guidance.  That way they know they are not expected to get bogged down for hours.
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Can any teachers use these two techniques to help students (a) be better prepared each day for a rousing class discussion and (b) gauge what level of understanding they have achieved and where additional work might be needed?  Sure.  Why not?

Would these suggestions help you?
I honestly don’t know.  I use both of them religiously and think they help
But that is me.
The only way to know is to try one or both.  
As with almost any educational experiment, you’ll probably need to play around with the ideas to see what works best in your class with your students.
I do think they are worth a try.
Because
Whether you are the best teacher in the world or the worst, you can always get better.  
Try something new.

THREE TIPS TO HELP YOUR TESTS CREATE BETTER STUDENT LEARNING

Quick note:   If you are in need of a little inspiration as you begin a new school year, at the video link below, I tell four stories about teaching that I hope will get every teacher excited about another year in the classroom.  On good days, it is a truly marvelous and wonderful profession.  And, even on bad days, it can still be extremely rewarding.  I hope the video reminds you of that fact.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT428yjJ0Ls&t=176s

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Thoughts on Testing:  I am currently writing tests for my students so testing is on my mind.  Our first examination of the semester is tomorrow.  As I enter my 48^th year in the classroom, I am convinced that the writing and grading of tests is a true pain in the neck.  In fact, testing stopped being fun for me while Richard Nixon was president of the United States.

However, I am even more certain that testing can be (and should be) an extremely positive influence on student learning.  For that reason, I still invest an enormous amount of time in thinking and constructing examinations.  

In one of the first speeches I ever delivered about teaching years ago, I made the observation that,

                   “The way you test is the way your students will learn.” 

If you test students on memorization, they will work diligently to memorize every word you utter no matter how you teach them.  However, if you test their critical thinking skills, your students will quickly realize that memorization is not helpful and begin to focus their attention on critical thinking. 

If that is true (and I believe it is), then you cannot simply rely on a publisher’s test bank for your test questions.  For years, I have argued vehemently against the use of test banks.  I think they have done more harm to college learning than virtually anything else I know.  

Consequently, I want to provide you with three testing tips from my own experience as a teacher.   All of them have helped me over the years in the teaching of my students.  Perhaps, you will find one or two that are helpful to you. 

(1) – Notes – I always allow my students to bring two sheets of notes to every test.  They have to be hand-written because I want each student to do their own thinking about what is important, what material I am likely to cover and what questions I might ask.  I believe students need to learn to assess the relative importance of what we discuss in class.  By limiting the quantity of notes, students cannot simply judge all the material as equally important and just write down everything.  They must decide what is essential.

For me, that assessment is helpful for student learning.  However, that is not the primary reason for allowing notes.  I let students bring in notes because it sends a clear message (to the students AND to me) that I am not going to test them on memorization.  How can I test memorization if they have notes?  This puts an obvious burden on me to come up with reasonable questions that go beyond memorization.  I have often said that I never learned how to write good test questions until I began to allow students to have notes.  That step forced me to come up with better questions, ones requiring student understanding that went deeper than memorization.  When I look back on my evolution as a teacher, this decision to allow notes was a hugely important step.  Student learning improved because I began to challenge them with better questions. 

Try it once – see if it works for you.

(2) – Testing Circle – Every semester, during the last class before our first test, I spend 5 minutes talking with my students about my “testing circle.”  I draw a big circle on the board and tell them, “This represents everything we have discussed this semester to date.  I keep good records.  I know the topics our class has examined.  I will write about 1/3 of the test questions directly from this material because it covers what we talked about in class.  I want to see if you were here and awake, that you paid attention and understood.   If you get these questions correct, then you must have followed the daily conversation with a basic degree of understanding.  That strikes me as approaching average work which is evidence that you are getting close to a C.”

I then draw an X roughly 3 inches outside of the circle and explain, “This X represents test questions that are connected to our class coverage but go beyond what we analyzed in class.  I want to see if you can take your class knowledge and extend it to solve something new, something a bit more complex.  It will take analysis and thinking but you can do it.  If you understand the class material well enough, you can use that fundamental knowledge to figure out legitimate answers for this second group of questions.  To me, success at this level starts to look like Good work and begins to show me that you might deserve a B (or, at least, you are heading that way).  It indicates that you can make use of your knowledge and that is important to me.”

I then draw an X roughly 12 inches outside the circle.  “This final X again represents test questions that are connected to our class coverage, but they are more complex.  They will require an excellent understanding and thinking to determine the key elements of that connection so that you can come up with a solution.  I do not know that anyone can get them all correct, but I want to see if you can solve some of these questions because that starts to feel like Excellent and Outstanding work.  That level of understanding begins to show me that you are capable of earning an A.  Virtually every practice question I have sent to you by email this semester was either a B level or an A level question.  I took what we had done in class and tried to show you how that basic knowledge could be extended to solve more complicated issues.”

Once again, I am stressing that I have little interest in memorization.  I am also doing something that I am not sure enough teachers do.  I am showing the students visually what critical thinking is and why it is important.  We talk a lot about critical thinking in education but few students seem to have any clue what it is and why it is important.  That to me is a serious weakness of much of college education.  We say we are doing it but we do not even explain what it is.  For me, critical thinking is developing a level of understanding that is so solid that the student can use it as the foundation to solve questions and issues that are ever more complicated.  

I often tell my students that the course will never be finished until they can solve all the possible problems based on their own knowledge and, therefore, have no further need of me. 

(3) - Answer Sheets – For me, every test has two purposes:  (1) to help assess the students’ knowledge for grading purposes and (2) to improve the students’ understanding so they will do better in coming classes and on the next examination.   I believe students should show improvement on every subsequent examination. 

Consequently, I email my students an answer sheet within a few hours of every exam.   Not surprisingly, that is the time they are most interested in (a) the knowledge they needed to know and (b) how I wanted them to attack and answer each question.   Students will often pour over answer sheets with more intensity than they ever invest in the class.  They focus their attention like a laser on any questions they miss.  For me, that has always seemed like the perfect moment for improving student knowledge and that is what an answer sheet encourages.  I often have more interesting conversations about the answer sheets than I do about class material.  

For each test, I type up an answer sheet that starts with, “Here is how I would have looked at each question.  Here is how I would have started building an answer.   Here is the answer that I hope you were able to derive.”   No matter how complicated the question, I want the answers to seem logical and sequential.  Education is often the taking of a seemingly random and confused bunch of information and organizing it into knowledge that is logical and sequential.

Of course, there is a troubling disadvantage with distributing answer sheets—you cannot reuse test questions semester after semester.  The questions and answers are “out there” in the student world.   I know this is probably sacrilegious to say but I think teachers should write new questions for each semester.  The old questions become stale and dated.  New questions help keep you focused on what you want your students to know.  Like exercise, the writing of test questions is not fun but it is good for you.     

Answer sheets can help the students.   Again, try it once and see if it works.

Fourth Tip:   And, here is a fourth tip absolutely free of charge.  Send the answer sheets you use one semester to your students the next semester.  Once again, that will help them see that you are not asking for any memorization.  The answer sheets will show them what you mean when you say,  "I want to see if you can take your class knowledge and extend it to solve something new, something a bit more complex."  Students often believe a teacher is bluffing until they see evidence.   At that point, they will forget about memorization and start looking for ways to use the knowledge they have attained.

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None of these ideas is perfect.  I can see potential flaws easily enough.  Nevertheless, in my own personal experience, they have each helped my students develop stronger and deeper learning.  If you are looking to experiment in your teaching, testing is an excellent place to start.  I think you will find opportunities for quick improvement.

When done well, your questions and answers can have a positive effect on the knowledge and understanding of your students.  Better testing can make for better learning.    

CAN ANYONE LEARN TO BECOME A GREAT TEACHER?

Prior to today, this blog has had 204 entries.   Over the years, the site has had over 134,500 page views (or roughly 650 views of each of those entries).   As always, thanks to everyone who passes along this link to other teachers who are interested in thinking more deeply about the day to day rewards and challenges of going into a classroom to help students develop and grow as human beings.   Thanks!!!

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A few weeks ago my dean sent me a note containing a simple question:   Can anyone learn to become a great teacher?   Unfortunately, I did not have a great answer and did little more than ramble around in response.   It is a question that I have thought about often during the intervening weeks.   Is it possible for anyone to develop into a great teacher or is that goal only available to a chosen few?

What do you think?  If you have thoughts, I would love to hear them.

Let me start the conversation by asking a different question:   Can anyone learn to become a great coach in pro football?   In the NFL, great football coaches get paid millions.  It is truly an exciting profession.   You would think thousands of potential great candidates would be available.   And, yes, there are a few great coaches.   Both coaches in the Super Bowl this year probably qualify.   Bill Belichick of New England meets the definition as does Pete Carroll of Seattle.   They have been proven winners for a long time.   But there are not many other names that come leaping forward.  It is a big world and pro football is huge.   Yet I can come up with just two names of great coaches.   Several other people certainly qualify as good but the jump from good to great is always hard.   

In truth, it has to be difficult to get 50-60 individuals to play at close to maximum capacity over an entire season.   My guess is that guys like Belichick and Carroll probably spend close to 100 hours per week thinking about nothing other than how to maximize the potential of their teams.   And, even then, as Pete Carroll proved at the end of the Super Bowl, they can still do things that cause people to be critical.

Why are there not more great coaches?   I think it is especially difficult to be great when you are responsible for a whole group of people.   Every time you add another person to the mix, you increase the complexity of the process.   One person working by himself (or herself) can be great.   Bob Dylan, Pablo Picasso, Philip Roth, Maria Callas, Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare.   Yes, in each case, other people were involved with these folks but when things got truly serious they had to stretch themselves in order to succeed.   They didn’t have to stretch 55 other people.   Would Bob Dylan or Pablo Picasso have been great if they had been organizing and leading a large group of singers or artists?

Being a great football coach is tough.  But, is it easier to be a great teacher or a great football coach?

In some ways, it is easier to be a great football coach for one reason.   The teams keep score and everyone can agree on the winner.    The goal is simple and obvious.   And, there is only one goal.    No one seems to know exactly what the goal of a college teacher is.  More frustrating, no one seems to know how to measure whether a specific goal has been achieved.   Greatness is a very vague goal in teaching which is probably why few teachers seem to have great education as a primary goal when they enter the classroom each day.   Most coaches burn deeply to be great.   How many teachers have you met who really wanted to be great?

So, are there really any great teachers?   Maybe it is just a fantasy. 

I think a lot of teachers do a good (maybe great) job with the very best students.   That is an important role in college but, at some point, teaching brilliant students who are highly motivated provides a different type of challenge.  

I think a lot of people do a good (maybe great) job of teaching facts and figures.   Many people grew up in a system where memorization skills were highly valued and that priority flows through into their own teaching style.   Personally, in an era of Google and other Internet resources, I think education needs to be more than that.   But that is just my opinion.

I think a lot of people do a good (maybe great) job of entertaining students.   Such teachers are full of interesting and relevant stories.   That is fun and can be very informative but the emphasis is entirely on the story teller.   The student is merely a passive recipient of knowledge.  

I don’t really know if everyone can become a great teacher.   But I do believe that I know how some people might achieve that goal.

First, I think the teacher has to have clear cut objectives and those objectives have to be challenging.   If all Bill Belichick wanted to do was win the first game of the season, he would never become a great coach.   My guess is that he is a great coach because his one goal is to win the Super Bowl each year and everything he does is designed to achieve that goal.  

I have 77 students.   I want to push all 77 to go beyond what they thought they could do.   And, I want to do that every single day for the entire semester.  I am not out to teach 10 or 20 or 30.   I want to teach them all.   I want them all to learn how to work harder and think deeper.   I want to challenge each person to become better in some fundamental way over the course of the semester.   I know it sounds a bit odd but I want each student to be smarter at the end of the semester.  

Second, every action for the entire semester has to point toward your goal.   When Bill Belichick practices his team, my guess is that every minute is set up to push the team towards the championship.   I am in class with my students 150 minutes each week and every action is designed to help all 77 of them learn to work harder and think deeply.  

Third, students are rewarded for their work by grades and testing.   You cannot challenge people to leap tall buildings in a single bound and then give everyone an A whether they manage to make it or not.   If I want my students to work hard and think deeply, I have to test them in that way.   I cannot claim to teach the development of critical thinking skills and then test my students on memorization.   That simply will not work.  

Fourth, you cannot challenge students to be great and then not be available to help them when they need it.   It is not fair to go into class and tell students that you expect great things from them and then walk away and let them thrash around on their own.   You are the teacher; they are the students.   You have to hold office hours where you show students how to achieve what you want for them.   You have to answer emails that seek assistance.   My guess is that Bill Belichick and his assistants show players over and over exactly what they want from them.   They guide as well as push them.   You cannot challenge students if you are not willing to be there to help them grow into that role.

Fifth, I think you have to realize that most college students have already picked up bad habits before they arrive in your class.   That is not necessarily their fault.   They have been in the school systems for 13-16 years.    They honestly believe that an education means memorization and that cramming the night before each test is a good strategy.   Those techniques have always worked for them in the past.   In some ways, you almost have to break those habits before you can build new and improved ones.  I teach 20 year old students who have been in school since they were five.   For the most part, they are extremely well trained in a particular type of education.   “Highlighting” the textbook is one of their strongest skills (because all you need do is move a magic marker).   If you want students to think more deeply, you have to realize that this is likely a new request for them.   They probably cannot even comprehend what you want.   You will need patience and perseverance.   You will need to show them over and over.

Sixth, don’t get wrapped up in the reward system for teaching.    The complaints I hear from teachers are “no one around here cares about teaching,” “there is no reward or recognition for excellent teaching,” and “the administration only listens to the complainers.”   You should strive to be a great teacher (a) because you want to be a great teacher and (b) because your students deserve a great teacher.   If you must be rewarded or recognized in order to put in the effort, you probably will never get there.   Years later some students might realize how wonderful you were—how much you meant to them and their lives.   Other than that, you will probably never be properly recognized.   Do the work because it is important to you.   Don’t expect anyone else to notice.  

Can anyone become a great teacher?

Here is my real answer.   There are a few days when I think I am a great teacher.   There are other days when I am pretty awful.   No one is great every day.   The secret is to work to get better.   The real question should be:   Can anyone get better as a teacher?   And, I think the answer to that question is a resounding YES.   Forget about being great.   Work on becoming a better teacher.