The Most Important Days of the Semester – Part One

I have long asserted that the most important days of any semester are the 2-4 days immediately after the first test.  So many good things and so many bad things can happen in this short period of time. They can make the semester more wonderful or they can ruin the semester.  It is the point where the group is of no importance but the individuals are of maximum importance.

Because of the importance of this period, I have started (as of this semester) doing two things.   I sent my students the following email immediately after their first test with the subject line “Please Read.”   I want to get their attention.   Then, a couple of days later when I get ready to return the graded exams, I take the first 5-10 minutes of class time to talk with them about my view of the learning process.   I will describe that talk in my next blog posting in a few days.

Email to my students:

I have not looked at the test yet but I will try to get an answer sheet to you tonight.   I will also try to return the tests to you on Monday. 

My only comment on the test (without looking at any of your papers) is that it looked like a test I would write.   I tried to cover lots of different stuff.   I tried to make every question tie back into our class in some logical way.   I tried to make some questions decently easy and other questions more challenging.   For those of you who have not been in my class before, this is what my tests look like.  Warning:  They will not magically become a lot easier.

**

I have taught for 46 plus years and I have always argued that the most important days in any semester are the 2-4 days right after the first test.   No other time comes close to being as significant to your grade. 

Until we have the first test, everything is just hypothetical.   You have no way to know whether you are studying too much or not enough.   You have no way to know whether you are catching everything or missing some things.   You have no way to know whether two hours between each class is too much or too little.   You have no way to know whether you should worry about the email problems that I send out or not.

Today, it all became real.   When you get your test back, it is important to self-assess.   What, if anything, do you need to do differently?   Most of you have been students for at least 16 consecutive years.   You might not be trained at much but you should be an expert at being a student.  Use that knowledge to determine what adjustments, if any, you need to make.   I felt that everyone was capable of making an A on this test.  If you didn’t, then you need to figure out what changes might be helpful.   Remember, whether good or bad, Test One is a relatively small part of your grade.  With adjustments, you can still do great.

If you didn’t do as well as you wanted, there are only three possible problems.

(1) – You didn’t study enough.   I don’t care if you study 23 hours per day.   You can always study more.   My guess is that 60-70 percent of students don’t study enough between classes.  That is a fact of life.   They are busy and the work is just not urgent.  This problem is the easiest one to fix.  Start keeping a study diary just to see how much time you are spending.  Lack of urgency is the biggest thing standing in the way of a good grade for most students.  Spend more time studying between classes -- that's always my first advice.

(2) – You didn’t study well.   You used techniques that have worked in the past for you but just didn’t work here.   A lot of students focus on the textbook and clearly I don’t focus that much on the textbook.   Try to come up with one different approach that you might use in your study routine – either on a day-to-day basis or for the next test.  Improvement requires change – it is just a fact.   Improvement requires change.   I'll say it twice.  Clearly, with all the material that I have sent you over the first 4 weeks, you have a lot that you can be doing.   Pick the ones that work best for you and focus on them.   You don’t need to do everything but you really need to do the ones that work.  One thing I would do is go back and read some of the paragraphs in the handout “How to Make an A in Professor Hoyle’s Class.”   That handout was all written by students just like you – who had all the problems you have and still managed to make an A.   What can you learn from them?

(3) – You had a bad day on the test.   It does happen.   People have headaches or a personal problem arises right before you walk into the class.   I think the first two are the most likely problems but bad days do happen.   If so, shake it off and start working on Test Two.

Please feel free to come by and talk with me about these three.   Students often think there is a magic fourth cause.   There is not.   If you didn't do well, it is probably one or more of these three.

The reason that I think this 2-4 day period of time is so important for a great semester is solely because of how you react to this test.   I watch students during these days very closely.  I want to see if there is any change – for better or worse.

It seems to me that there are four possible responses to your grade on Test One (when you get it back on Monday).   Everyone in class will fit into one of these four categories.   The only question is where you fit in. 

(1) – You were pleased with your work on Test One and that gives you confidence to push even harder for a good grade.   A lot of students who do well on test one get excited with the realization that they are capable of doing well in this course and they start working even harder/better.   Their class answers each day get better immediately.   Confidence is wonderful.

(2) – You were pleased with your work on Test One so you start to relax and pay more attention to your other classes or your life outside of class.   The pressure is off and you cut back on your study time.  I am not a big fan of relaxed students.   The A becomes a B and eventually a C and you’ll be mystified as to how you lost the A.  If you were pleased, that is not a good reason to slack off.  Don't do it.

(3) – You were not pleased with your grade on Test One and that irritates you.   You know you are capable and you are not going to accept a poor grade without a fight.   You start to spend more time on each assignment.  You do the email problems quicker.   You spend more time in my office asking questions.   You don’t leave a problem until you understand the answers.   You take a serious look at the PowerPoint Flash Cards that I created.  Consequently, your class answers begin to improve as you start to truly learn this stuff.  Annoyance is not a bad motivator.  “I can do better and I will do better” is a great response.

(4) – You were not pleased with your grade on Test One and your confidence is devastated.   This always breaks my heart.   One test is just a small part of the semester.   I can look in the eyes of these students and read their minds, “See, I told you I wasn’t good enough to do this stuff.   This grade proves it.”   That is absolute nonsense.   Everyone in this class is capable of making an A or a B.   I believe that completely.   You might have to study more.   You might have to study better.   You might have to ask me more questions.   But there is no reason to surrender.   Have some faith in yourself and start getting better prepared for the next class.

That last sentence is the key.   You cannot get ready for the second test today.   The only thing you can do is get really ready for our next class.   Make it your goal:  “I will be the best prepared person in the room on Monday.”   That’s always the best first step toward an A.

THE MESSAGE I WANT TO CONVEY BEFORE CLASSES BEGIN

My classes for this coming semester will start one week from today.   One of my classes will be an introductory course with 24 freshmen.   I want to make sure those students are clear about what I want from them.   So, I sent them an email today and I tried to explain things as best I could.   I want to inspire them without seeming silly.   I want to challenge them without scaring them. 

Here (in part) is what I wrote to these 24 freshmen:

“Over the past few weeks, you should have received quite a bit of stuff from me by email.  Read it all.  Think about it.  I want the coming semester to be absolutely great for you.  I want this to be the best educational experience you’ve ever had.   I want you to learn more than you ever thought possible.

“I like to make things crystal clear.  Things simply go better if you understand what I expect from you and why.  As I mentioned in one of my emails, I will do half the work in this class but you must do the other half.  It is your education.   You have to be willing to do half of the work.  That’s only fair.   Someone is spending $60,000 for this education (either through tuition or scholarship aid) and they deserve a $60,000 education.   Heck, it is likely the only shot at a college education that you will ever have.  You should demand a $60,000 education.   This will be a better university when students go to the administration and their faculty and demand a $60,000 education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK4Wk_8PbcI

“I have also said this before but I’ll say it again.   I do not want boring students.   I want students who have energy, curiosity, and interest.   If all you want to do is copy and memorize what I say, you probably should have stayed in high school.   I think that is a bad habit that some college students have.   If you drag into class looking like a corpse, don’t expect me to be too impressed.   If you can’t manage your time well enough to prepare for class, don’t expect to learn or get good grades.  This just seems like common sense.  I want students who have a burning desire to know more by the end of the semester than they do at the beginning.   I want students who don’t mind working a bit if they believe there are real benefits to be gained.   I want students who want to be challenged, students who pray that they will get called on.  I want students who want to be pushed out of their comfort zones.   I want curious students—curious is much better than smart.   “How does this work?”   “Why is the number 27 here instead of 9 1/2?”   “Why did this company report this information?”   If you have no curiosity about how the world works, college may well be a wasted experience for you.   My very favorite students are those students who read the textbook/watch the videos/read the newspaper and have more questions than answers.

I will start every class by giving you a handout like this one.  It contains the questions that we will talk about in the next class.  I never lecture.  100 percent of class time is a conversation.   If a student struggles in my class, it is virtually always because they are not adequately prepared for the class discussion.   Preparation really is the key to success in 201.  If I ask you “do some thinking about the first three presidents of the US?” and you pencil in “their names were Washington, Adams, and Jefferson” and nothing more than I know you have not done any true thinking (you are back in the sixth grade).   I am looking for something like “I think Adams was a better president than Jefferson because …” or “Washington is an over-rated president because …”   I want college-level thinking.”

BE DARING

BE DARING

Over the years, I have met a lot of good students.   I have met far fewer great students.  

Over the years, I have met a lot of good teachers.   I have met far fewer great teachers.

Occasionally, students swing by my office to ask how they can become great college students.   They feel that they are good, probably even very good.   But, they know they are not great.   At least, they are not yet great.

Occasionally, emails arrive from teachers around the country who ask about becoming great teachers.   They feel that they are good, probably even very good.   But they know they are not great.   At least, they are not yet great.  

Of course, many people are interested in how to move from good to great.   Jim Collins has managed to earn a fortune by writing fascinating books about companies that make the transition.   I am more interested in people who succeed in the crucial move from good to great.  It does happen but, from my vantage point, not often enough.  I sometimes refer to this as “stuck on good.”  

When someone asks me about going from good to great, I often relate a story that I first heard years ago.   Despite being an oldie, it does an excellent job of drawing attention to an important truth.    (With the recent ups and downs in the stock market, the punch line of this story doesn’t exactly hold true today but you should still get the point.)  

Here is the story I like to convey.   A very rich person goes to the best grad schools around the world and hires ten of the most outstanding recent MBA grads.   He brings them into his organization and reads out specific instructions.   “I’m going to allow each of you to manage and invest $500,000 in cash.   At the end of one year, I will award the person who has made the most profit with a bonus of $250,000.”   The young MBAs grow excited because they all believe they are destined to win that big pile of money as their reward.

After 15 minutes of intense thinking, each of the ten new hires rushes out of the room to go buy shares of Apple.  

The rich person looks at an assistant and whispers “Once again, I just saved $250,000.”  

Over the years, under normal conditions, buying Apple has been a very good investment strategy.   However, if you truly want to stand out as great, you have to do something that is different from the crowd.   We are all just average until we do something that is unique.  You cannot be noticed by doing things exactly like everyone else—even if the strategy is a good one.  

People want to believe they can become great by doing what everyone else around them is doing.   I have met a lot of people with that belief.  That will not work.

Inevitably, you must be willing to take a risk and do something different.   To be great, you must try something that others have not dared to do.   And, that opens you up to risk.   If you shoot for greatness, you must be willing to accept the possibility of failure.  I am not talking about ridiculous risk.   I am talking about a considered, acceptable level of risk.   You will never be great at anything—you will never stand out from any crowd—if you avoid all risk by simply blending in.

Okay, when is the last time, in your teaching, that you tried something that was truly original?   Maybe a better question is:   What are you going to try this semester?   Always be on the watch for something different to do.  What can I change?   What needs to be improved?   What would a possible improvement look like?   What positive benefits might accrue?   What are the real risks?  

What can you do this semester in your classes that will make you stand out?   You want to walk the halls of your school and overhear colleagues whispering about you:   “Did you hear what that guy tried in his class?   I hear it was amazing!!   I plan to try it myself next semester.”  That is the ultimate compliment.

There is an interesting term that you might hear occasionally in business:   fast follower.   It refers to a person (or a company) who watches others for innovations.   If those innovations seem to work, they adopt them quickly.   The idea is to accrue some of the benefit without accepting the related risk.   In other words, such leaders are fearful of their own innovative thoughts and prefer to piggy back on someone else’s success.   That’s a good way to be good.   That is no way to become great.

As I have argued previously on this blog, I think our world needs more people who truly want to shoot for being great.  “Good enough is good enough” is a very depressing motto.

If you really want to be great, you have to look around and ask “What can I do that will make the learning process better for my students and that has never really been tried before as I envision it?”  Over the next couple of weeks, step away from the crowd and do something both unexpected and awesome.   Make your push to go from good to great.

THE BEST ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED

As I have mentioned, I was involved with two panel discussions recently at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.   At one point, I was asked about the best teaching advice that I ever received.  

Over a 44 year period, everyone hears a lot of good teaching advice (and some bad advice also).   Deciding which advice is best can be a challenge.  

But, my mind always goes back to something my boss told me during the first year I was teaching.   The advice came at a time when I was struggling to figure out who I wanted to be as a teacher.   Those first few years are so important because they form the structure on which a teacher builds an entire career.

One day the head of the business program was talking with me about teaching.   He looked at me and said “If you truly care about these students, you will push them as hard as you can to be great.”   There was a lot that I liked about that sentence in 1972.   There is a lot that I like about it today.   I think it has probably influenced me more than any other advice I’ve heard or read.  One thing that I liked best was that he spoke the words as the absolute truth and not just as some clever fortune cookie type mantra.   He believed 100 percent in the importance of what he was saying

--Everything starts with the need for me as the teacher to care about my students as people.   It is easy to think about students as a group (my 9:00 class or my 10:30 class) rather than as individuals.   Too often, we describe such groups in negative ways.   They are annoying.   They are lazy.   They are frustrating.  They fail to think.   They fail to prepare.   But students are unique individuals with their own hopes, dreams, weaknesses, and aspirations.   It is not important for me to like my students but it is important for me to care about them.   Walk into your next class and look at your students as distinct human beings.   They are not part of the furniture.   They are people.   Don’t waste so much time judging them.   Simply realize that they are human and, whether they know it or not, they need your help as their teacher.   As Mother Teresa said, “if you judge people, you have no time to love them.”  

--I need to push my students as hard as I can.   I know it is redundant to say but students are human beings.   They often lack motivation.   They procrastinate.   Their ambitions have not been well nurtured.   They have not been well trained as students.   Many of them have no idea how to succeed.   Many will underachieve in school and then become convinced that mediocre is the best they can be.   The teacher needs to open their eyes to what great things they are capable of achieving and then be willing to push them to hit those goals.   In most cases, success only comes from hard (but also efficient) work.   I would love to boast that all my students are self-disciplined and self-motivated.   But that is not the way of the world.   Most people need help.   They need to be pushed.   They need to be challenged.   Grade inflation has come about because teachers do not want to bother pushing students to do outstanding work.   Our world is struggling at the moment because too many people leave college believing that “good enough is good enough.”   Push your C students to make a B.   Push your B students to make an A.   Push your A students to make an A+.   Each step is a triumph that you and the student can share.  

--Don’t be satisfied if your students get good grades.   Education is more than grades.   Push them to be great.   Our world, as I have said, has numerous problems.   We need many more graduates leaving college with great educations, great ideas, great innovations, great ambitions.   Don’t look at your students and see them as they are.   Look at them as they might be able to become if you push them hard enough.   See the potential within them and then do your best to help them reach it.

Three thoughts that make a world of difference

--Care for your students as people.

--Push each one as hard as you can.

--Help them find greatness, a greatness that can make our world better. 

Teachers really do have the potential to save the world.

Here Is Your Assignment AND Words from a Legendary Teacher

My next set of classes starts on Monday, August 24.   However, I emailed my students their first assignment back on April 28.   I did not want them to waste their summer.   More importantly, I wanted to start having a positive influence on them as soon as possible.   The assignment had several parts culminating in their writing a short essay on the characteristics of a great student.   I just wanted them to think about what that meant.   I’ll write more about the results of that assignment during the fall when I see whether it had any impact on the students.

Today, though, I want to give you an assignment to complete before your fall semester begins.   When I put on teaching presentations, I often begin by instructing my audience to do the following exercise.  Standing in front of all those teachers, I ask every person to close their eyes.   (I always warn them that they cannot fall asleep.)  

“I want you to think through your years in school—start with kindergarten and go all the way through high school and college.   Think about all those dozens of teachers and pick the one teacher who had the most positive influence on your life.   It could be a fifth grade reading teacher or a high school biology teacher.   It could be a college math teacher or your kindergarten teacher.   Think about all those teachers and pick the one who stands out to you as having the most positive influence.   I find most people can settle on one great teacher fairly quickly.

“Now, I want you to identify the three characteristics that stand out in your mind about this person.   If you had to describe this teacher by his or her characteristics, what would you say?   Was the person kind, gentle, mean, depressed, etc.?   This teacher certainly stood out in your life—what enabled them to be such a force in your life?  What made this teacher great?

“Teachers often tell me they are not sure what characteristics lead to great teaching.  That is absolute baloney.   You have just identified the three characteristics that, for you, are basic to great teaching.   And you probably did it without too much problem.   This is a simple exercise to help you identify the characteristics you believe lead to great teaching.

“Our goal here today is to help you move closer to becoming a great teacher.   So, take the three characteristics that you just identified.  Think about your own teaching.   For each of these three, award yourself a grade:  A, B, C, D, F.   How well are you doing?   For example, if you felt that the great teacher in your life became great by being sweet, then how would you grade your own teaching when it comes to being sweet?

“To become great, you have to work on getting better.   That is just common sense.   Take the three grades you just gave yourself.   Unless you awarded yourself three A’s (which probably means you are an incredibly easy grader), what can you do over the next 12 months to move those grades higher?  That is the key.  How can you improve over the next 12 months.   For me, that is the secret to improving as a teacher.   Find the standard you want, measure yourself honestly, consider how to make improvements.    And, then, go do it.”

Next, in these teaching presentations, I have the members of the group open their eyes and we discuss their great teachers and the characteristics that made them great.   Listening to everyone talk about these teachers is a wonderful experience.   Try it in your next faculty meeting.   I am a big believer that the mere act of talking about great teachers will help you become a better teacher.

**

Therefore, I want to finish up this blog posting today by talking about a great teacher.   Interestingly enough, this is a teacher that I never had and probably never spoke with in my life.   But I am convinced that she was great.

I grew up in the 1950s in a small blue-collar furniture town of about 1,000 in the hills of North Carolina.   My high school graduating class was roughly 100 and, as I remember it, 25 percent of the graduates were married and about 10 percent already had children.   It was a fabulous place to grow up with wonderful people but it was not the most cosmopolitan place on the planet.  

However, our high school band was fabulous.   The band seemed to have a consistent excellence that really went beyond the place and size of the school.   I have no musically ability at all so I had no idea how that consistency was maintained.   The band director was Kathryn Siphers.   I did not know her at all but she seemed to be a quiet and serious person—one who appeared able to coax the best out of those high school musicians year after year.     In hindsight, I wish I could have set in the room and watched her lead and guide those young people to get such great results.   It must have been a fabulous example of great teaching.   I think I would have learned a lot.

She died at the age of 62 in 1986.   That is a long time ago.   My little home town now has a Facebook page and it is amazing to me, how many times former students bring her name up and talk about her in glowing terms.   Just today, one person wrote about her:   “I think I cried harder at her funeral than any other one I have ever been to” and another person responded “Her influence was unlimited.”   After nearly three decades, people talk about her as a very real presence in their lives.   Ms. Siphers truly meets my definition as a great teacher.   Even after 44 years in this job, that is still a goal I am working towards.  

When she died, a colleague wrote about her in the local newspaper.   I think this will tell you more about what it means to be a great teacher than anything I can think of to say.

“Ms. Siphers was more than a band director.   She was a teacher’s teacher.   In her philosophy on teaching, she wrote, ‘Teaching is my life.  I have been given one talent to use.  This talent has made it possible for me to teach many children music.  I believe in music as an exalter of the human spirit, as a life-giving force in education.   My challenge is to lead students into genuine and permanent love and understanding of beautiful music.   I believe if a teacher is to be successful, one must grow as one works.  One must be enthusiastic and untiring in efforts to get the work done.   Constant planning, working, evaluating, examining of materials and teaching procedures must be made.  For me, teaching is exciting.   It is an obsession, but a magnificent obsession.’”

There is nothing I could possibly add to those sentiments.

Time to Get Better

If you have followed this blog for long, you know that one of my primary recommendations is that every teacher should work to get 5 percent better every year.   If all of us could manage to improve by just 5 percent during the next 12 months, imagine how much more effective our educational system would become.   I think 5 percent is a realistic goal.   It would not take radical change.   If every teacher truly pushed for a 5 percent improvement, our schools and students would benefit in unbelievable ways.

As we start each new year, I like to step back and think about how I might achieve my 5 percent improvement.   This is my 44^th year as a college professor and I am no longer a young person.   However, if I am not willing to push myself to improve, then it is probably time for me to retire.   Because I really do not want to retire, I am actively working on my 5 percent.

Are you?

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I have been reading Make It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel.  I usually find that such books have some good ideas.  Not all will work for me but some should.   Here are a couple that I liked and have already tried this semester in my quest for 5 percent improvement.

(1) - As a coauthor of both an Advanced Accounting textbook (McGraw-Hill) and a Financial Accounting textbook (FlatWorld), I am always perturbed by how poorly students read textbooks.   Students often seem to go into a trance when they read a textbook and cannot recall even basic information.  Too often, reading turns into the mere marking of passages with a highlighter so that information can be found later if needed.   Such reading does not increase comprehension so it really fails to fulfill its purpose.   Students just note sentences that might prove to be important.  I want students to come into class already knowing something about what the book says.   

In Make It Stick, the authors recommend that students read a passage (a paragraph, perhaps, or a full page) and then look up and explain what they have just read.   This recall process helps to cement the material in the student’s mind and, of course, it forces the student to evaluate what is most important.   Finally, the recitation requires the student to organize the material in some logical way.   Retrieve, Evaluate, Organize.   Yeah, I bet that is helpful.   On page 30, the authors talk about a study that found that “the best results were from those spending about 60 percent of the study time in recitation.”  Read and then recite (or as I say "explain").

I told my students:   “Don’t read the chapters twice.   Read them just one time.   But after every page, look up and talk about what you have just read.   Pretend you are explaining the page to a friend who is in the class.   When you finish, go on to the next page.”   I don’t know how many of the students have followed the advice so far but I will bring up the idea again after our first test when some of them might be more open to the suggestion.

(2) – As I have written before, a lot of this book is about the importance of retrieving information to make understanding better.  They even quote Aristotle “exercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory.”   That makes sense.   I think we all understand that.  

For that reason, I have worked on two things this semester.   First, as often as I can, I walk back to my office right after class and send my students a quick question or problem that always begins “If you fully understood what we talked about in class today, you should be able to work the following problem right now” and then I set out a quick problem that I view as a grade A level question.   As I often do, I try to put it in some type of puzzle form to make it more intriguing to them.   I'm not testing their memory.   I include some check figures.   I want to challenge them to retrieve the information from class almost immediately just to organize and solidify their knowledge.  

Second, I have also returned to my CPA Review roots this semester.   I have suggested that students make 3-10 flashcards after every class.   A question is put on one side with a short answer on the other side that they can review over and over to provide a structured method for the mental retrieval exercise.   The authors of this book point out that students don’t know what they don’t know because they tend to overestimate their knowledge.   That is dangerous; that holds them back.   The flash cards give them a way to judge for themselves what they really do know and what they don’t know.

(3) – And finally, one of my favorite thoughts from this book (page 43):   “We’re easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it’s easier; but the research shows the opposite:   when the mind has to work, learning sticks better.   The greater the effort to retrieve learning, provided that you succeed, the more that learning is strengthened by retrieval.”   This semester, I’ve tried to introduce complexity earlier in the process.   Historically, in my classes, the material gets harder and harder but only very gradually.   This semester I’ve tried to throw complexity at them earlier and then help them work their way through the issues.   I do not know, quite yet, whether this is a good idea or not but I like the way it feels.   I have clearly caught the students’ attention with some of the questions.   I guess the key point in the above quote is “provided that you succeed.”  

**

Will I reach my goal of 5 percent improvement in 2015?   I certainly hope so.   I would really hate to think I had reached a plateau where my teaching ability had stalled out.   I am not quite ready to retire.

SIX QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AS YOU START A NEW YEAR

This will be my 201^st entry on this blog.  That is roughly 190 more than I expected to write when I first began.   Over the years, the blog has had 130,000 page views and was recently named one of the top 50 blogs in accounting for 2014.   (http://www.accounting-degree.org/50-best-accounting-blogs-of-2014/)    Unfortunately, it was the only blog on the list that dealt with education.   I would honestly love to be reading 50 different blogs about teaching and learning.    At that point, I think college education could really begin to improve.   So, start a blog.   Share your opinions.   Share your questions.   Share your doubts.   Share your frustrations.   We need more of that.   You will never be able to estimate how much the blogging process can improve your own teaching until you start typing and posting.

As always, I want to pass along my great appreciation to everyone who forwards messages to colleagues about my various thoughts and ideas on this blog.   Any success here is dependent entirely on the many kind people who read these essays and discuss them around their own faculty coffee rooms. 

**

Some years ago when I first began to write about teaching, I received an email from a stranger in England.   That email has long since been lost but it said something like “You don’t know me but I have read several of your essays on teaching and believe you will appreciate the attached quote.”    How very correct he was.   Sadly, I don’t know who sent the email or even the origin of the quote.   But, I cannot possibly describe how much the following words have influenced me over the intervening years.  

   "Teaching does not come from years of doing it.  It actually comes from thinking about it." 

As I get older, I am ever more convinced that we teachers don’t invest sufficient time thinking deeply enough about our classes, our students, and the learning process.   It is easy to get stuck on autopilot.    Every year is like the last one.   We understand when certain aspects of the experience are not going well but we avoid delving into those problems with the thought necessary to arrive at creative and effective improvements.   More and deeper thinking might just be the cure.

As we move toward the beginning of another year and the opening of a new semester, I want to urge all of us (you and me both) to spend some hours over the winter break just thinking about teaching.   Focused meditation can help us consider how we can make 2015 the greatest year of our teaching careers.

That is a reasonable and upbeat goal:  2015 the greatest year of our teaching careers.   Can we do the thinking that is necessary to make that goal a reality?   When I give presentations to educators and make such a bold suggestion, I often get a frustrated query in response:   “What am I supposed to think about?”

That is not a dumb question.   In fact, it might well be the real key – what should we think about?   “Go out and do some thinking” is so vague that it provides little helpful advice.   To help direct this thinking, I want to throw out 6 specific questions that you might ponder over the winter break.   Just some questions to bat around inside your head.  You are not looking for a right answer in general but rather the answer that makes the most sense for you.

Maybe most importantly, you are not trying to justify what you are currently doing but rather trying to figure out how your current practice might be improved ever so slightly.

(1) – How do you want your students to be different on the last day of class from what they are at the beginning of the semester?   Surely, there has to be some anticipated growth in each student or the class simply has no purpose.  For you, what should that change be?   Try to avoid giving a vague response.   To help faculty determine their goals, I like to ask the “fly-on-the-wall-question:”   If you were a fly sitting on the back wall of the classroom on the last day of the semester, what would you want your students to say about your class as they exit?   That will tell you a lot about the change that you want to see in your students as a result of your class.   Be careful how you answer this question because it should then become the guiding point for how you structure every aspect of your teaching.  If you want your students to learn to distinguish the music of Mozart from that of Bach by the end of the semester, then you build your class to create that outcome.   So, what outcomes are you seeking?   How should your students be different at the end of the semester as a result of your class?   If you want to become a master teacher, be bold when you set your goals.   If you have never considered this, I think you have missed one of the great questions in teaching.

(2) – How do you communicate with your students?   Most of us only meet with our students two or three times per week in a hectic classroom setting.    Those classes are often 4 or 5 days apart.   If you want to influence students, there has to be some method of conversing with students in a more efficient and timely manner.  How effective would any business be if the employer could only converse with employees for a few minutes 2 or 3 times each week?   In my classes, I use a lot of email.   I start sending emails about 6 weeks before the semester begins and do so on almost a daily basis once the semester gets going.   I ask questions, I direct students to interesting newspaper articles, I create puzzles for them to solve, I talk about what we covered in class, I give them review hints.   I tell the students that I will only send what I consider to be important emails but I do expect them to be read.   I cannot guarantee that they read every word but, at least, I have a way to provide direction and motivation on a daily basis instead of only 150 minutes each week.

(3) – How do you get your students to prepare for class?   I have always argued that the secret to an effective classroom environment is student preparation.   If students are prepared, they can participate in a meaningful way.   There is no limit to what can be accomplished in class.   If students are not prepared, all they can really do is take notes that they subsequently memorize.   They are just observers.   They cannot participate.   The quickest (although not easiest) way to improve your class is to convince your students of the wisdom of walking into class prepared.   Most students (and, by that, I mean virtually all students) go through a middle school and high school system that puts little or no emphasis on class preparation.   Therefore, in college, you face a group of students who have little idea as to why they should prepare for each class and how to go about doing that.   I guarantee that if you can increase student preparation in your classes, you will be amazed by the improvement in the learning process.

(4) – How do you test to avoid memorization and, instead, emphasize the development of critical thinking?   Often, in this blog, I have stated that students will learn based on how they are tested.   If you want to develop critical thinking skills, you have to convince the students that such skills are necessary for success on their tests.   As most of you probably know, I am not a big fan of student evaluations.   However, the one question that I look at religiously is number 8 (at the University of Richmond) which is something like:    Compared to other college-level courses you have taken, how well did this course call upon your ability to think critically and analytically?   I would bet that the results of that question are highly influenced by how well my tests emphasize critical thinking skills.   Over the past decade, I have worked more diligently on my testing than on any other part of my teaching.

(5) – What do you do after class to help students solidify the knowledge that they have obtained in class?   I am always amazed by how quickly understanding leaks out of the minds of my students.   I am currently reading an excellent book titled Make It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning (by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel).   One of the earliest things I marked in this book was the line:   “One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.”   How can you help students do that self-quizzing so that they can jumpstart the amount they know and understand?   How can you help them build on what they learn in class rather than have it leak out of their minds?   How much direction and assistance do you give students after they leave your classroom?

(6) – How do you convince your students that they are capable of learning the material in your class and that this knowledge is worth the effort?   In life, attitude is everything.  If your students are convinced that they are stupid or if they believe the material has no positive value for their lives, a quality educational experience is going to be impossible to achieve.   Conversely, if you can instill a high level of confidence, every student can become a star.   It would be wonderful if all students walked into our classes with a deep curiosity and an openness for learning and a huge belief in themselves.   That works great in theory but not in practice.   Many students appear on the first day fully expecting to feel stupid and bored.   That cycle needs to be broken if the class is going to be a success for every student on the roll.

Six questions and no real answers.   But they are well worth considering before you walk back into the classroom in January.   Can you come up with a new and improved answer for one or more of these over the next few weeks?   Remember that teaching should always be about “experimentation” and “evolution.”

Do that and I am convinced that 2015 really can be the greatest year of your teaching career.

 

Happy holidays!!!