AN INTERESTING WRITING ASSIGNMENT

At this moment, I am half-way through my 42^nd year as a college professor.   Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I walk back into class to see if I can do it all again.   This semester, I have 28 students in one Intermediate Accounting II class and 26 students in another Intermediate class.    I also have 15 students taking my Governmental Accounting course.   I have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these 69 young people.   Hopefully, that will be a positive difference.   That is not a responsibility that I take lightly.   Whether each of these students is better off on the last day of the semester depends in large part on how well I do my job.    After all this time, I am still thrilled when I think about going into class and leading the conversation.   I never fail to get a stomach full of butterflies before the first class.   You could describe my feelings as somewhere between deeply anxious and completely excited.   If it were not important, I would not care so much.

Good luck to all of you other teachers who are starting a new semester in the next few days or weeks.

**

Unless you have never read my blog before, you probably know that I teach all of my classes by use of the Socratic Method.   I pose some kind of weird situation and then, by asking a series of questions, I try to get the student to figure out a logical response or solution.   I often begin each day with a statement such as “What would happen if….”

 I think teaching by the Socratic Method is just the most fun you can have without laughing.   Plus, I truly do believe that it helps young students to develop their critical thinking skills.

However, I am also a big believer that students need to learn to write clearly and professionally.   In my college days, I considered majoring in Journalism so I have a real appreciation for the importance of the written word.   Plus, recruiters and employers often complain that they have problems finding new accountants who know how to write well.   Because of texting and the like, writing skills seem to be deteriorating.

Here in the Accounting department at the University of Richmond, we require a certain amount of writing in most of our upper-level courses.   The question I face is how to make that writing assignment relevant and beneficial to my students and also consistent with a class based on the Socratic Method.   Some type of essay would work but does not seem to go along with the way the course has been constructed.

Over the last few years, the writing assignment I use has developed into one that seems to work well and accomplishes my goals.   I am not sure how this could be adapted to a course other than accounting but you probably can make it work with a few adjustments.

I divide this assignment into three parts (and the first part has two separate assignments) with each due about two weeks apart.

Part One – Assignment One.   As in our daily classes, the student must pose an accounting problem that needs to be resolved.   The student pretends to be a “business person” who has encountered a reporting challenge where no easy solution has been found.   To stimulate their creativity, I provide the students with a list of hundreds of different problems that have been put forth and solved in previous semesters.   Students often believe that only a few problems remain unanswered in accounting.   This list alerts them to the almost infinite number of problems that accountants face in their chosen profession.  

Each student then must write a letter as the “business person” to a local CPA firm to describe the problem and ask for help in arriving at an appropriate accounting solution.   The first part of this assignment mirrors what we do each day in class.  I always warn the students that better grades are given for more complicated problems.

Part One – Assignment Two.    The student now pretends to be an “accountant” working for the CPA firm who receives the above letter.   As the “accountant,” the student must analyze and research the issue and come up with the best possible solution.   Again, this process mirrors what we do in class.   During the semester, students learn to use various research tools and the databases available online through the university library.   Once an answer is derived, the “accountant” writes a formal letter back to the business person outlining the proposed solution and its justification.    I tell the students that the resolution letter must look completely professional and the answer should be appropriated explained.  

Part Two.   These first two letters (the problem letter and the resolution letter) are attached and turned in to me.   I then give each set to a different student who now must take the role of the “boss,” the person in charge of the CPA firm.   This second student reads both letters to ensure that the proper answer has been determined.   This verification can take quite a bit of time because the “boss” must check the research and also ensure that each letter is written professionally.   For example, I expect the grammar to be perfect.

The “boss” then writes a memorandum to the “accountant” to make constructive suggestions.   Ultimately, the “boss” is in charge of the CPA firm and is responsible for all work that is distributed to outside clients.   Therefore, the “boss” must be certain that the letter meets an appropriate standard for the firm.   This memorandum tells the first student what needs to be done to ensure that every aspect of the letter is proper.

Part Three.    The original student (the “accountant”) reviews the suggestions made by the “boss” and then edits the two letters one final time so that they will be perfect.   In my class, the student is not required to follow the suggestions of the “boss” but needs to consider them carefully.

I then grade all of the letters:   the first drafts, the memorandum, and the final versions.   The largest portion of the grade, though, is given for the final versions after the editing process is complete.

What I have found is that structuring the assignment in this way meets my goal of setting up the writing assignment along the same lines as class.   In addition having the students edit the work of their peers helps them to learn more about the importance of written clarity even within accounting.   If the “boss” does not understand the answer written by the “accountant,” then there is a serious problem.   However, the editing process gives the student a chance to see their problems and decide whether changes are necessary.   In the end, the final versions are usually quite well done which is my goal from the beginning.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT (NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION)

 

Before I get started today, I want to wish every teacher out there a wonderful 2013.   During the upcoming year, go out and make a positive difference in as many lives as you possibly can.   This teaching job might not always pay well but having the opportunity to be a positive influence on so many lives (especially the lives of young people) is absolutely priceless.   Enjoy every day you have in the classroom!!   Happy 2013!!!!

**

I want to experiment more in my teaching.   I guess that is my new year's resolution.   This is my 42^nd year in the classroom and it is easy to get into a rut.  There are days when I can do this job in my sleep.   Sometimes I really have to stop and push myself to get outside of my comfort zone.   I never want to get into a position where I just go through the motions.   I do better work when things aren’t so easy.

For that reason, in the coming spring semester, I am going to help teach an experimental course called “The Appreciation of Literature by Accountants.”   (That’s not the official title but close enough.)

Yes, you heard correctly.   I did use the words “Accountants” and “The Appreciation of Literature” in the same sentence.  

One of the outstanding English professors here at the University of Richmond has volunteered to teach the course (I am just serving as the teaching assistant) and 14 senior accounting majors and one junior accounting major are signed up to start class in two weeks.  

 Over these 14 weeks, we are going to read and study:

--North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (my favorite of these books)

--Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

--The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

This course might turn out to be an abysmal failure.   But, in all honesty, I think we have a chance to have a genuinely positive effect on the future lives of these 15 young people.   Plus, it is something I have never done before.  And, that is important to me.

We might never teach this course again (whether it is a success or a failure, the scheduling might never work out again) but I wanted to see what the impact might be.   I believe college teachers should try more such experimentation.   There will always be some losing efforts but the successes will more than make up for that.  Don't let the fear of failure restrict what you try to accomplish.

Here is the backstory.

I wanted to teach a half-unit course (meeting for 75 minutes per week) this coming semester covering Governmental Accounting and Not-for-Profit Accounting.   Historically, we have not had a free standing course covering these areas and I thought we should.   The class was scheduled to meet from 1:30 until 2:45 each Monday.  The assigned room would hold 15-16 students in a seminar type setting.     That meant that the room would stand vacant on Wednesdays at this time.

I have always felt that accounting majors (who tend to be left brained) need a better appreciation of liberal arts in order to have a more satisfying and well-rounded life after graduation.   No matter how exciting a person finds debits and credits, adult life should also be full of theatre, the arts, good books, and the like.   In my mind, accounting programs often take some of the brightest members of our population and make them too one dimensional by failing to help them learn to appreciate aspects of life beyond business. 

In my opinion, we make a tactical mistake in the way our college programs are structured.   We force accounting and other business students to take liberal arts courses when they first come to college (their “gen ed” requirements).   Thus, they often rush through these initial courses to get to the material they really want to learn.   Furthermore, the left-brained accounting majors take art, literature, philosophy, and the like with students who want to become art majors, English majors, and philosophy majors.   The accounting students often hide in the background because they feel inferior to these students who appear more verbal and in tune with the liberal arts mentality.

Ask your senior students what they think about liberal arts courses and they will often roll their eyes and complain that they weren’t as good as the other students and wanted to get on with the important work of learning business and accounting.   The liberal arts courses were to be endured rather than appreciated.   In other words, many of them do not leave school with much inclination to continue reading good books, going to museums, seeing plays, and the like.   I think that is a shame.   Why take liberal arts courses if it all ends when the course is over?  

Consequently, I went to my dean and asked her if I could use that empty classroom from 1:30 to 2:45 on Wednesdays to create a literature appreciation class for senior accounting majors.   I liked the idea for two reasons:

(1) – It would be taught to these students right before they graduated so the influence might be more likely to carry over into adult life.   Once the pressure of classes, papers, and testing has ceased, students might find reading a great activity to continue.

(2) – Only accounting majors would be taking the class.   The students would all know each other and not feel intimidated or embarrassed by being put up against English majors.   In other words, I wanted to form a comfortable community to study these books as a group.   The class would not be a competition but a shared exploration.

My dean was kind enough to let me try this experiment one time to see what would happen.   I was able to talk Dr. Elisabeth Rose Gruner of our English department into leading this class of senior accounting majors (Dr. Gruner is clearly being brave and going outside of her comfort zone).  

I then went back to our seniors and told them that I had room for 16 students in my Governmental Accounting and Not-for-Profit Accounting course.   Because the number of seats was so limited, I would only take students who were also willing to sign up for the Literature course.   Each course was one-half unit.

 Many students simply could not work these two classes into their schedules.   Other students expressed shock and amazement that they would even have to consider taking a Literature course (“I majored in Accounting solely because I didn’t want to write papers”).   But, we also had a number who were delighted by the idea and even wanted to suggest books for the course.  

We wound up with 15 students.   

Several people have asked me how I knew whether the course would work.   My answer is always the same “I have absolutely no idea whether it will work.   If I knew that, I wouldn’t have to teach the course.   I am doing this purely because I am curious as to whether the students will view it as a favorable or unfavorable experience.   And, maybe in a couple of years, we’ll follow up to see if they have been more likely to continue reading because of this experiment.”  

 

Passing the CPA Exam and making partner with a CPA firm is not the only measure of success for a college education.

I love accounting and business but, if all students get from a college education is the ability to get a job, then we have failed them in some fundamental way.   Life has to be lived 24/7 and that leaves a lot of time outside of the typical work day.   I think both business schools and liberal arts programs should do a better job of helping students fulfill both halves of their future lives:   the part inside the work day and the part outside of the work day.  

I am hoping the Governmental Accounting and Not-for-Profit Accounting will assist the students as they pursue their careers after graduation.   Just as strongly, I hope the literature class helps make their lives richer outside of the work day.   To me, that really is a win-win situation.

Okay, that is my big experiment for the upcoming semester.   But, what are you going to do?   What is your new year's resolution for 2013?    Don’t sleep walk through your job no matter how long you have been teaching.   Do something that will serve to push you beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone.   You might be able to help the students as well as yourself have a great 2013.

TWO STUDENTS I MISJUDGED

I am now halfway through my 42^nd year as a college teacher.   This semester (like all semesters) had its ups and downs.   There were days when every student seemed brilliant and days when no one seemed to be able to count to four.     I don’t think I taught any geniuses but almost every student appeared capable and, hopefully, gained something of lasting benefit.   I started with 73 students and a total of 16 finished with the grade of A.   I always hope for more excellent work but 21.9 percent was not bad.   I try not to contribute too heavily to grade inflation.

At the end of every semester, there are always a few students that I wish I had handled differently.   I often ponder them long after class has ended.   With 73 students, it can be difficult to get an accurate read on each student at the beginning of the semester.   Some need carrots to do well and some need sticks.   Often, I feel frustrated because I do not have the time needed to determine what buttons to push to get individual students excited about the learning process.    In those cases, I am left wondering if I helped or hindered the student’s learning.

When I travel around the county speaking to teachers, I get to talk with a lot of folks.  One common theme I hear is that students do not always appreciate what teachers do for them.   “If I work them hard, they are unhappy.”   “If I challenge them to go deeper, they rebel.”   “Why should I work so hard when the students prefer the easy way?”   Teaching can be really frustrating.

And, in truth, human beings (even teachers) need motivation.   Everyone needs a pat on the back as often as possible.   It is hard to beat your head against a wall if no one really appreciates what you do.

Occasionally, though, I am brought back to reality and reminded that many (if not most) students really do care about their education.   But, they do not always have an easy way to show their appreciation for what you do.   Last week, I got emails from two of my fall students, two students that I never expected to hear from because I was not sure whether I had taught them anything or not.   Until I got their emails, I would have included them on the list of:   “I didn’t get through to these students very well.”   I guess that is my point:   Sometimes you just never know.

Student A

Student A seemed extremely quiet.   He was a student in my Introduction to Financial Accounting class.   When I called on him each day, he would take a long time to answer and his answers frequently seemed very hesitant and unsure.   As a result, if you had asked me, I would have said that he was not well prepared.  I assumed his hesitancy was because he was not terribly interested in the material.   From my vantage point, that was how it appeared.

The email I got from Student A last week was 1,276 words long.   I cannot remember ever getting such a long email from a student.   All semester, I thought he was a relatively nonverbal student when, in fact, he was just quiet.   He was not uninterested, he was quiet.   If this email was any indication, he was actually a very very verbal student.  

This student that I thought was basically uninterested in financial accounting was, in fact, one of the most interested.   I would have said that he did not appreciate what I did when he really did.   I misjudged him completely.   I am not sure how I should have taken advantage of that knowledge but I judged him incorrectly and probably should have pushed him harder.

Here are just a few (494) of those 1,276 words.

“I wanted to wait to message you until after I received my final numbers so I didn't appear as a brown noser pleading for a better grade. I just wanted to thank you for a great semester. Regardless of whether my letter grade ended as an A, B or C, I can honestly and confidently say that I walked away from your course knowing a great deal of new information about accounting. This class was unique for me- instead of studying just enough so I could pass a test and then forget everything I had learned, the accounting information became ingrained in my head. I began to, actually, like my accounting course. What impresses me most about your teaching abilities is that you instruct a course (accounting) that is considered to be boring/monotonous/dreary by so many people, and you manage to spark an interest within your students. . . . You ran a very tight ship, but that is what you told us to expect from the beginning. From day one, and through each and every email and paper you sent to us, you reinforced the fact that you would expect a lot of time and dedication from us. I appreciate your honesty. I appreciate your strategy of pushing your students to their academic limits. . . .  The thing that had the biggest impact on my thinking was the comparison you made one day between professional athletes and business world professionals. You said that when we look at professional athletes, we automatically assume that they had put in countless hours of perfecting their craft to be where they're at now but, for some reason, the same generalization is not made about those who work in the higher levels of business. This statement was very true and I thought about it for a long time after class. I questioned my own efforts and settled on the fact that I had not previously been putting in the time to my studies that I should have been. I do not lack any work ethic in the athletic department, probably because it is what I love to do the most. A few hundred swings and hours in the weight room are no hassle to me. However, I could honestly say that during my freshman year, and during most of this past semester, I was doing enough to get by and do 'well enough' but was I really pushing myself to become substantially better in the classroom? The answer was no- not at all. Your words that day helped me redefine my work ethic when it came to school. I started taking a little more pride and setting aside a little more time for my studies. I kept my new approach through the end of this past semester and I was pleased with my final grades. I am not saying you are the sole reason why I did well overall this semester, but your lessons definitely helped me.”

 

Student B

Student B was in my Intermediate Accounting II class and seemed completely uninterested.   His answers were almost flippant and I kept wanting to ask him why he was in the class if he cared so little.   His work on tests was all over the place from a 71 to a 92.   I fully expected him to make a D or an F on the final exam and perhaps a D in the course.   In my own mind, I had him firmly labeled as “having not one iota of interest in accounting.”

But then, Student B made a strong A on the final exam, a test that I considered incredibly complicated.   I was stunned.   I wondered if he had sent in a clone to take the test for himself.   I would have bet that he did not appreciate one thing about my teaching of that class so I didn’t understand that excellent work on the final exam.

Then, out of the blue, I got the following email.

“I just want to thank you for a fantastic semester. I can honestly say I enjoyed coming to your class every day of the week, as it was one of the only classes where I felt that I could sit and figure things out instead of scrambling to write down every word the professor says, to try and "learn" it later. After this semester I feel that I have grown much as a person, and more than ever find pleasure in things intellectual and thought-provoking. In car rides that used to be filled by whatever mindlessly popular music the radio station chose to broadcast, I now find myself either listening to talk radio or turning off the radio all together and pondering different facets of my life or humanity as a whole.   Not only has this class enriched my ability to think about life, but I feel to have gained a real understanding of financial accounting. While during the semester I may have seemed somewhat uninterested, I promise you this was never the case. My problem was that I easily understood about 85% of the material, and thus didn't feel particularly pressed to immediately work for the other 15%. Interestingly enough, when I sat down to begin studying for the final, I found that going back through the material was not as stressful as I expected it to be. The concepts I had learned throughout the entire semester were clear and seemed to flow together perfectly. I honestly enjoyed the 4 hour final, as it gave me a chance to sit down and think through problems, and the fact that I was able to easily reason through them was actually fairly exciting for me.”

I had 73 students this semester.    Only 3 or 4 chose to write me an email about the semester.   And, much to my surprise, two of the most interesting emails came from students that

(a) I clearly did not understand too well during the semester and

(b) I would have labeled as not at all appreciative of the class.

As I have said before, I write these blog entries for me more than for you.   So, what should I take away from these two emails?

First – don’t rely too much on external appearances.   Work harder to get to know the students as best you can.   One of the absolute great things about teaching is that every student brings his or her own issues and personality to your class.   After all, you don’t teach a class; you teach people.  

Second – don’t waste so much time worrying about whether students appreciate what you do.   You simply may never know.   If you work hard and if you understand what you want your students to learn and if you challenge them (but do so fairly), they will come to appreciate what you do.   Yeah, there may never be a way for them to express that appreciation but it is there.

 

EVERYONE CHANGES OVER TIME

Happy holidays to all the teachers out there.   This blog just went over 67,800 page views.   I have been thrilled throughout the year to have the chance to interact with so many wonderful educators.  

**

When I give teaching presentations around the country, I am often asked how my teaching has changed during the past 42 years.   Because I stress working for 5 percent improvement each year, that particular question is certainly a legitimate one.   Invariably someone will jump up and ask:   Okay, how are you managing to improve over time?

I actually have a couple of different answers for that question.   But, there is one response that I always give:   During the past decade, I have come to spend a lot more time writing my test questions.   I used to throw tests together hurridly with one goal:   to be fair.   Now, though, I view testing as a much more important element of my class environment, one that requires a significant amount of preparation time. 

I occasionally argue in this blog that the way you test students is the way they will learn.   No matter what you tell them, if you test memorization, they will memorize.   If your tests are purely mechanical, they will only learn the mechanics.   If you only test at a superficial level, they will only learn material to that same shallow depth.   I believe this is the absolute truth.   The type of tests you create has a huge influence on the type of learning that the students do.

I am always shocked by how many well intentioned faculty members turn testing over to a textbook test bank.   I want to run screaming into the night when I hear that.   In my opinion, an overworked graduate student who does not know you or your students is not in any position to write a legitimate test for your students.   When writing this blog, I sometimes discuss what I would do if I were king of education.   Burning all test banks would be one of my first royal acts.

Yes, I know you are extremely busy.   But abdicating this valuable task to a person who might never have taught a single class (or a class like yours) makes no sense.   Any test in your class should be designed for your students based on what you have covered and based on what you want them to know.   It should not be composed of randomly selected questions written by some mysterious stranger.   To me, using a test bank is like asking Mickey Mouse to pinch hit for Babe Ruth.    You are giving away an essential element of the course to someone who might not be up to the task.

Over the decades, I have worked very hard to learn how to write good questions.   During those years, I have written some questions that were horrible.   But, I have learned much from that experience.  

--The first thing I learned about test writing was that a question that everyone could answer was useless.  

--The second thing that I learned was that a question that no one could answer was also useless.  

As with any task, you practice and you look at the results and you get better.   You don’t hand off an essential part of your course to a test bank.

As everyone who has read this blog for long probably knows, one of the things I started doing about 8 years ago was allowing students to bring handwritten notes to every test.   That immediately stopped me from writing questions that required memorization because the students had all that material written down and in front of them.

That was a good start but that was not enough.   Allowing notes pushed me in the right direction but it did not get me to the tests I wanted.   It takes practice and study.  

About 3 weeks ago, I wrote a 75 minute test for my introduction to Financial Accounting class here at the University of Richmond.  This test was the last one of the semester (prior to the final exam).  By that time, I surely believed that everyone in the class had come to understand what I wanted them to accomplish.   So, I wanted to test the material in such a way as to see how deeply they really did understand it.  

I wrote 12 multiple-choice questions designed to take about 4-8 minutes each.   For accounting tests that are often numerically based, I like multiple-choice questions because I can give 6-8 potential answers and, therefore, limit the possibility of a lucky guess.  

In writing the first four of these questions, I tried to envision what an A student could figure out but that a B student could not.   In other words, I wanted these four questions to show me the point between Good and Excellent.   These were tough.   For those questions, I really didn’t worry about the C, D, or F students.   These questions were designed specifically to see if I could divide the A students from the B students.

The next four questions were created to divide the B students from the C students.   They were easier questions but a student would have to have a Good level of understanding to figure them out.  I knew the A students could work these questions and I knew the D students could not work them.   These four were written to split the B students from the C students.

The final four questions were created to divide the C students from those with a lesser level of understanding.   They were easier but still not easy.  I wanted to see who deserved a C and who did not.   If a student could get those four questions correct, that (to me) was average work.   Those students deserved at least a C.   But, if a student could not get those four, they really had failed to achieve a basic level of understanding worthy of a C.  

Then, I shuffled the 12 questions and gave them to my students.

How did this test work out in practice?   Pretty well.   When it was over, I put the papers in order from best to worse to see if I was comfortable with the results.   I genuinely felt like I could tell the A students from the B students from the C students from everyone else.   And, isn’t that a primary reason for giving a test?

Okay, I had to create a pretty interesting curve to get the grades to line up with what I thought I was seeing.   But I am the teacher for this class.  That evaluation should be mine.  I tell my students early in the semester that I do not grade on raw percentages.   Getting 66 percent of the questions correct should not automatically be a D.   In fact, in many cases, getting 66 percent of the questions correct might well be a very impressive performance.   It depends on the difficulty of the questions.

After the first test, students will often ask something like, “I only got four questions out of 12 correct and I still got a C, how can that be?”   My answer is simple “by answering those four questions, you have shown me how much you have understood and I thought that level of understanding deserved a C.”

If I take an adequate amount of time and write good questions, I believe I can gain a good evaluation of the knowledge of the student.   And I usually find they will work harder after that to achieve a deeper level of understanding because they begin to see what I am after.   The way you test is the way your students will learn.

 

BE THE STREAM AND NOT THE ROCK

Last week, in each of my three classes, we were covering some extremely difficult material.   The students came to class well prepared for the most part.   They did a good job of analyzing and discussing the issues.   They came up with reasonable solutions.    They were certainly not perfect but they demonstrated a solid understanding of some truly complicated concepts.   I was proud of them.   They had come a long way.

We are now down to the last few days of the semester.   I was extremely happy to see such a good effort here near the end.   Even a grump like me had to be pleased.   Virtually every student in class had demonstrated a real improvement since we began back in August.   They not only knew more financial accounting but, just as importantly to me, they knew more about how to be good students.  

At times like these, I am always reminded of a quote that I heard a number of years ago, one that I think is terribly relevant to teaching:   "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance."   Every semester I set out to be the stream.

In other words, no matter how frustrated I get with my students during the semester, if I keep my long-term goals in mind and if I pound on the students day in and day out to get to that goal, I WILL WIN.   I will simply wear down their resistance and teach them how to do what I want them to do.  

As long as I keep them moving toward the goals, we will get there. 

Okay, I never have a 100 percent success rate.   If a student sets out to fail, there is not much I can do about that.   However, most students really do not want to fail.   They would actually like to learn the material (at least at some level) and make a decent grade.  

To me, then, the only real question is whether I will get them to do what I want them to do so that they will learn the material and get that decent grade.

And the answer is:   "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance."

I am convinced, when the students walk in on the first day of the semester, that I am the stream and they are the rocks and I will get them to learn what I think they need to know because I am going to stay focused on my long term goals.   To be a good teacher you need that extreme level of perseverance (or maybe “infinite patience” is a better way to put it).   Perseverance is a great help in becoming a good teacher.  

If you have read my blog previously, you know that I always have two long-term goals right from the beginning of each semester:

--On the last day of class, I want my students to say “I never knew I could work so hard, I never knew I could learn so much, I never knew I could think so deeply, and it was actually fun.”

--On the last day of class, I want my students to say “I understand this material so well that I can solve problems without needing the teacher.”  

I think those are educational goals worth achieving.   They make people better.   However, your goals may be radically different than mine.   That is absolutely fine.   I just feel like these two goals work best for me.   You need to determine what goals work best for you.

I also have facilitating goals that I use to help the class get to my long-term goals.  

--Every day, I want my students to come to class adequately prepared based on specific assignments that I have given them previously.   If they are not prepared, I am upset with them.

--Every day, I want my students to participate by analyzing new situations I pose in class.   I want their knowledge to always be pushing into new and unknown territory.  

--Every day, I want my students to go beyond memorization to achieve a level of understanding that allows them to solve questions and problems at a deeper level.

--After class, I want my students to organize the material that has been covered that day to help them come to a more concrete level of knowledge.   I don’t want them to quit when they just have “jello knowledge” but to keep working until they have a solid understanding.   Most student leave class with a squishy level of knowledge (jello knowledge) that requires more thought, work, and organization before it is truly solid.  

Does it work?   At first, of course not.   But, that’s normal; that is no reason to give up.  If I keep pushing them and guiding them and working on their mistakes, they gradually improve.   Learning is a slow, methodical process.   My only concern is whether I can get them to my goals by the last day of the semester.   And I have a strong belief that "In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins--not through strength but by perseverance."   Keep pushing and they will make it.  

Always!

East versus West -- No Pain, No Gain

A few days ago, this blog moved over 65,500 page views since its inception.   It is amazing how often I receive emails from teachers (around the world) who start out by saying “A friend of mine who teaches at my school told me about your blog.”  

Consequently, I like to stop now and then and say Thanks!!! to everyone who passes along a good word about this blog.   If not for you, I would be writing all this stuff to myself.   Whether you agree or disagree, I really appreciate your passing along the blog entries.

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One of the things that I try to do in my classes is talk with my students about my teaching philosophy.  I want them to understand that I do not do things randomly.   I try to have a reason for what I do and I want that reason to be logical.   I think students appreciate being brought into the conversation about their own education.   I think they are more likely to do what the teacher asks if they understand that there is a reason.  

To use an overused cliché, I want my teaching to be transparent.

Here’s an email that I sent out to my students today.   It is probably pretty obvious that I do become frustrated at times by students who simply will not try.   For some reason, they have come to the conclusion that trying is not a necessary part of learning.  Or, that trying is some type of bad omen.  

I want them to look at trying in a different light.   Here's what I wrote them.

 

To: Accounting Students

From: JH

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning

A friend of mine sent me the link above from an NPR show that was aired this morning about education. As people who have been students virtually your entire lives, I thought you might find this essay interesting. It could make you question whether you have been educated by the best possible philosophy. And, it might also help you understand my style of teaching a bit better.

Basically, this article stresses a philosophy that learning is greatly improved by struggle (a word that we rarely associate with education in the US).

In fact, here is the quote that I found most interesting.

“In Eastern cultures, Stigler says, it's just assumed that struggle is a predictable part of the learning process. Everyone is expected to struggle in the process of learning, and so struggling becomes a chance to show that you, the student, have what it takes emotionally to resolve the problem by persisting through that struggle”

“To show that you, the student, have what it takes emotionally to resolve the problem by persisting through that struggle” – interesting concept for education. The author is apparently talking about something more than taking notes and memorizing formulas.

I think we all realize that in sports there are many sayings that stress the importance of struggle: “No pain, no gain” being probably the best known. I don’t think I’ve ever met a single athlete who didn’t subscribe to that philosophy whole heartedly. Whenever you see a championship athlete (in the Olympics, for example, or on the football field), it is simply assumed that the person has spent countless hours in rigorous training in order to become that good.  

However, we don’t exhibit the same attitude toward our best students. We rarely talk about the countless hours it takes to become a championship student. Instead, we tend to dismiss the difficult work that is necessary because “oh, he/she is just smart.”

For some reason, our education system doesn’t put much emphasis on the struggle that is necessary for deep learning. In fact, any visible sign of a struggle to learn material is often viewed as a weakness (“he/she is really not cut out for this stuff”). Is learning that takes place quickly any more beneficial than learning that occurs after considerable effort?

I believe the reason we don’t stress the need to struggle to learn is that we don’t challenge our students enough (and then we are often unhappy that they don’t turn out better prepared). From kindergarten forward, the “struggle” to learn is not often much of a struggle. After enough years, you come to believe that struggle is not really a necessary component of learning.

Oh, do I disagree with that. I want you to struggle. To repeat, I want you to struggle. Every single day. I want you to have to put up a fight. I want to make this stuff hard enough that you have to struggle to do well. I think it is good for you and it makes the learning so much more a part of your being.

If I could make learning easy for you, I would not do it.

In truth, I think about 70 percent of you are putting up the fight that I want. I am very pleased (most days) with about 70 percent of you. The other 30 percent have a tendency to give “lazy answers” that often seem to say “I didn’t feel like struggling with this material so here’s a throw away answer so that you’ll let me slide.”

My goal in this email is not to convert you to my thinking. I’m more interested in making you aware that lazy answers don’t do you any good.

My real goal here is to make one point: Champion athletes struggle mightily to get better. Champion students must do the same thing. There is no shame in having to put up a fight to learn this stuff. In fact, that’s how it ought to be.

JOE'S TOP TEN LIST

Joe’s Top Ten List

This past Thursday, I had the great good fortune to lead a 3 ½ hour discussion of teaching at the New Faculty Seminar put on by the Virginia Community College System.   The VCCS had about 150 folks there who had joined their teaching ranks in the last year or so.   We spent our time together chatting about how to become a better college teacher.

Whenever I lead this type of discussion, I always like to give the participants something at the end that will keep the thought process moving forward even after we have parted.   Here is what I typed on Wednesday night and then distributed to these folks after our time together on Thursday.

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One of my favorite class assignments is to ask my students to read a chapter and pick the top 5 or 10 things they found important in the material.   I think that does a lot for them.   It forces them to think more deeply about the subject as they read.   It also requires them to make an evaluation, something that is not often done in education.   What part of this material was really most important?   They have to do some thinking and make some judgments.

Then, I will give them my countdown of what I thought were the most important parts of the reading.   My challenge to them is to compare my list to their list and figure out why mine had some differences (or justify why their list was actually better).   So, on November 1, we are going to spend 3 ½ hours together talking about becoming a better teacher.   Before you get too far away from this session, sit down and make a list of the most important things we discuss.   Then, pick your top 10 and rank them.   I want you to really consider what was most significant factor in your goal of becoming a better teacher.  

I have made my list below.   Compare your list to my list and see what you think.   In fact, if you go out tonight with other folks from the session, pick a group top 10.   It would be a worthwhile exercise, a great step toward being a better teacher on Monday when you return to your home school.   If you think my list is messed up in some way, let me know.   You can always send me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu and explain why my judgment is a bit faulty (I’m getting old – I have an excuse).  

I don’t know exactly what we will get covered on Thursday but this is based on my best guess as of Wednesday.

NUMBER 12 (Okay, I lied about a Top Ten list.   I just couldn’t get the number down below twelve.)    REMEMBER THAT WE ALL NEED MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION.   I gave you a quote from Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides as a celebration of teaching.   Occasionally, it is easy to get down and depressed when we teach.   Students never quite do what we want them to do.   I don’t think you should ignore your own need for inspiration.   Talk with other teachers about their best days in class.   Or, keep a list of student evaluations that talk about how much you have helped them.   Read those now and then to remind yourself of why you got into this business.

NUMBER 11.   NEVER QUIT THINKING ABOUT YOUR TEACHING.    As our quote from Fortune magazine said, when learning a new skill, most people get good at first and then stop improving.   However, a few continue to get better and go on to greatness.   I’m convinced you will stop growing when you stop thinking about your classes and how you can make things go better.   I’m also convinced that when you have a bad day or a “bad” class that a good response is to sit quietly and just think what is happening and how you can turn things around.  

NUMBER 10.   BE AMBITIOUS.    The best teachers have a fire burning in their belly that pushes them to be great.   If you are satisfied with average, you’ll never be more than average.   The world needs better teachers.   The world needs for you to be a better teacher.   Make that a passion in your life.

NUMBER 9.    DON’T FORGET THE 50-50 RULE.   Almost every teacher talks too much.   Students prefer to sit and be passive and spoon fed.   Don’t let them pull that trick.   Make them talk.   If you talk, the class quickly becomes a conveyance of “stuff” with student thinking going out the window.   The goal should always be that you never do more than half of the talking in any class.   Above that, the quality of learning goes down.

NUMBER 8.   ARE YOU A FOOTBALL COACH OR A SCOUT LEADER?   There are two ways to motivate students.   You either push them or encourage them.   Great teachers are one or the other.   You cannot ignore student motivation.   Figure out how you are most comfortable providing that motivation.

NUMBER 7.   KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE.    I obviously like the idea that I am judged by my students to be “the scariest prof” but also “the most caring.”    That is how I would like to be remembered.    Once I realized that, it has influenced my teaching.   I didn’t want to be remembered as “most boring” or “most confusing” or “funniest.”   I really want to push my students as hard as I can (enough to scare them or, at least, keep them on their toes) but also have them realize that I was doing it solely because I cared about them.   I want that student response.   Ask yourself what you would like for students to write on your tombstone.   It will influence the way you teach.

NUMBER 6.   A MEANS EXCELLENT.   I think grade inflation has had a horrible impact on college education.   Students have come to believe that they deserve a good grade just for breathing and don’t deserve to fail no matter how poorly they do.   If that is the teacher’s attitude, there is no reason at all for a student to work very hard or think very deeply.   I know it can make you feel like a tyrant but if you really care about the students, you want them to learn.   Set a high (but fair) standard and let them know that standard right from the start.

NUMBER 5.   PREPARATION FOR CLASS IS A REAL KEY FOR LEARNING.   If you can get your students to walk in to class well prepared each day, everything goes so much better.  If they are not prepared, all they can really do is sit and take notes and fall back on memorization.   Always think about how you can improve their level of class preparation.   That alone will create a much better class and learning environment.

NUMBER 4.   AFTER THE SEMESTER, ASK YOUR STUDENTS TO TELL YOU HOW THEY MADE AN A.   This allows you to pat your best students on the back.   They will love you for that.   It also helps you evaluate how you are doing in each class.   And, you can use these written responses to guide your next group of students.   One of the best ways to improve a new class is to let them know what it takes to do well.  Getting previous students to explain “the secrets” of how they made an A puts out the message loud and clear to the next group.

NUMBER 3.   THE WAY YOU TEST IS THE WAY THEY WILL LEARN.   If you ask test questions that focus on memorization, your students will do no more than memorize.   If you want them to think deeper, you have to ask questions that will require that depth of knowledge.   Try open book tests; you’ll write better questions and the students will be forced to think at a deeper level.

NUMBER 2.   BE SURE TO KNOW YOUR FLY-ON-THE-WALL PHILOSOPHY.   What you want to hear from your students on the last day of class should guide everything you do for the entire semester.   Don’t worry so much about any one day; worry about getting them to achieve your goals by the final day.   Figure out what you want your students to say about the experience on the last class and then use that to help you to design and focus each assignment.

NUMBER 1.   BY NOVEMBER 1, 2013, SHOOT TO BE 5 PERCENT BETTER AS A TEACHER.   To become great, you must continue to improve.   No one gets great overnight.   Set a reasonable goal and then work to make sure you feel you have achieved that goal over the next year.   You can’t measure it but you’ll know if it happens.   That’s the first step toward greatness.