Choose the Award You Want to Win

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

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

 

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

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

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

--Great teachers change lives. 

--Great teachers awaken student curiosity. 

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

--Great teachers inspire students to do their best.

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

--Great teachers help students learn to think.

--Great teachers push students to work incredibly hard.

This list could go on and on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What award would you want to win? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

MARKETING YOUR COURSE

Author’s Note.  Before I start today’s essay, I want to make an offer.  In the fall of 2020, I created an online financial accounting course for the Robins School of Business here at the University of Richmond.  Rather than try to mold a live class into an online course, I honestly tried to rethink the whole process from start to finish.  I used some of what I had learned from the book Make It Stick as well as my 50 plus years of college teaching.  The online course seemed to go quite well.  We started in August with 74 students and we finished in December with 74 students.  No one failed. 

One of the common arguments against online education is that it is “watered down” and of a lower quality than live classroom education.  I focused on that challenge as I created each component of the course.  In the fall of 2020, approximately 70 percent of my students completed the school’s student evaluation forms.  From my perspective, here are two of the most interesting results.

--The course required you to think critically -- 4.672 on a 5.0 scale.

--The course significantly increased your knowledge of the subject -- 4.629 on a 5.0 scale.

For an introductory level course where virtually none of the 74 students would ever take another financial accounting class, I thought those results were good.

My point is this – for many important reasons, the world needs better online education.  That should not be the only alternative for student learning but it needs to be a better alternative.  As teachers, we need to educate more people.  We need to educate them better at a lower cost.  If it is well done, if it well designed, if it properly carried out, an online course can be a very efficient way for students to learn.

Online education does not have to be watered down.  It does not have to be a weaker version of a live class.  We need to really focus on how to make online education work better so that many more people can learn our subject matter. 

I have all of this material left over.  I have spent the last six months getting it organized.  If you are interested, I would be happy to share it with you. 

--I can show you how to use it to supplement your live or blended class. 

--I can show you how to use it to create your own online course. 

--Even if you never teach financial accounting, you can study it to stimulate your personal thoughts about online education.  We need more teachers thinking more deeply about online education. 

I used videos, guided readings, sequenced learning questions and answers, audio questions and answers, and a whole lot of quizzes.  I emailed the students each morning at 6:30 and said, “Here is what I need for you to do today.  We will have a quiz in 3 days.” 

It is not a perfect system, but I think it can be used to teach students efficiently.  Or, the materials can be used as a foundation for an even better program. 

If you are interested in seeing some of this material, send me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.

If you know someone who might be interested, please pass along this message.  Thanks for your help.

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Blog.  My spring semester classes start on January 10, 2022.  Registration for those classes took place last week.  I waited two whole days and then I emailed a long note about the upcoming semester to each of the students who had registered. 

Why would I do this?

--I want every student to walk in on the first day of class excited about the possibility of learning.

--I want every student to walk in on the first day of class understanding what I want from them. 

--I want every student to walk in on the first day of class feeling that they have the ability to do well in this class.

--I want every student to walk in on the first day of class believing that the material will be worth learning.

My students have all been in school for a large portion of their lives.  Too often, they are full of dread rather than anticipation.  Over the years, many of them have suffered through some dreary education.  I think this is one of the saddest parts of my job.  Students rarely arrive at class thrilled by the prospect of learning.  For them, there is just not enough joy in the idea of learning.

So, I will spend the next two months trying to get them to believe in me, to believe in themselves, and believe in the value of what I am going to teach them.  If I can win this marketing campaign, the quality of the learning in these spring classes will have no bounds.  That is what I want.  I want every class to be the best that anyone has ever seen.

So, what did I actually say to these future students in this introductory email?  How did I market my course to them?  Here are a few of the comments I thought were most relevant.

“I am delighted that we will be working together. I have taught this class most semesters for the past 50+ years.  I firmly believe that it is the most important course in the B-school and, in my opinion, the most interesting course (and, despite its reputation, it can be the most fun).”   

“There is not a day that goes by in this class when we are not trying to understand something important.   I’m not here to waste your time.”

“Attitude is always important.  Teaching students with a mediocre attitude is a trial.  Teaching students with a positive attitude is a joy because you can help them leap tall buildings with a single bound.”

“I want YOU to make an A.   There is no crime in making a B or a C in such a challenging course but there is a crime in shooting for a B or a C. The world needs more bright young people with serious ambition.”

“Go to any of the junior and senior accounting majors you know (in your fraternity/sorority, your dorm, or wherever) and ask the simple question, ‘I want to be one of those people who makes an A in Professor Hoyle’s 302 class.   What is the key?   Don’t try to scare me because I’m not going to run and hide.   I am not a timid, frightened mouse.  I want to make an A.  How do I go about reaching that goal?’  My guess is that they’ll give you good advice.” 

“The list of students who are well prepared every single day for my class and the list of students who make an A are pretty close to the same list.”

Okay, I could go on and on, but the message needs to come from you.  What message do you want to convey?  You are trying to get a head start.  You want to get the students interested in the class before they start dreading it as a dreary chore. 

I will write my students a few more times before the spring semester begins to give them other suggestions on getting ready for my class.  Nevertheless, the marketing key is this first communication where I try to set the tone for the entire spring.  “This course is interesting and fun and challenging and worthwhile” rather than letting them tell themselves, “This is going to be soooo boring and useless.” 

When it comes to convincing students to do the work you require, aggressive (but thoughtful) marketing is never a bad idea.

WHAT DID I MISS – SUICIDE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) called off its classes on Tuesday.  After two suicides in the past month, school officials decided to observe a Wellness Day.  The chancellor released this advice, "I encourage every student to use this time to rest and to check in with each other during that day. Reach out to a friend, a classmate, or colleague and ask them, 'Honestly, how are you doing?'” 

As a result, a good friend of mine emailed to ask me what I thought about the pressures college students are under these days and the actions of college officials.  He remembers college well but he has been away for decades. 

My response was simple, “I have approximately 75 students per semester in my classes.  At any point in time, it is not unreasonable that a couple of those students could be under a lot of stress and that, perhaps, one of those students will just not be able to deal with that pressure.  If so, I hope I am aware enough to notice and take action.  Ultimately, 74 of those students will be able to deal with everything—life, school, family, love life, whatever.  But, one might not.  It’s not all 75 that worry me.  It’s that one student that I want to notice.  I don’t want to wait until ‘Wellness Day’ to be aware of a student who is really struggling.  I want to pay attention every day.  When it comes to suicide prevention, my rule is ’74 out of 75 is not good enough.’” 

As college teachers, if anyone is going to notice a student in distress, it should be us.  That sentence is one we should tell ourselves every day.

This past August, I wrote the following note to all of my fellow faculty here at the Robins School of Business.  If you want to do something to address the threat of student suicide, you might write a note like this to your colleagues.  It is a million times better to be aware before a problem erupts than have regrets afterwards.  Hearing it from you might make it more a priority for other members of your faculty.

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To:  B-school Faculty and Staff  

From:  Joe

I am on sabbatical this semester and one of my main goals is to be quiet and invisible so I can finish several projects (the 15th edition of my textbook, for one).  Nevertheless, you should have gotten an email today from the Vice President of Student Development about student mental health and this is one of the few things that I think is so important that I have decided to break my silence. 

We all have dozens of students in our classes, and we interact with them for at least 150 minutes each week.  Under the best of circumstances, college can be a difficult transitional time for them.  With Covid, this is hardly the best of times.  

From my 50 years of experience in the classroom, most of them deal with everything wonderfully well.  Almost invariably, a few of them struggle.  

I think virtually everyone knows that I put a lot of pressure on my students.  I think I hold the record for most tears in one office.  Consequently, I pay very close attention to my students to see if there are behavioral changes throughout the semester:  students who look like they have stopped sleeping or eating, students who go from always prepared to always unprepared, students who stop attending, students who seem to withdraw within themselves, students who say things that just don't make sense.

I usually talk with the students first to see what might be happening but if I continue to have any reservations, I quickly contact one of the deans of students or I complete the university’s formal link to alert officials as to my concerns.  I never hesitate to get the appointed people involved.

I have found without exception that those folks are ready and willing to help.  They will not question you or doubt you.

I probably hold the record for most contacts of the student deans over the years (I can be a mean guy as a lot of students will tell you and that leads to trauma) and I have never never never once regretted contacting them.  The student deans and the mental health folks will take you seriously.  

I could make a list of the things I want to avoid but you already know some of the bad things that can happen to students.   I never want to look back and ask myself, "Why didn't I see that coming?  What did I miss?"

 

HOW MUCH OF THE WORK SHOULD YOU DO?

This is the 305^th essay on teaching that I have written for this blog.  Almost all of my postings during the most recent few years have had several thousand page views.  That level of distribution is because of you, the readers, who think deeply about what I have to say about teaching and then pass the message along to a friend.  Thanks!!  That is how college education will improve.  We read and think about ideas and then pass them along to other folks so that the universal thought process about student learning will deepen and grow.  This message comes back to one of my primary beliefs about education:  The more you think about teaching, the better teacher you will become.  That is all I am trying to do here on this blog – help you think about teaching.

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I was searching for something on the Internet this morning and came upon a 24 second video of me that had been carved out of a speech I gave a few years back.  I am not exactly sure how it got posted on the Internet, but I found the 24 seconds fascinating.  Here is my reaction to my own words.

When it comes to creating the learning experience for your students, how much of the work should you do?  I have known many teachers who did virtually all of the work themselves.  They explained things in amazing detail and their students needed to do little more than show up, take good notes, and then memorize them.  Such teachers are often popular because students have little work to do, but those students still feel like they are learning a lot (and should be able to make a good grade).  I often refer to this as a “conveyance of information” model: (a) little work for the students, (b) there can be a feeling of a lot of learning, and (c) a good grade comes with good notes.  If you are a student, what’s not to like?  You can tell students who have been taught in this manner in high school because they are obsessive note takers.  If you want good student evaluations, this is a promising path.

Other teachers explain little and then expect students to work like crazy to basically teach themselves.  These teachers are much less popular because the work is hard and grades are often low.  Nevertheless, for students who can motivate themselves and work independently, the depth of learning can be impressive.  The pressure is great but it can form can great learning.  Few students, though, are able to sustain that level of discipline for too long.  I call this the “you are on your own” model. 

I prefer something in the middle.  I always believe that I should do my 50 percent of the work but not one bit more.  The students must also do their half.  But not one bit more.

As I discussed in that 24 second video this morning, I have always viewed class as a dance.  I explain this to my students early and often each semester.  When two people dance together and everything works perfectly, it is just beautiful to watch.  If one person is trying but the other is not, it is a mess.  However, two dancers can create magic.  In the same way, when it works, the best college classes resemble a ball room dance (such as the waltz or the tango).  Two parties working hard to push each other to be great. 

For me, those are the best days of teaching.  If you have taught for long, you have probably experienced classes where everything works perfectly.  You lead the students through the most complicated material and they responded with excitement and mental discipline.  On those days, learning is practically palpable. 

The real key to making a class come together in this way is getting the students to do their half of the work.  Trust me, if you can do that consistently, you will quickly become one of the best teachers in your building.  The question that haunts every college teacher:  How do you get students to do the necessary work, not just now and then, but in preparation for each class session? 

Here are four tips that can help encourage students to do their half of the work.  Nothing works all the time but these tips can help.

1 – If possible, before the semester begins, tell your students how much you expect from them and why.  You must realize that they will have had scores of teachers over the years.  Each one of those teachers has had a different level of expectation.  Never think your students know what you want from them.  Most teachers are not very clear about what they want their students to do so confusion is often the permanent result. 

Before each semester starts, I write my students and simply say, “I need for you to put in a minimum of 2 hours of work between each of our three classes each week.  I don’t mean six hours per week.  I mean two hours before each class.” 

Then, I explain why those hours are important, “In class, each day, we will build on what you have prepared.  Class only works if you walk in every day prepared.  And, that only comes from doing the work.” 

2 – Always tell the students exactly what you want them to do in preparation for the next class.  If you don’t give them specific instructions, they will do nothing.  “Do some work” means nothing to a student.  “Do this assignment before class” means a lot.  I give my students 3-7 questions to prepare for each upcoming class.  We never miss a day because that sends a confusing signal.  I purposely write those questions at a level to stretch my students.  If they are too easy, my students will have no need to think about them or to come to class.

3 – Make some use of that preparation at every class.  If you ask a student to spend time on an assignment and then you don’t address that assignment in some way, don’t expect your students to ever be prepared again.  You are making them feel foolish.  “Do this work but we are going to ignore it" is a momentum killer.  I have found that college students are willing to do almost any amount of work but they need to see a clear benefit that results from that work.

4 – Make the student work interesting and intriguing.  In other words, DON’T BORE STUDENTS TO DEATH and then expect them to put in a strong work effort.  Ask oddball questions.  Create bizarre scenarios.  I am convinced that the development of critical thinking skills comes from setting up unusual situations and then asking/helping students to work their way to a logical conclusion.  If you have free time to spend, invest it in learning to write questions that will awake your students to a sense of excitement in the subject matter.

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In a dance, both parties need to do half of the work but one party does have to lead.  Likewise, in a class, both parties need to do half of the work but one party does have to lead.  As the teacher, you are the one who has to lead.  And, it is that leading that will encourage your students to get up and do their half of the work so that the class will go beautifully well every single class session.

A question to ask yourself:  How do YOU lead your students into doing their half of the work each day?  For every teacher, that’s a critical issue that must be resolved.

And, in case you are interested, here is the 24 second video that led me to think about class preparation this morning.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfJ7YkE01u0

 

 

 

Improving the World a Little Bit at a Time

I am a college teacher so I am deeply interested in education and how it can be improved.  I teach in a wonderful Business School so I am also equally interested in business operations and how they can be improved.  Whether it is education or business, how can we help to make things operate better?

A dear friend of mine sent me this (slightly modified) email from one of her students this week.  I thought it was “teacher as mentor” at its best.

“I remember I did well on our first test, and you wrote a comment saying that I should consider the major. While it may have been meant as a light-hearted statement, simply congratulating me on my test grade, it actually helped me out. At that time, I was really unsure of what I was going to major in at school, and as a result, what I would focus on in the future. Although I had been interested in your class, your comment actually helped me realize that it may be the right path for me, and now I plan to declare it as a major.

“I just wanted to thank you for that comment, however unimportant it may have seemed, because I would often think about it when trying to decide which direction to go in terms of my education and beyond. It was a constant reminder of my skills and interests, and I believe I have now made the right choice.”

Many of us originally became teachers because we wanted the opportunity to have a positive effect on the lives of others.  Looking back over my 50+ years as a teacher, that has certainly been one of the true highlights to this career. 

Therefore, I found it interesting how little the professor in the above email did and how significant the effect was.  You do not have to move mountains to have a significant impact.

(a) – The teacher took the time to notice that the student had done well on a test.  The student really had done a good job.

(b) – The teacher took a bit more time to compliment the student on those efforts. 

And then--

(c) – The student was encouraged to take what might turn out to be a very significant step if that person’s life. 

Does it get better than that?

We all want to change the world but, usually, we are so overwhelmed with all the problems that we feel helpless.  Nevertheless, whether you teach in school or work in a business or some other organization, there is one thing we can all do that will help make things better.

Pat someone on the back for a job well done. 

It is so easy and, yet, the ramifications can be enormous.

Who in this world doesn’t want a compliment, a pat on the back?  “You did a good job.  Thanks,” will make anyone sit up straight and smile.  Trust me on that.

Unfortunately, from my vantage point, the number of pats on the back that are given out each day is miniscule.  When is the last time someone did that for you?

Or, maybe more importantly, when is the last time you patted someone on the back with a compliment?  Not just a quick, “Thank you.”  I mean, “I saw what you did and you did it very well.” 

All you have to do is:

--Be observant.  Always, be on the lookout for well done work.

--Communicate the compliment.

Think how much more upbeat your business organization would be if all of the people in charge gave out a pat on the back once each day rather than once a month or once a year. 

No wonder so many people seem surly – humans need to be recognized for what they are doing.  I think that is vastly under-appreciated.

Think how much harder your students might work if you (their teacher) found one thing in each class to compliment.  Go back to your office after class and send an email to a student and simple say, “That third question today was really hard and you did an excellent job with your answer.”  That will take you 10 seconds and you might literally have changed the student’s life.  Even at the very least, you will make that person happy and proud and that is well worth doing.   No one works harder than the person trying to get the second compliment.  

Make a pledge as your small part of improving the world to pat one or more people on the back each day with a compliment.

Yes, you will have to pay attention.  You will have to be aware of the people who are working hard.  Then, you will have to have the nerve to say something.  I would love to see every business person and every teacher take that on as a “habit activity” – something we come to do all the time as a natural part of our lives.

The world could certainly use more pats on the back.  Maybe things would start to look a little brighter to all of us. 

THREE PERSONAL WORDS

 

Last week, I had the great pleasure of speaking at Longwood University to approximately 40 seniors who were getting ready to leave campus to do their student teaching.  They were going out to elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in order to get practical experience in the art of teaching.  I can only imagine how tense and excited they must all have been.  It has to feel like stepping off into the unknown.

They had meetings all morning followed by a nice lunch.  I was asked to be the after-lunch speaker.  That was truly a pleasure and an honor.

I began by telling them that I was going to give my speech but, first, I wanted to start with a three-word message that came directly from my heart personally to them. 

I had three words that I wanted them to hear independent of the speech.  Those words were personally from me.

However, before I unveil those three words here on my blog, I have a bit of a different story to convey first.

**

This morning I received an email from a student who was in one of my classes here at the University of Richmond a few years ago.  He had graduated and, from what he told me, seemed to have created a successful career for himself.  The message that he wanted to tell me this morning was, “Looking back on those classes, I developed the confidence to be okay with giving an answer that may be wrong. We were all learning at the time.”

What a nice story:  his career was going well and he had developed confidence and knowledge in my class.  Confidence and knowledge – hard to ask for a better outcome.

What made this story especially interesting to me was that (and I checked this to be sure my memory was accurate), he finished the semester with the lowest overall average in my class that semester.  Lowest.  Bottom.  His test grades were consistently poor.  If you looked at just my grade book, you would have viewed this as a loss for me and a loss for him.  A wasted class.  But clearly, it wasn’t. 

His email reminded me of some advice I gave the student-teachers at Longwood:  Don’t become so enamored of your A students.  Yes, we all love the students who make 100.  They make our jobs easier.  We swell with pride when a student makes an A+.  However, from my experience, many (if not most) of the A students really do not need much from us.  They often know how to study, how to do the difficult thinking that is needed, and how to be efficient test takers.  They are well formed as students before they get to us. 

Where we can provide the most benefit is with the other students.  The ones who struggle.  The ones who don’t have the strong background needed to do well from the start.  The ones who can fall through the cracks if we are not careful.

As a teacher, what should make your heart sing?  What should you look for that will bring a smile to your lips.   I am always most pleased with the students who truly try.  That sentence sums up a lot of my teaching.  Those students take on the challenge and put in the work even if the grades are not great.  However, it is not just putting in a lot of time.  To a certain extent, I think the amount of time spent studying is a bit overrated. 

When I use the word “try,” I am thinking of students who break down the topic and work to ascertain how to view the material logically and how to come to an understanding of the subject matter.  There is a significant part of learning that is not tied to a certain high grade.  I liked the last line from my former student, “We were all learning at the time.”

I love it when students tell me that I helped them to learn to think and to learn how to learn in a more efficient manner.    

So, as you begin yet another semester as a teacher, never become too enamored of your A students.  You might be adding only a little real benefit to their academic journeys.  Look past that group to the students who struggle, for whatever reason.  How can you encourage those students to try (more and better)?  How can you add value to their learning, a value that might prove to be what they really need in order to succeed going forward? 

If a student simply will not try, there is little that you or I or any other teacher can do for them.  However, if a student is pushing themselves to learn and understand, the assistance you provide might make a world of difference in their lives even if they do wind up with the lowest grade in class. 

Here is my point:  Most of us got into the teaching profession in hopes of changing lives.  Where that happens is most often not with the A students.  They will certainly make you feel good but, as you look back over the years, the benefit you truly add is most likely to be with the students who struggle but never give up and keep pushing themselves from the first day to the last.

**

Okay, what were the three personal words that I told to the student-teachers at Longwood even before I began my speech?

I ENVY YOU!!

I think I repeated those words several times over and over like a mantra.

After 50 years in the classroom, my career is beginning to wind down no matter how hard I fight the urge.   Those students were standing at the doorway of a new teaching career.  Quite honestly, it will not work for all of them.  Some will be teaching the wrong grade or wind up in difficult environments.  Nevertheless, many of them are going to be changing lots of lives for many years.  That is for certain.  What a wonderful future they have in front of them.

They will be under paid.

They will be vastly under appreciated.

They will work way too hard.

I can promise them all of that. 

But, at some point, down the road, they will look back and say, “I have been a teacher.  I have helped my students learn—learn to work and learn to think.  I have helped to change lives.”

That is not a bad way to spend a career. 

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT THIS SUMMER?

 

One of my favorite quotes was sent to me rather anonymously many years ago from England.  “Great teaching does not come from years of doing it.  Great teaching comes from years of thinking about it.” 

Unfortunately, during the school year, we are often so busy with students, writing, research, lesson plans, committee assignments, advising, and the like that we never have the time to sit and think deeply about our teaching.

Now, though, it is summer, a time for serious reflection.  I measure my summer from around May 1 (around the end of the spring semester) to September 1 (around the beginning of the fall semester).  With that calendar, July 1 (today, as I write) means that summer is half over.  Time is slipping away.  So, how much thinking have you done about your teaching?  The summer is half over.  As I tell my students endlessly, procrastination is always everyone’s biggest enemy.

When I go out (prior to the pandemic) and talk with faculty around the country, I describe summertime thinking to them.  Interestingly, there is often a mystery as to, “What exactly do I think about?”  That is a reasonable question.  Let me provide you with a little thinking assignment.  Maybe it will push your thinking forward for the rest of the summer.

Last week, I was exercising (at my age, I need a lot of exercise) and my wife came running in exclaiming, “You are going to love the quote that I found in the book I am reading.”  And, she (as always) was 100 percent correct.

The author is Ann Patchett and the book contains a group of essays titled (interestingly enough) This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage.   Here are the words that caught my wife’s attention.  And, notice, they are from the student’s perspective rather than from that of the teacher.

“There are two kinds of educational experience you can have in college.  One is passive and one is active.  In the first, you are a little bird in the nest with your beak stretched open wide, and the professor gathers up all the information you need and drops it down your gullet.  You may feel good about this—after all, you are passionately waiting for this information—but your only role is to accept what you are given.  To memorize facts and later repeat them for a test might get you a good grade, but it’s not the same thing as having intellectual curiosity.  In the second kind, you are taught to learn how to find the information, and how to think about it, for yourself.  You learn how to question and to engage.  You realize that one answer is not enough and that you have to look at as many sources as are available to you so that you can piece together a larger picture.”

I am on sabbatical in the fall so I will not be teaching.  If I were, I would immediately email this paragraph to all of my fall students with a challenge, “I hope you want the second kind of educational experience because I want that for you.  It will take work on your part and work on my part but if we both try, this can be the greatest educational experience of your life.  I promise you that.” 

          I want my students to know that I am shooting for something well beyond passive learning.  I want them to come to class on the first day with the expectation that I am going to offer them more than treating them like a bunch of baby birds, too weak to feed themselves. 

And, yes, before you ask, I do have students who immediately drop out of my class in fear that I will expect them to think and that is just incredibly scary to them.   They’ll go looking for a momma bird where they can memorize and get that beloved A. 

Okay, to push your thinking, let me pose some questions for you to ponder.  I will include some of my own thoughts where I have them. 

(1) – Do you agree with her general description of the college educational experience? 

          I suspect most teachers are okay with this description.  We can certainly spend time dividing these two experiences into more subdivisions, but I am not sure that adds any benefit to our thinking.

(2) – For the author, what are the key words in this paragraph? 

          I would bet that if you ask Ann Patchett she would say that the key words are “intellectual curiosity.”  She never says explicitly but I think she obviously prefers the second kind of experience based on the development of the student’s intellectual curiosity.  That seems to be what she thinks students should want.

(3) – If you gave your students a secret ballot, which of these two experiences would they sign up for in their college classes?

          I teach at what I believe is an excellent university, but I am surprised by how many students come in from middle school and high school having been trained (almost religiously) in the “down your gullet” form of education.  People prefer experiences that are familiar.  Most, but certainly not all students, have an affection for this “conveyance of information” model.  Many students (possibly including myself at 18) would sign up for nothing but “down the gullet” classes even if they knew (a) they would be bored to death and (b) learn little.  I think it is a role of colleges to protect students from themselves.  Students should not live in fear of having their thinking challenged.  They should demand that.

(4) – If you were designing a perfect course structure for yourself (not your colleagues but you), how much of your class time would be “down your gullet” information conveyance and how much would be pushing students toward intellectual curiosity?

          In a perfect class, whatever that means, I would never convey information directly.  I would just prod the students to figure the stuff out for themselves.  We do not live in a perfect world but it is fun to dream.

(5) – If you surveyed your students, how much of your class time would they say was “down your gullet” teaching? 

Teachers are not always the most unbiased evaluators of their own teaching.  I think that holds us all back.  We see ourselves through our own hopes and doubts.   Thus, I am interested in what students believe they are seeing.  Would your students say you convey information 40 percent of the time and push intellectual curiosity 60 percent of the time or what?  That is something to think about.

(6) – Take your answer from (5) and assume it is reasonably accurate.  How would you like to see those percentages change over the next academic year?  Now is the time to do the thinking to make that happen.

Remember that in (4), you have indicated a perfect course division.   That should be a guideline.  Are you satisfied with how your class is divided between information conveyance and intellectual curiosity?

(7) – Okay, here is the question that is really at the heart of this essay.  Let’s assume that you want to have less of a “down your gullet” style of class and more intellectual curiosity.  I think that is a reasonable summer goal.  As you think about teaching during the remainder of the summer, what might you do to help make this change in your class structure during the 2021-22 academic year?

          Everyone must answer this question in his or her own particular way.  Teaching Shakespeare and teaching biology have things in common but there are quite a number of obvious differences.  Nevertheless, my answer to this question has become a type of personal litany:  (1) stress preparation prior to the class experience and (2) ask more questions, especially questions that really do not have easy answers. 

I am convinced that I can make any class at any university appreciably better simply by convincing the students to work harder before they show up for class.  What kind of logical and interesting assignments can you develop that will encourage students to do the work necessary prior to entering into the class discussion?  You can approach class preparation with a whip or with a carrot.  What kind of carrot can you provide that will entice the students to overcome their natural procrastination and do the work.  Just making an assignment is not enough.  You have to convince the students to do it.

And, as Socrates must have figured out, asking questions can be the driving force behind developing intellectual curiosity.  What is happening here?  Is it a moral action or not?  What would you do in this situation?  If you spend time thinking, every grain of sand can prompt an infinite number of fascinating questions.

 **

The summer is half over.  I hope you make great use of the first half.  Now, go out and make even better use of the second.  When the fall semester begins, you want to be ready for your greatest semester ever.