We The Professors

STORYTELLING: THE PROFESSOR’S ANGLE

People say (I know, never start out by saying people say, but nevertheless, people say…and yes, I could document the people) that many new faculty enter classrooms being a bit uncertain and sometimes a little tenuous about what they might know and not know about teaching. In other words, their confidence is a bit lacking.

And students, well, students are a lot like dogs. They can sense fear. And some of them react to the profs fear by being sympathetic and helpful. Others see the fear and want to capitalize on it and dominate and gain the upper hand. And a big problem is that you have all those “dogs” watching you and waiting to sense the fear.

So what do you do? Run, hide, roll over or give in? Actually, the best thing to do is to tell yourself a story.

Because the story you tell yourself when you walk into the classroom, that story, determines everything.

• If you tell yourself you’re scared, you’ll be scared. (This is not the same as being nervous. Nervous is a good thing.)

• If you walk into the room like you own the room, you will own the room.

• If you speak assertively, you will be perceived as assertive.

• If you’ve practiced using the technology and seeing that it works, then you will be perceived as competent.

• If you gesture while you speak you will be perceived as outgoing and friendly.

• If you tell a sad story to yourself about your teaching, then you’ll be a sad teacher.

It’s the story in your head. The story that you told yourself the day you were hired. The story you told yourself when you walked in your new office. The story you told yourself when you wrote your syllabi. The story you told yourself in graduate school when you made the decision to teach.

It’s not about what they (students) think of you. It’s about what you (the professor) think about yourself. That little engine attitude of “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” goes a long way toward climbing that hill and succeeding. Yep, what you think about yourself is everything.

If you’ve not been telling yourself any story about your teaching life, or if you realize that you’ve been telling yourself the wrong story, then create a new story. And make that story the one you teach by.

 

A DAY, A WEEK, A MONTH, A YEAR…A START

What if there could be a worldwide higher education re-imagination day?

On this day every college and university on the planet would individually sit down and brainstorm, discuss, debate, argue and create ideas and strategies and proposals for the future of higher education.

And then each college and university would organize and categorize these ideas.

And then each college and university would make plans to implement these ideas.

And then every college and university would submit these ideas to an organization specifically created to re-imagine the re-imaginings and to categorize and distribute the best of them.

And what if, instead of a day, this worldwide higher education re-imagination event was a week, or a month, or a year?

And what if the present and future of higher education was actually changed by the energy of the ideas and the plethora of ideas that could genuinely and significantly and, yes, passionately generate international discussion. And what if this discussion was not just endless rhetoric that goes on forever and ever, but discussion that lasts a short time and results in genuine change.

It could happen. It needs to happen. Maybe not at every school, but certainly at many, many, many schools.  After all, the future is getting closer and closer.

All that’s required is a team of energized dreamers to organize and implement these events.

 

DISCUSSION, DIALOGUE, QUESTIONS, READINGS AND BEGINNINGS

Often faculty have the problem of simply not being able to begin a meaningful discussion in a class. Where do you start? Do you call on students? Do you ask a question and hope for the best? Are your students so used to the fact that you lecture that they just feel like they do not need to answer questions or talk? Or maybe you’re one of those profs who ask a question, wait 10 seconds, then answers it yourself.

Regardless, there are many, many, many reasons to have meaningful discussions in most courses. Here’s how I have done it.

I assume that in your courses students have regular readings between classes, and that you expect them to come to class having done the reading. I’m also assuming the class has not too many more than 25 students.

Here’s what you do.

Walk into the classroom a few minutes early. Sit somewhere in the classroom and arrange your seat so that the class can sit around you, or at least that all of them can arrange themselves to see you. DO NOT SIT IN FRONT OF THE ROOM.  Make miscellaneous small talk with students as they enter. Be genuine. Do not fake it or force it.

When class time arrives, read a short and fascinating passage either from the reading or just a passage related to the subject of the class. (If you usually take attendance, do it later in the class.) Don’t make what you read more than two or three paragraphs. Then, ask a great—not just a good--discussion question related to what you just read. Make the question you ask something you have spent time on to make certain it is interesting enough to generate discussion. Then, wait. Make eye contact as you look at the students. Wait for an answer. Sometimes I have requested the answer also be in the form of a question.

Then move forward, waiting for other students to respond with either comments or questions. Ask questions of your own and make comments as though you were just a member of the class. But always remember that your job is also to be in charge, to keep the discussion going, and to maintain adherence to the topic.

Keep things moving quickly and significantly for 30 minutes. Then pass out note cards and ask students to summarize the key points made in the discussion. Then end the class conversation by discussing the summaries, or by providing your own perspective on the day’s topic.  But do not walk to the front of the room. Maintain your position within the confines of the class. Use your comments at the end of the class to create closure and to serve as what a teacher is, an authority figure on the understanding of the topic.

The keys to success in this type of activity are beginning with a reading and asking questions that do generate discussion. Take time to come up with things that are exactly right.

Finally, it’s obviously not necessary to do this kind of discussion during every class session. But, every few weeks it can be totally worthwhile.

  

SETTING THE HIGHEST EXPECTATIONS

The beginning of a semester is a time for every professor to make a statement about the quality and the expectations of his/her academic program and the specific course the students are taking.

Here’s an example of one such statement that, with slight modifications, can be used by any program. When I used it, I did so on the first day of the course. I first read and discussed it and then distributed it as a written document.

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This academic department is committed to teaching you how to be an educated person/professional in the area(s) of (your area here).

• Our mission is to train professionals.
• Our standards are professional.
• Our expectations are professional.

We want you to be good time managers, good team members, good writers, good speakers, and good students. We want to teach you how to be those things and we want to be sure you succeed in this department.

As a member of this course, the department and I will have high expectations for you. We will expect you to treat this class just as you would your first job. We will expect your best effort and we will expect your best work.

We will expect you to attend every class and let us know before the class begins if you cannot attend. We will expect you to participate in each class, to ask questions, to contribute to the discussion, to be present in spirit as well as in body.

We will expect you to read often and to write and to speak well. We will expect you to remember the things you have learned in the classes that came before this class.

We will hold you to high standards of academic practice in terms of integrity and ethical principles. 

This course may be harder than any course you have ever taken.

But at the end you will have the satisfaction of having met professional standards and of being one step closer to achieving what we hope are your goals and dreams.

It is possible that you may not succeed because you do not fully understand our expectations. You should understand that everyone in this program knows we are not one of the best programs in the university. We know we are THE best in the university and we will expect the best from you.

Those of you who do not believe they can succeed, those of you that choose not to succeed, and those of you who will not put forth the effort to succeed should leave the classroom now. Otherwise, take out the pen and notebook and the assignment I asked you to bring to today’s class.

 

DREAM DIFFERENT

“If you always do what you’ve always done,
you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
--Henry Ford--

Be a professor who embraces your ability to be willing to change what you do to make it good and better and best. Don’t give up who you are, but give up the things you’ve always done that do not work. If you always can say: “I may not have done it right, but I always gave it my all,” then you’ll never really fail to eventually succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

WELCOME TO 2015!

 

FINDING YOUR OWN CONNECTION

One of the best professors I ever had was a man whose name I unfortunately can’t remember.

It was a long, long time ago before the Internet, even before desktop computers. It was my first semester in graduate school at The Ohio State University. The course topic was communication theory. It met for three hours each Monday night.

On the first night of the course the professor, a handsome 40-ish guy dressed in business casual, entered the small classroom and sat on a stool in the front
of the room. There were about 25 of us. And for the next two and a half hours he talked, mesmerizing each and every one of us with information about the basics of, importance of, stories about, and research into communication theory. He never moved from the stool, never wrote on a board, never held anything in his hands and did not bring anything to class. Yet not a single person in the class that night came away with anything but awe…at both his knowledge and his ability to impart that knowledge in an almost hypnotic way.

Even years and years and years later I have never forgotten that night and the15 subsequent nights of that course.

He was a great teacher. He connected with the subject matter and with the students. He was involved. Yet he did not pace around the room, did not stand up, did not raise his voice in incredible enthusiasm. But he connected.

Every teacher is a performer. But every teacher has to find her own way to perform and to connect. She doesn’t necessarily have to be an evangelist seeking to convert the unconverted. She just has to use the skills she has to bond student to subject.

It does still involve passion and enthusiasm, but driven forward by a style that is the professor’s own. The unknown professor above had a speaking style that was quiet. But it was not a monotone delivery. It was sincere and it was intelligent and it was incredibly interesting…to listen to and to watch. There was amazing intensity in him for his subject and that intensity spread to every student in the course.

Setting a high standard for yourself is the first quality of a great professor. Finding those characteristics and ways to connect that are purely personal to you as a presenter of ideas and information can make you an even greater teacher.

 

WALK IN, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Three ways to begin a class session.

1. Begin with a single question, which the entire class session is then focused around answering. This class should not be a lecture, but primarily should be a discussion. Sometimes the question can be sent to the class in advance so that discussion points can be prepared. Using two or three or four questions defeats the purpose. This technique also allows the entire semester to revolve around answering only as many questions as there are class sessions. Some profs pose these questions in the syllabus.
   
   
2. Assign the class a reading before the class session. Then enter the classroom early and simply sit in one of the desks or tables. At the appointed time, when everyone is there, read aloud a paragraph from the reading and ask the class what they thought was meant by that paragraph and how significant it is to the whole piece. Expand the discussion to include a couple of other paragraphs which then leads to either a short lecture or continued discussion.
   
   
3. Inform the class at the end of a week that next week they will be responsible for teaching the weeks classes. Explain that you, the professor, will simply come into the classroom and sit as any student would. Then someone will be expected to begin by saying or presenting something that is related to the topic of that particular week, and that is both relevant and interesting. Explain that one student cannot dominate more than 10 minutes unless they are leading a significant discussion. Short and entirely relevant videos may be shown. PowerPoint may be used. But students must email the prof at least 24 hours before each class session with what they want to do and how it will contribute significantly to the course content. This also allows for choreographing presentations, and for setting up videos and PowerPoint presentations ahead of time. It also allows for rejecting certain presentations. Two other things to do. Explain to the class the previous week that you are not doing this exercise so that you do not have to teach, but rather to encourage student thinking and to allow them to demonstrate their own style of interesting and creative questions and presentation. Second, assign some type of evaluation to each presentation. It may be a grade. It may be extra credit. Simply make certain that there is a benefit to significant presentations.

  

LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN

If you never try something, you’ll never know if it can work.

If you don’t take a risk, you’ll never feel the rush a risk gives you. 

Revolutionary ideas are risky. Revolutionary thinking is risky. Revolutionary actions are very risky. Revolutionary change is, well, it’s very, very risky.

Evolutionary change is usually what higher education has been all about. Evolutionary change is comfortable, is incremental and takes place gradually, over time. It happens step by step, little by little.

Revolutionary change is profound, fundamental, and dramatic. From an organizational perspective, revolutionary change often leads to radical breakthroughs in beliefs or behaviors. In efforts to stay ahead of the curve and reach evolution, outstanding organizations often pursue revolutionary change.

In higher education, change is a delicate balance and a tightrope that must be walked by the best leaders. There must be change that’s fast enough to create absolute quality, but slow enough to let the changes take a firm hold. It’s usually evolutionary, but in today’s society change often demands revolutionary thinking.

For professors, revolution is often best done at the beginning of something…new job, new semester, new year, etc.

So, when the courses are underway; when the office is reorganized; when the syllabi are written, and when you decide what your academic persona will be…think change, think revolution, think quality and think originality beyond what you’ve ever done.

 

CAREFULLY THINKING ABOUT THINKING

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New posts every Monday and Thursday. 
Practical information, opinions and ideas for higher education.
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Ask your students how they think about things, about how they become interested in something.

 

Then think hard about what they said and how they think vs. how you think and how you thought they thought.

Then merge your thinking with their thinking and teach to the way students actually think.

Ask them periodically if things are getting through. Ask if your teaching to their thinking is causing them to think more.

Finally, ask them regularly if learning is occurring.

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Too often we, as profs, hope that our students share the same passion and interest about our discipline as we do.

Too often we hope they will endlessly read about our discipline.

But, usually students in our courses are more like shoppers than customers dedicated to our brand. They want to know what originally fascinated us about the discipline. And they want to be taught to think about the subject we are teaching.

But they have to be taught to think about the subject and the discipline in their way, not our way.

And that’s why we have to learn how they think. 

 

ELIMINATE COURSE ATTENDANCE POLICIES

Are college students too immature or irresponsible for professors to eliminate attendance policies in courses?

Are college courses fascinating enough and interesting enough for students to attend without each course having an attendance policy?

Yes is the most often given answer to the first question…by professors, of course. And, unfortunately, no is the most often given answer to the second question…by professors as well. But, I would argue that the answer should be no to the first question.

Attendance policies should be unnecessary in institutions of higher education. They should be eliminated school-wide.

And these policies should have been unnecessary throughout history. If higher education had never started attendance policies then a whole new and more responsible model of higher education would likely have developed.

Students have attendance policies in elementary school. There are attendance policies in high school. But higher education is a choice made by the student, a choice that assumes a level of responsibility and maturity beyond high school.

Yes, I can hear some of you profs chuckling. You say that without an attendance policy, many students just will not attend class. But, so what? Why should we as professors care about that? If a student wants to waste thousands and thousands of dollars, who are we to prevent that from happening by police-like tactics.

Why not treat attendance the way businesses treat attendance? If an employee has to miss, he/she has to inform the employer before the absence. And, even then, if too many absences occur, warnings or disciplinary actions are often taken.

Scores of professors and higher education administrators in this country decry the state of higher education. Students are said to be lazy, irresponsible, immature, and too often do not want to read, to write or to learn. So why not “cull the herd” by not requiring attendance but making it necessary through other means to attend the course to receive a passing grade? Then, eventually, only the responsible students who want to work hard will actually be in college.

Wait a minute. That model might please professors, but it certainly isn’t financially viable for universities. You can’t flunk out any significant portion of your paying audience simply because they aren’t responsible enough to attend class. Or can you?

Students miss class for a thousand reasons from illness to childcare to athletics. Eliminating attendance policies means that each professor does not have to deal with these things after the fact. If students let profs know beforehand that they will miss (like employees do) then the prof can discuss with those students whether the reason is a problem and can suggest ways to make up the missed material. If a student chooses not to attend and to inform no one, then it’s not a profs problem at all and the student is not likely to do well anyway.

Attendance policies do very little to encourage student responsibility. Teenagers and young adults tend to bristle and defy rules they do not agree with. Why not eliminate the requirement of attendance and allow a student to learn a hard and painful lesson if they do not attend classes. And why not make courses so good that students will not want to miss classes.  

Doing these things will also force discussions in higher education to focus more on student responsibility and more on course excellence and less on punitive classroom policies.

Makes total sense to me.

  

FIND OUT WHO READS THE SYLLABUS? PLUS A BONUS.

Doing your syllabus this week?

Putting a lot of time into writing it?

Afraid not enough students will read it?

Here's a tip.

Misspell three words in the syllabus. Don’t put the misspelled words together, but make them noticeable—such as spelling the word “attendance” as “atendence.” Tell students to read the syllabus carefully, as an editor might read it.

Then, on the class after you asked them to read the syllabus, pass out a note card to students as they enter the classroom.

Tell them there were a couple of obvious misspellings in the syllabus and that they should write their name and one of the words that was misspelled on the card.

Tell them this will count as their first quiz grade, perhaps 10 points.

Doing this gives an excellent way of seeing who read the syllabus as well as getting students to understand the responsibility necessary for them to do well in the course.

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BONUS

At the movies last week I saw a trailer for a film called “Whiplash.”

A character in the film named Terence Fletcher says: There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job.”

The character wasn’t talking about higher education, but what he said is applicable to higher education.

Why not teach in a way that students say more than “good job.” Why not demand of students more than just a “good job.”

Why not demand absolute excellence? Everyone comes out ahead.

 

COURSE CONTENT: SLICE AND DICE

I used to have students write 1000 words on a topic. Then I’d have them cut the document down to 500 words without diminishing the value of the content. Then I requested 250 words while actually making it better than the 500-word document. The final product rarely failed to be a better piece.

The same sort of cutting often should be performed when professors decide how much material will be in a course each semester.

I understand the amount of content necessary in courses varies considerably. But there should not be so much that you have to struggle to get through it. And not so much that the course becomes endless and boring and senseless. And not so much that reading rather than learning is the only thing that occurs.

Unfortunately, a lot of profs try to cram way too much material into one course. “I don’t want to dumb it down,” is a common refrain. “Everything I must cover is vital information for future courses,” is another response.

So don’t dumb it down. But definitely make some hard decisions about what to include and require. If a student knows nothing about physics there is no way they can “learn” too many terms and concepts. They can, of course, accumulate a lot of information about physics. But what are the really important things that must be intensely focused on that will indeed cause students to “learn?”

And if it’s necessary to prepare students for future courses, then sit down with everyone who teaches the future courses and make some hard decisions about material to be covered and what-can-be-learned vs. what-can-be-presented.

In physics, or any other course, the things that should be taught are usually far fewer than the things that could be taught. Teaching a few key things and whetting the student’s appetite for learning more and then helping those who want to learn more is what teaching is all about.

Reduce your courses to their absolute core principles and topics. Don’t be afraid to slice and dice.

Strive for student learning, not information accumulation.

 

BEGINNINGS AND THE IMPETUS TO COMMENCE

It’s a new semester. “Nuff" said.

Here are links to five older posts that could provide some thoughts, insights and motivation about what you do and how you do it.

• WORDS ON WRITING A SYLLABUS. Read it here.

• FIRST DAY, FIRST WEEK: ONE APPROACH. Read it straightaway.

• DON'T BE AFRAID OF BEING A DIFFERENT TEACHER. BE AFRAID OF BEING THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE. Read it pronto.

• WHY EVERY TEACHER SHOULD ASPIRE TO BE THE BEST. Read it today.

• TEACH LIKE YOU’RE IN THE FUTURE. Read it instantly.

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And…10 excerpts from the PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT posts this summer.

1. Write down for yourself the three things that wasted the greatest amount of your time in the previous academic year. Then think about how to change them for the better.

2. Teaching is storytelling. Framing content in the form of stories makes that content more memorable, easier to learn, easier to apply and easier to share. During every semester, tell every course (yes, EVERY course) you teach a story that will make the class laugh out loud, and want to share that story. Also tell them one story that will make them sad enough to cry. Make it a story they will also want to share. Remember, teaching is also an emotional pursuit.

3. Can you speak eloquently, insightfully and inspirationally about your department and your college or university? While this may be called an elevator pitch, in fact it should be a short (10-15 minutes), practiced and polished presentation that can be given to an individual or a group at a moment’s notice.

4. How can you deliver a course that students will truly miss when it’s over? How can you motivate yourself to deliver meaningful words and images that matter during every single class meeting? Actors in theatrical productions can be engaged and enthused performance after performance. So can you.

5. Are you making constant forward progress in your career as a teacher? Are you moving forward, getting better every course, every class, every year?

6. Do you say "thank you" enough? Do you thank anybody and everybody who gives you a big hand or a small hand or any hand at all? Are you a master of acknowledgment? Thank you notes, thank you emails, in-person appreciations—all delivered promptly, often and sincerely--contribute to how others see you and to how you feel about yourself. Start today.

7. Do we just want to graduate students or do we want to educate them? Why not figure out how to determine an education rate instead of a graduation rate.

8. What if your course, your department, your area of expertise, or even your institution was depicted as a movie poster? What if your program marketing video was in the form of a movie trailer?

9. A climate of unrelenting and constant change is toxic to any individual, any program, or any higher education institution. There is often a need for re-invention and renewal, but moving and changing the target and the goals constantly and relentlessly is something no quality person or program can endure.

10. GREAT educational institutions sweat every single tiny detail and make the institution function seamlessly and flawlessly so that every student and employee experiences that thoughtfulness to everything. All of us should pay attention to the advice of the late Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel chain that bears his name. When asked what was his secret of business success, he replied, “Put the shower curtain inside the tub!”

  

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT…WEEK TEN

This is the final PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT post of the summer. Next week, August 11, begins regular twice-a-week posts to read and to ponder.

 

1. TED talk of the week: In what is probably his most well known TED talk, Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. If you’ve seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, then you must watch it. See it here.

2. Article of the week: Dr. Tyler J. Griffin says, “Not all classes cover interesting material all the time. While we can't change what needs to be taught, we can change how we deliver it. If we make the right adjustments to our course design and teaching methodologies, we will hear less complaining in our classes.” Read more of what he says here.

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: Fun: it’s not usually a term professors automatically connect to education or to their courses. But why not? Why not put a short section on your syllabus headed: “Why this course will be fun.” And don’t make what is said sound ridiculous. Make it honest and then deliver on what it says.

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Are you getting ready for the new semester? Are you a little nervous about the first days of your courses? (That’s a good thing.) Are you taking active steps to avoid being one of those people who constantly laments the end of the summer vacation? Are you avoiding cynicism? Are you a quietly but strident voice for the beginning of school? Do you contribute to the “welcome back” mentality rather than the “OMG, it’s back to the trenches” mentality? Make sure your glass is half full and not half empty. 

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: The week before classes surely involves one or more meetings with school or department faculty. Have you considered a way or ways to make those meetings something different from the same-old, same-old meetings of previous semesters and years? If you want renewed energy and spirit in the attendees, then there has to be a phenomenally imaginative sense of energy and spirit by those in charge.

6. Shower thinking: Good educational institutions pay attention to those things that make the educational experience effective and the institution itself more user-friendly. GREAT educational institutions sweat every single tiny detail and make the institution function seamlessly and flawlessly so that every student and employee experiences the thoughtfulness to everything. All of us should pay attention to the advice of the late Conrad Hilton, founder of the hotel chain that bears his name. When asked what was his secret of business success, he replied, “Put the shower curtain inside the tub!”

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT…WEEK EIGHT

Just three more PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT posts this summer. Watch ‘em, read ‘em, and ponder your career and yourself.

 

1. TED talk of the week: Sparking enthusiasm and learning in students and yourself is a goal professors have heard about over and over. Methods, techniques and advice permeate the world of academia. But in a very personal talk, high school science teacher Ramsey Musaliam gives a new and interesting perspective on inspiring students.  Watch it here.

2. Article of the week: Does the accreditation of colleges and universities really have a benefit? Do accrediting agencies actually cause schools and programs to be better, or is accreditation simply a relatively wasted periodical report that results in a meaningless accolade? In a 2010 commentary that is still relevant today, an author from a North Carolina higher education policy center argues against accreditation. Read what he says here.

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: What if your course, your department, your area of expertise, or even your institution was depicted as a movie poster? What if your program marketing video was in the form of a movie trailer? Could it be done? Could it succeed? Could you get it accomplished? Why not?  

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Recent research seems to indicate that first impressions about people and things occur very, very rapidly -- in seconds rather than minutes. As a teacher, what are the very first things you do on the very first day of a course? Do you concern yourself with what you wear, the exact words you say and how you say them, and how your beginning can be different from the beginning of every other class? Have you contacted each enrolled student before the class begins with some fascinating question or piece of information? Have you plotted out each minute of the first class in precise detail so that things begin exactly the way you desire? Consider this week what those first minutes will contain and how they will create a phenomenal first impression.     

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: Think about command, control and climate creation. Is it your job to command? Nope, that’s a form of assertiveness that just doesn’t work anymore. Is it your job to control? Nope, too many balls in the air to juggle in these times. But climate creation—that is your job. To create a climate of possibility.To determine the culture you want your program, department or institution to encompass. Then…to do it. Take some time this week and consider the climate of possibility you can create and encourage. And think extra carefully about the word “possibility.

6. Shower thinking: You have an office, I hope. Colleagues and students enter that office. Is there one thing in your office that everyone who enters can look at and focus on for a few seconds or longer that causes them to say: “Wow, this is something that really makes this office interesting, unique, cool, creative, inspirational, personal, or defining? If you don’t have that one thing, get it. 

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT...WEEK THREE

During the summer I will post each Monday. Each post will offer six elements intended to enable each of you to look, think, explore and imagine. 

 

1. TED talk of the week: Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” discusses her ideas about artists and geniuses. Watch it here. 

2. Article of the week: A short piece concerning whether how we teach might be improved by considering how we ourselves learn. As higher education faculty, it’s important to remember what it was like to learn an idea or concept for the first time. Read it here. 

3. Wild-ass thought of the week: Every course develops its own rhythm and personality. Sometimes a course can be a precocious three-year-old who constantly tests the limits. Sometimes a 13-year-old who dares you to teach or engage him. And, occasionally a course can be a wonderful mix of young adult learners and outgoing critical thinkers. A prof must have a significant part in developing the rhythm and shaping the personality to one that allows discussion and learning, even if it means being parental, corrective and reassuring. Be sure early in every course to have a brief discussion with the class about personality.

4. Self-evaluation topic for teachers: Think about retail stores you have been to that have extremely poor customer service. Think also about those that have great customer service. Jot down some characteristics of great and poor customer service and then apply it to your teaching, your course materials, and your interactions with students.

5. Self-evaluation topic for administrators: if necessary or if required, can you speak eloquently, insightfully and inspirationally about your department and your college or university? While this may be called an elevator pitch, in fact it should be a short (10-15 minutes), practiced and polished presentation that can be given to an individual or a group at a moment’s notice.

Shower thinking: First impressions are often the most significant impressions. Mentally choreograph the first moments of your courses. What do you do to make students know the course will be a different experience than anything they’ve had before? Think hard and make it happen.   

 

CURIOSITY CANNOT BE TAUGHT, BUT IT CAN BE ILLUMINATED AND NURTURED

Curiosity is frequently the engine that drives learning and achievement. If a student is curious she will be a better student.

Yet curiosity is not something that can be taught. It’s not something that can be demanded on the syllabus. It can’t be easily tested. But it is a spark that can be lit. It is something that can be nurtured. Yet assuming, for the moment, that curiosity has not been well developed in students during high school, how can a college professor ignite that spark in college?

How indeed?

Each student must be motivated to see that the course subject and material represents a gap in his knowledge that needs to be filled. Psychologist George Loewenstein, in a 1994 article, talks about curiosity as not only a mental state, but also as an emotion, “a powerful feeling that impels us forward until we find the information that will fill in the gap in our knowledge.” Teaching, even in higher education, is a creative activity. It’s dealing with a student’s emotions so that a desire to learn becomes a mutual goal of both teacher and student.

Curiosity is that self-motivated desire that impels a student to search on their own for desired information, not because they have to, and not only because they want to, but because they feel like they need to know that information to become educated and informed.

In a course, talk about curiosity early on. Often a student simply looks at curiosity as a platitude thrown out as part of the academic jargon. Be motivated. Pay attention. Turn things in on time. Don’t plagiarize. Be curious. Blah, blah, blah.

So discuss curiosity…as an emotion, as a goal, as a flame that needs to be kindled and nourished. Give examples. Ask for examples. Examine it all for more than a few minutes.

Curiosity also can be nurtured by asking questions. Interesting questions. Fascinating questions. Questions posed by the professor that are so good that they lead to other questions. Point out that expert learners keep searching until they find answers to the cascading series of questions that emanates from something they want to become knowledgeable about. You want to pose questions to students that will lead them to additional questions of their own that will increase their desire to accumulate knowledge and information about a subject. Again, tell them that.

Curiosity can also be modeled and, in a sense, needs to be modeled if the professor is to be seen as the leader of a group of mutual learners. As the prof, point out how you became fascinated with the course subject, how you went about becoming curious, the initial questions you asked, and the complex questions and answers you developed in order to accumulate the knowledge necessary to teach the course.

In Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the following:  “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”

Alice is talking about curiosity as a sense of wonder. She knows not where she is. She does not know the people and things she encounters. But she is in awe. She wants to learn more. She enjoys the sense of adventure involved in her journey.

And any professor wants those same things for his/her students. But they will not get there on their own. The “curiouser and curiouser” has to be explained, nurtured, nourished and modeled.

  

THE COMMENCEMENT OF LIFE AFTER COLLEGE

Remember, consider, maybe commit to memory…the following. And then tell your students. Make it your gift to them.

School is one thing.
Education is another.
The two don’t always overlap.

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Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.

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You have to be curious about the world in which you live. You have to go deeper than anyone else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.

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Google everything. Google your dreams. Google your problems. Google all your questions until you have more questions—and then Google more questions.

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Carry a notebook and pen with you wherever you go. To jot down your ideas, your thoughts, your questions.

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Always be reading.

Always be searching.

Always be studying.

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“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man (person) in his time plays many parts,”
                                    --William Shakespeare, As You Like It

 

THE BEST TEACHER YOUR STUDENTS EVER HAD

Only a few teachers in a student’s life are the ones she will always remember.

For often inexplicable reasons, a student holds on with amazing admiration and respect to the style, demands, personality, demeanor, attention, assistance or subject knowledge of some teachers and not others. For some students, it’s their second grade teacher. For others, a high school science teacher. For still others, a college public speaking professor. For some, it’s all three.

Do these teachers tell students that they will be the one remembered long after graduation? Of course not. Because, obviously, memorable teachers are different for each student.

Or are they?

What? How could “Or are they?” possibly ever be said?

Okay, okay…perhaps it shouldn’t be said.

Or should it?

The absolute excellence and originality and memorability quotient of every course should always be articulated. Every professor should want every student to remember their course and their teaching and them for…well…for forever.

And every prof should say that.

Even though you know that it will not happen for most students. But if there is no aspiration by the prof, then there can be no dramatic result.

At some point near the beginning (if not in the first minute of the first day) of a course say the following 20 words to your students. And say them humbly, and with absolute respect.

“I am always going to have been your teacher. And I will make this the best course of your life.”

Tell it to them. Then do it.

 

THE ARTISTRY OF COPYING

Artists often copy the work of masters to improve and to inspire their own future work.

Actors and writers often use the styles and techniques of those who came before them to build an audience that will admire their work.

So why shouldn’t professors literally copy the styles and techniques of those they admire? Copying can be the most honored form of flattery for the copied. It can also be a most effective way of building a personal style for the copiers.

Why don’t more profs observe the classroom style of their peers more frequently? Learning by observation, especially for activities that involve presentations to others, is almost always a preferred way to study.

When I was an undergraduate, I really paid almost no attention to the teaching styles of those who taught me. When I got to graduate school, as a teaching assistant I paid more attention and actually began to learn from engaging teachers. I mostly copied their techniques without developing too much of my own style. And the methods of those teachers whom I found truly mesmerizing were simply distant dreams.

Then I was hired as a professor. And, over a relatively short time, I felt pretty good about my engagement techniques and my style. In fact, I felt pretty cocky about how my teaching was progressing. And then one day—and I can still remember the day distinctly—I and another professor were making a presentation off campus to a group of high school students. I spoke first and I thought I did pretty darn good. Then the other prof spoke and, how do I say this, his presentation and his presentation style literally blew mine out of the water.

He was more outstanding at doing everything I thought I had been great at doing. He was engaging, creative, inspiring and dynamic. He had a touch of humor. Every student listened and then many asked questions. I thoroughly recognized that I had been practically drowned in a tsunami of excellence. And, to be honest, I felt defeated that day.

But I quickly recovered and turned the failure into a learning experience.

I was, fortunately, able to observe this colleague more frequently in the future. I used those observation experiences as a sort of seminar in how to teach better. And my observation did result in my copying many of his stylistic and engagement techniques. And a few of them I used for my entire career, and many others I adapted in ways that inspired my own individual style.

All profs can and should frequently study and learn from other teachers. And copying others techniques should be seen as perfectly acceptable. And watching colleagues teach so that we can teach better should be a normal and oft-encouraged activity in all colleges and universities. And not just for new faculty. Seasoned faculty, also, can improve themselves, invigorate themselves, and innovate their teaching by observing others.

Does your institution have some sort of teaching improvement program? Does your institution encourage faculty to sit in on other faculty members’ classes?

Every person who is the best at something learned from observing and, at first, copying others. The best faculty can do that as well.