“Always amaze yourself with
what you can do.”
Should teaching in higher
education be fun? Should college teachers actually be allowed to see view their
classes as extremely enjoyable and gratifying? And except for sometimes endless
grading, shouldn’t preparation for class and the actual execution of that
preparation be the most pleasurable thing we do at work (except maybe for the
NCAA basketball pool)?
OR
Should teachers envision
themselves like Albert Einstein, pipe in hand, incredible
equations on the
board, oozing knowledge and formality? We stand at the front of
the class being
the font of knowledge that we all know we are. Wearing a sweater or a coat and tie or a
long-sleeved plain colored dress and just absolutely positively looking like a
consummate professor. (Now I will admit that I always saw Einstein as a fun guy
because of that hair. He had to have had a cool sense of humor.)
So let’s look at a few
situations, things that can force us not to be professors, and also to think a
little about making even the conundrums fun.
1. Problem. They
(students) just don’t pay attention. They seem to want entertainment. They seem
distracted. Here are a couple of suggestions. The first is the simplest. Just
discuss the whole attention thing with ‘em. Tell ‘em anyone can pay attention
to anything for 3-hours a week for 16 weeks. That’s what they decided to pay
for and that’s what you promise to give ‘em. Your best.
Another thing, more
brutal, is to literally divide the class in two. On one side should sit those
students who want to participate, who are eager to learn and who, yes, want an
A or a B+. We’ll call this the interested group. On the other side are the
slackers who will get little attention, pay little attention, do minimal work
and who may or may not pass. We’ll call them the less-interested group. Have
students self select just to see who’s where. Trust me, you will always have
students in each group. Also, explain to the class that after a few classes you
will have the ability to move people into the interested group, or out of it.
But point out that the goal is to get everyone in the interested group, even
though everyone will probably not get an A or a B+. Then, after class, have
those who self selected into the slacker group stay behind. Talk to them about
dropping the class. Talk to them about motivation. And have each one of them
email you that evening concerning the reasons why they chose to be in the
slacker group. When they email you, reply to them instantly countering their
reasons.
Is this
technique mean and demeaning? No, it’s motivational and honest. It can show
students who you are and that you expect the same from them as they should from
you. And if they don’t want to buy in, you will give them less attention.
I have done
this and it does work. I had three students who were in the less-interested group,
by choice, all semester. They did everything everyone else in the class did,
although if there were teams, they were their own team. I tried as hard as
possible to be fair and objective toward them. (And to get them to want to be
in the other group.) In the end, one got a C. Two got D’s. At one point during
the term, there had been eight in the less-interested group.
Obviously this
technique is not for everyone, nor is it for every class. But, it’s worth
considering…and maybe trying.
2. Problem.
Students don’t ask any questions. Many of them don’t answer many questions.
They don’t want interaction. They want talked at and pacified. Solution. Simple.
Refuse to play their game. Call it a game. Tell them you’re going to play a
different game. New rules. Bring a pair of dice. Number students one through
12, using that sequence even if there are more than 12. Then make a discussion
point and roll the dice. If it comes up seven, then the student(s) numbered
seven must respond. Continue this until the class gets the point. Keep it all
professional. Use the dice as simply a tool to get responses.
Another
suggestion is to take some time and watch a YouTube series called “BetweenTwo
Ferns” with Zak Galifanakas
or any interview done by Stephen Colbert. These two, in character, are masters
of the quick response and asking questions totally out of the blue. It’s like
asking Bill Gates if he likes apples, or asking Warren Buffet how good he is at
playing Monopoly.
Teachers need
to be this way too about their subjects. Not comedians, but quick with lots of
questions asked in different (sometimes weird) ways in fairly rapid succession
to generate responses and key points for further discussion. There’s a certain
rhythm to this exercise, and it does get a lot of students involved. It
encourages thinking and analysis and the idea that there are different ways to
frame questions and answers. And it shows that creativity doesn’t hurt.
3. A final
problem. But I’m teaching the same stuff I’ve taught for years. Why can’t I
keep teaching that way? Why can’t I teach like I was taught in grad school?
He just stood in front of us and talked. (Hey, it was grad school and he was
talking to motivated doctoral students. You simply can’t do that. I was a
teacher for, gulp, 40 years. And if I had taught in 2012 the same way I taught
in 1978 (My gosh, was Jimmy Carter really the President? And didn’t I vote for
Gerald Ford?) I would have never gotten promoted, never gotten tenure, never
lasted. Students are very different today. Technology is over the top. Attention
spans are about as long as a television sitcom without commercials (22 minutes).
You have to figure out new ways to do the old things. My quick solution. Read
this blog, of course. But also, get a copy of the book “What the Best College
Teachers Do” by Ken Bain. (Preferably an
e-copy.) Read it quickly. Take notes. Then adapt what it says to what you do. Yes,
it’s the best teaching book written this
century. It will help you. Guaranteed. And one more thing. Even if you’ve
taught Psychology 101 every semester since 2001, each time you teach it, it
should be a little different. Don’t use the same notes in the same ways. Don’t
use the same techniques. Change it around. Both the teaching techniques and the
content presentation. Yea, you can.
Is it fun yet? It should be.
Teachers have fun because we are always in college. We never graduate. We get
to forever interact with young, optimistic, determined and curious kids. Never
do it for the summers off or the long vacations, Do it to shape the future,
change worlds, be creative, teach passionately, and amaze yourself and others
with the breadth of your abilities.
Let’s end with a quotation
about walking.
"The
most telling thing about a person coming in for an interview is how they walk.
Do they move with purpose, or are they meandering? If they meander, they can't
work for my company. Period." --Vanessa Nornberg, founder of Metal
Magic.
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