Center for Teaching Excellence

Teaching Tips

CTE Newsletters

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XVII , XVIII ,  XIX , XX  ,  XXI  ,  XXII , XXIII  , XXIV

Teaching Tips September Meeting video 

Develop Effective Writing Assignments

Overview of the Junior Writing Portfolio 

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Tip #1
Introducing the Syllabus

In presenting the syllabus you give the students some notion of the kind of person you are. The syllabus is a contract between you and your students. But a contract cannot be one-sided. Thus it is important to give students time to read and discuss it. Give them a chance to make inputs and to be sure that they understand what you expect. Help the students understand the reasons for the plan you have presented, but if they have good reasons for changes, accept them. The students are, of course, interested in course requirements, but they are at least as much interested in what kind of person you are. One important issue is fairness.
Source: McKeachie's Teaching Tips by Wilbert J. McKeachie

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Tip #2
Engaging the Class

Ask questions so that the student sees the response is limited and manageable, not intimidatingly unbounded. For instance, rather than asking, "What is the cause of the Civil War?" (paralyzing specific) or even "What are the causes of the Civil War?" (how many are there? do I have to name them all?) ask "what is one cause of the Civil War you found in the assigned readings?" Different students can then come up with different answers and still be right and make a useful contribution to the whole picture.
I tried a version of this once after I participated in a workshop, and it was one of the most successful moments I've had in teaching. I showed a poetry class a videotape biography of Emily Dickinson and asked each student, while watching the video, to write down one thing he or she learned from the video that helped him or her understand Emily Dickinson's poetry better. This gave students a specific task. The answers couldn't be wrong, as long as the student really pointed to something he or she learned that helped in understanding Dickinson. At the next class, I just went around the room and had each student say what he or she had learned. If two students mentioned the same point, that was ok-it was true that each had learned that. And collectively the students mentioned just about everything I could have wanted them to get out of the video.
I wish all my ideas worked as well as that one did!

Source: Don Marshall in the Humanities / Teacher Education Division

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Tip #3
Helpful Site

Henry Gambill, Director of University Assessment, invites everyone to this website "for an ever-expanding collection of grading rubrics for multiple skills, such as writing, thinking, participation, etc." Thanks Henry!
<http://assess.pepperdine.edu/assess/rubrics.cgi>

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Tip #4
Class Discussion

"Research in cognitive psychology has found that memory is affected by how deeply we process new knowledge . . . . Simply listening to or repeating something is likely to store it in such a way that we have difficulty finding it when we want to remember it. If we elaborate our learning by thinking about its relationship to other things we know or by talking about it - explaining, summarizing, or questioning - we are more likely to remember it when we need to use it later. This may help relieve your anxiety about covering the material. In lectures teachers cover the material, but research shows that most of the material covered does not get into the students' notes or memory (Hartley & Davis, 1978). Classic studies over the last five decades have repeatedly shown that, in discussion, students pay attention and think more actively."
Source: McKeachie's Teaching Tips by Wilbert J. McKeachie

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Tip #5
New Emphasis on Learning

Research institutions are feeling enormous pressures to shift the pendulum toward teaching the undergraduate student and corresponding pressure at nonresearch institutions to get back to the teaching business. This recalibration in academic attitude has resulted in – and in some sense been driven by – new definitions of scholarship (Boyer, 1990) and calls for reaffirmation of historic purposes. A recent example of such a report was released by the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, authored by twenty-five current or former presidents of such institutions (Kellogg Commission, 1997). First among its recommendations for academic reform is the principle that the university should be a 'learning community': 'This university defines itself as a learning community, one that supports and inspires academic growth and learning among faculty, staff, students, and learners of all kinds, on-campus and off. Learning serves all of them; and all of them serve learning. Oriented around learners' needs, this university is committed to maintaining a first-rate environment for learning" Kellogg Commission, 1997, p. 21)'."
Source: Dickeson, R. C. (1999). Prioritizing academic programs and services: Reallocating resources to achieve strategic balance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 38-39.

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Tip #6
Going Over Graded Exams

Here is a strategy that I have used for some time now to deal with students who contest exam grading. When I give an exam back I carefully go over the correct answers in class. Before I do I announce the appeals policy.  "If you feel that your answer correlates with the "correct" answer as given in class and that I have graded you unfairly, then the procedure is as follows: submit a typed, well written paper giving objective and substantive reasons why you feel the grading was unfair. After I receive the paper from you I will respond in writing. If you still wish to appeal my response we can discuss it together in my office."

The results have been as follows:
1. Many students don't respond. They either do not wish to go to the trouble of writing an appeal, or when attempting to write the appeal they don't see sufficient justification for doing so.
2. Students are forced to set aside emotions and deal with factual material.
3. Students get practice in persuasive, effective writing.
4. I am not confronted with students coming up after class wishing to discuss complex material.
5. I can read and evaluate their appeals in the peace and quiet of my office.
I have found that some appeals I receive warrant no credit, some partial credit and some full credit. I find this technique most effective for short answer essay questions. This is a strategy that you might want to consider.

Source: Dr. Jeff Banks, Professor, Humanities/Teacher Education Division

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Tip #7
Reflecting on Tip #6

I have used Jeff's strategy's for a number of years with great success. I have two additional items that I include. First, after a week the items are not open to further review. This helps to discuss the material while it still fresh and the benefits are maximized. It also prevents reviews where the student tries to find some item to garner their grade at the end of the semester. The second item is that they cannot turn in the review for 24 hours. This forces them to contemplate their contention without a knee jerk response. Similar to Jeff, I find that I get more thoughtful reviews and the non-motivated students are culled out from making arguments for argument sake.-
Source: Dr. J.D. Wallace, Communication Division

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Tip #8
Writing a Term Paper

"I try to break the process of writing a term paper into a series of easy steps, such as
1. Finding a topic.
2. Gathering sources, data, or references.
3. Developing an outline. (I give my students a handout with an outline of the major sections to be included.)
4. Writing a first draft.
5. Rewriting.
In addition to an overall outline, I usually give my students advice about how to think about their paper. For example, I might ask students to choose an issue being discussed in the media to discuss from a psychological perspective. In this case I would say, 'In writing your paper, first state the issue and explain its importance. Then assume that you are a prosecuting attorney presenting arguments and evidence for choosing one side of the issue. Then assume you are a defense attorney arguing the other side. Finally, image that you are the judge stating your conclusions and the basis for them.'
I set deadlines for handing in a report at each step. When time permits, I meet with the student to discuss the paper at one of the early steps. In the meeting I not only provide guidance, but also offer encouragement and motivation for doing well (and I can sometimes spot and discourage impending signs of plagiarism)."

Source: W. J. McKeachie's (2002) Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (pp. 173-4)

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Tip #9

This Teaching Tip comes from Dr. Theresa Flynn, Visiting Lecturer of Composition and Coordinator of the Junior Writing Portfolio Project, in the Humanities and Teacher Education Division. Thanks for sharing this resource Theresa!
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Tip #11
"The First and Only Goal: Teach for Long-term Relation and Transfer"

Why do we have colleges and universities? The main reason - some might argue the only reason - is transfer of learning. The underlying rationale for any kind of formal instruction is the assumption that knowledge, skills, and attitudes learned in this setting will be recalled accurately, and will be used in some other context at some time in the future. We only care about student performance in school because we believe that it predicts what students will remember and do when they are somewhere else at some other time. Yet we often teach and test as though the underlying rationale for education were to improve student performance in school. As a consequence, we rarely assess student learning in the context or at the time for which we are teaching.
Sometimes information learned in a school context will transfer to an out-of-school context and sometimes it won't. If we want transfer, we need to teach in ways that actually enhance the probabilities of transfer. The purpose of formal education is transfer. We teach students how to write, use mathematics, and think because we believe they will use these skills when they are not in school. We need to always remember that we are teaching toward some time in the future when we will not be present - and preparing students for unpredictable real-world "tests" that we will not be giving - instead of preparing them for traditional mid-term or final exams" (p.38)*

*Halpern, D. F. and Hakel, M. D. (July/August, 2003). "Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond," Change, 36-41.

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Tip #12
"Varying the conditions under which learning takes places makes learning harder for learners but results in better learning.

[V]aried learning conditions pay high dividends for the effort exerted. In the jargon of cognitive psychology, when learning occurs under varied conditions, key ideas have "multiple retrieval cues" and thus are more "available" in memory. For example, educational research suggests that significant learning gains can occur when different types of problems and solutions are mixed in the same lesson, even though the initial learning can take significantly longer. . . . [V]ariability in constructing learning situations requires greater student effort. As a result, engaging in such situations may be less enjoyable for students and lead to lower student ratings of their instructors.
This can be an important consideration on campuses where small differences in student responses on course evaluations are used - we believe inappropriately - to inform salary, promotion, and tenure decisions. We mention this only because changes in institutional practices and incentives, not only changes in faculty knowledge and behavior, will frequently be necessary to put these principles to work on real college campuses" (p. 39)
*Halpern, D. F. and Hakel, M. D. (July/August, 2003). "Applying the Science of Learning to the University and Beyond," Change, 36-41.

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Tip #13
Ten Reasons Why College Teaching is a Difficult Task

1. Until recently, there was no hard evidence of how the main component affecting learning (the brain) worked. "Teaching was probably closer to folklore knowledge than scientific knowledge" (Robert Sylwester, Celebration of Neurons: An Educators Guide to the Human Brain, 1995)
2. The degree to which information will be available to a learner and the ways in which the information can be used by the learner (depth, breadth and length of use) depends on the ways, context, complexity, challenge and transfer of the information being taught (James Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching he Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning, 2002). These are a great deal of variables to control.
3. The learners' prior experiences play the single biggest role in their learning but teachers have little to no control over them. (David Ausubel 1964; Renate and Geoffrey Caine, 1995).
4. Emotion is woven into every aspect of the learning process -we teach the whole person not just the cognitive brain. However, teachers have only limited control of the emotions involved in and affecting learning (Zull, 2002).
5. Helping learners to unlearn behaviors, concepts, ideas etc. that are in error is more difficult (but necessary) than teaching students new learning (Starbuck, 1996).
6. Teachers have very little time to teach learners compared to the time learners have on their own. The average 3 credit college class (45 hours per semester-three hours per week) equals only 1.7 % of a week.
7. Most learning occurs outside the classroom (Goldberg, 2001). This learning process takes time - time to reflect, practice, apply, and test out the new patterns. The extent to which each student spends the necessary time for learning to occur is not under the direct control of the teacher.
8. The range of the learners' abilities from low to high that can be present in any given classroom makes providing learning opportunities to all students difficult and in some cases simply not possible to do (Caine & Caine 1995).
9. Our students have grown up in a sense-luscious, media based culture and it is difficult to offer students, in a traditional college classroom, a visual learning experience that competes with what they are use to (Gentile, D. A. & Walsh, D. A. 1999).
10. Students have 12 years of neuronal networks developed for school. These experiences have given them very specific ideas about what school should be. As college instructors, when we don't meet with their preconceived ideas of school, teaching can be very difficult.
Source: Diane F. Halpern, Director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children; and Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College

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Tip #14
"Learner-Diamond-Profile" to be distributed on the first day of class\

Course / Workshop__________ Date________
Name (last)___________(first)__________(prefer to be called)_________________
College Residence_______________Telephone No.___________
Box____________Advisor_____________Major_____________Email _________ Permanent Residence__________________________________________________________
Permanent Telephone______________
Semester units completed here________Elsewhere________Cum GPA ________ College__________GPA High School________
Job/career position now preparing for (or held)______________________________
Ultimate professional position-goal______________________________________________________________
Explain specifics of why you are taking this course or workshop, i.e., what do you hope to gain?____________________
List two topics you plan to reaearch in this course/workshop:(1)_______________(2)__________________
What irritates you most about professors, coursework, your classroom peers?_____________________________________________________________

Source: Dr. Norm Olson, Occidental College.

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Tip #15
Hear Ye, Hear Ye, We Have Good News!

The Center for Teaching Excellence has arranged to receive the Teaching Professor electronically! We are happy to make this publication available to all faculty. We have received our first issue (April), and it can be accessed is at the link listed below. We will have a link on the CTE website for all issues in the future; however, we are anxious to have this issue available to you as soon as possible. We will notify you as each issue arrives. The newsletter is for Pepperdine faculty use only and materials may be downloaded, printed, and distributed in multiple copies for classroom or personal use. We hope you find the Teaching Professor informative and enjoy receiving it in this manner.

<http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/cte/resources/teachingprofessor/0404TP.pdf>.

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Tip #16
Test Taking Strategies

"My instructions for essay exams . . . include the following:
Outline your answer before writing it. This provides a check against the common error of omitting completely one part of the answer. If a question completely baffles you, start writing on the back of your paper anything you know that could possibly be relevant. This starts your memory functioning and usually you'll soon find that you have some relevant ideas. If you are still at a loss, admit it and write a question you can answer and answer it. Most instructors will give you at least a few points more than if you wrote nothing.
Some will perhaps want to question whether it is wise to give away the secret of examination construction the way I am doing in this discussion. The answer to this question depends upon your purposes in giving the examination. If you want to test for "test-taking" ability, you will not want to give the students these hints. At any rate, this orientation seems to have the effect of giving the students the notion that you are not out to "outsmart" them, but that you are interested in helping them get as high a grade as their learning warrants. In this connection, it is a good idea to point out to the class that the instructor is not out to trick the student through the use of various kinds of sophistry in the examination, and that ordinarily the answer that they think is the right one will be the right one."
"Research by McKeachie, Pollie, and Speisman (1955) and Smith and Rockett (1958) has demonstrated that on multiple-choice tests the instruction 'Feel free to write comments' with black space by each question for the comments results in higher scores, especially for anxious students."
"Another technique I have tried is to permit students to bring a file card to class with as much information as they could cram onto it. This didn't seem to reduce anxiety, but it probably helped their test preparation."
From McKeachie, W. J. (2002). Teaching Tips: Strategies, research and theory for college and university teachers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 84-85.

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Tip #17
"How can faculty members demonstrate continuous efforts to improve their instruction?

They can document and explain recent innovations and the reasons for those innovations. They can also describe the positive impact of professional development activities (workshops, conferences) on their teaching. The following list suggests the kinds of evidence that might be presented:
• Applying for and receiving a grant related to teaching and describing resulting changes in instruction
• Describing changes in assignments and the reasons for those changes
• Describing innovative instructional practices and the reasons for introducing those practices
• Attending or participating in professional conferences focused on teaching the professor's discipline and detailing what was learned, how it was applied in the classroom, and how it impacted on teaching and learning
• Providing two syllabi for the same course from different years and suggesting reasons for the changes over time
• Detailing changes in teaching that resulted from careful analysis of student evaluations"
From Peter Seldin's The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions (Boston, MA: Anker Publishing, 1997, 2nd edition): 22-23.

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Tip #19
"Transforming

… [I]t will help to look more carefully at some of the things that happen when information in the brain is changed into understanding.
The process changing data into knowing is what Kolb calls 'transformation of experience.' It becomes evident in different ways, and here I divide it into three parts. First is a transformation from past to future. Our experience is in the past, by definition, but the ideas we create are for actions we will do in the future. They are plans. Without this transformation we rely totally on the past and our reflections about it. Ultimately we rely on memory. But if we use our experience to produce new thoughts and actions, we create a future. The potential of knowledge gained in this way is unlimited, and it can change how and what we do indefinitely into the future.
Second is a transformation of the source of knowledge from outside ourselves to inside ourselves. Our experience comes from outside the brain, but the brain has the ability to turn that outside experience into knowledge and understanding. The new knowledge comes from within. We not longer need to repeat, or even remember, exactly what we experienced from the outside. I suggest that this is the essence of what we mean when we speak of taking ownership of knowledge. It is a change in the learner from a receiver to a producer. Since we do not rely on the outside for understanding, we do not have to wait for new information to arrive to deepen our comprehension. We can move from passive to active and become creators of knowledge.
The third part is a transformation of power. If we bring our entire brain into learning, we will find control passing from others to ourselves. We will know what we need for further learning and we will take charge of getting it rather than remaining dependent on others. Our own brain will begin to give the orders. We will move from a position of weakness and dependence to one of strength and independence.
You can see that this transformation is important. It represents at least part of what we can legitimately call 'deep learning.' It is learning that changes life.
I will argue that all these changes happen at the same juncture in the learning process, a juncture defined by the structure of the brain itself. I believe that this juncture is the fulcrum on which information is leveraged into understanding."
Source: The art of changing the brain: Enriching the practice of teaching by exploring the biology of learning by James E. Zull (Stylus Publishing, 2002): 33-34.

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Tips #21, 22
The Teaching Portfolio

An historic change is taking place in higher education: Teaching is being taken more seriously. At long last, after years of criticism and cries for reform, more and more colleges and universities are reexamining their commitment to teaching and exploring ways to improve and reward it.
As for faculty, they are being held accountable, as never before, to provide clear and concise evidence of the quality of their classroom teaching. Why? Perhaps it is the result of the growing chorus of complaints from those who serve on tenure and promotion review committees that they are given little factual information about teaching performance. They argue that the typical curriculum vitae describes publications, research grants, and other scholarly accomplishments but says very little about teaching.
It is no surprise that committee members are pressing for more information about what professors do in the classroom and why they do it. Without such meaningful information, they argue, how can they be expected to judge a professor's performance? And how can they give the teaching function its rightful value?
Is there a way for colleges and universities to respond simultaneously to the movement to take teaching seriously and to the pressures to improve systems of teaching accountability? The answer is yes. A solution can be found by looking outside higher education.
Artists, photographers, and architects all have portfolios in which they display their best work. The portfolio concept can be adapted to higher education. A teaching portfolio would enable faculty members to display their teaching accomplishments for the record. And, at the same time, it would contribute to more sound personnel decisions and to professional development and growth of individual faculty members.
What is a teaching portfolio? It is a factual description of a professor's teaching strengths and accomplishments. It includes documents and materials which collectively suggest the scope and quality of a professor's teaching performance. It is to teaching what lists of publications, grants and honors are to research scholarship (pp. 1-2).
Why would very busy - even harried - faculty members want to take time and trouble to prepare a teaching portfolio? They might do so in order to gather and present hard evidence and specific data about their teaching effectiveness to tenure and promotion committees. Or they might do so in order to provide the needed structure for self-reflection about areas of their teaching needing improvement. Are there other purposes for which professors might prepare a portfolio? The answer is yes? They might do so in order to: a) document for themselves how their teaching has evolved over time; b) prepare materials about their teaching effectiveness when applying for a new position or for post-tenure review; c) share their expertise and experience with younger faculty members; d) provide teaching tips about a specific course for new or part-time faculty; e) seek teaching awards or grants relating to teaching; f) leave a written legacy within the department so that future generations of teachers who will be taking over the courses of about-to-retire professors will have the benefit of their thinking and experience.
Another important point: The portfolio is not an exhaustive compilation of all the documents and materials that bear on teaching performance. Instead, it presents selected information on teaching activities and solid evidence of their effectiveness. Just as statements in a curriculum vitae should be supported by convincing evidence (such as published articles or invitations to present a paper at an academic conference), so claims in the teaching portfolio should be supported by firm empirical evidence.
The teaching portfolio concept has gone well beyond the point of the theoretical possibility. It has been use in Canada (where it is called a teaching dossier) for nearly twenty years. Today it is being adopted or pilot-tested in various forms by a rapidly increasing number of American institutions. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, it is estimated that as many as 1,000 colleges and universities in the United States are now using or experimenting with portfolios (p. 2).
Source: The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion / Tenure Decisions (2nd ed.) by Peter Seldin (Anker Publishing, 1997)

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Tip #23
Call for Papers - Academic Exchange Extra
http://asstudents.unco.edu/students/AE-Extra/index.html

A MONTHLY PEER-REVIEWED ON-LINE FORUM
Submissions are invited from undergraduates, graduates, and educators for Academic Exchange Extra (Editor-in-Chief, Elizabeth Haller). Extra presents ideas, research methods, and pedagogical theories leading to effective instruction and learning regardless of level, subject or context. We also seek cogent essays, poetry and fiction.
Articles to 6,000 words on theory, practice and administration of education across the full range of humanities and social science-based approaches are welcomed. Possible theoretical frameworks include: critical pedagogy, postcolonial race theory, postmodernism, feminist theory, and other cultural studies and perspectives. The use of a theoretical lens is encouraged but not required; see options for other submission types below. We are also interested in social and cultural issues as they intersect with education. We prefer to include an array of diverse material each month, though thematic issues may be considered.
Essays up to 2,500 words are encouraged. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following suggestions:
• distance learning
• e-communities and socialization
• community college retention and transfer
• service learning
• remedial education
• affirmative action
• marginalized or minority viewpoints and experiences
• tenure and post-tenure review
• urban education and issues of student inequality
• postmodernism and education
• canonical revision/non-revision
• analyses/reviews of recent pedagogical publications
We also seek poetry to 50 lines, in traditional or free verse forms.
Fiction to 5,000 words is also encouraged.
Subject matter for poetry and fictions is unlimited; however, we will not publish inflammatory or libelous works, or works deemed otherwise inappropriate for this journal.

HOW TO SUBMIT AND DEADLINE
Please place the words "AEE Submission" in the subject line of your email. Submissions should follow MLA or APA guidelines. Send your submission as a Word Document (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) attachment. To be considered for the next issue, papers need to be received by the 10th of the preceding month. Publication date is intended to be the first of each month. Please include a 3-4 sentence summary of your submission to be used for purposes of introduction on the editorial page of AEE as well as a current short bio that identifies your contact information (e-mail and telephone), school/departmental affiliation(s), and position(s) (e.g., student level, instructor, professor and/or administrator), and areas of academic interest. For bio examples, please refer to this issues contributor's page.
Send electronic submissions to: Elizabeth Haller, Central Michigan University, USA (e-mail: editoraee@hotmail.com)

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Tip #24
Motivation Theory

Instructors know that student learning and memory are closely tied to motivation. Students will learn what they want to learn and will have great difficulty learning material that does not interest them. Students are not poor learners; nor are they unmotivated. They are learning all the time - new dance steps, the status hierarchy on campus, football strategy, and other more or less complex things - but the sort of learning for which students are motivated is not always that which contributes to attaining the goals of our courses. Too often teachers think of learning only in terms of formal instruction. It might be more realistic for teachers to think of themselves as individuals who facilitate the kinds of learning that are called "education." They can neither learn for their students nor stop them from learning.
A primary problem, then, is motivating students toward course goals. Basically one can affect motivation for learning in two ways: by increasing the value of learning or by affecting the students' expectancy that investment in course activities will lead to success in achieving their goals (values).
One way to increase the value of learning is to link the course to motives students bring to class - motives that have developed through the years of socialization at home or in school. Teachers know, for example, that many of their students are taught by their parents to want to do well in school. Thus we can count on motivation for achievement as important for many students. There are other motives that are also important (pp. 349-350) [and these shall be the topics of future teaching tips - MJS].
Source: Teaching Tips: Strategies, research and theory for college and university teachers by W. J. McKeachie (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

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Tip #25
8 Simple Rules for Motivating Students

Rule 1: Emphasize the most critical concepts continuously.
Rule 2: Provide students with a "visual aid" when possible to explain abstract concepts.
Rule 3: Rely on logic when applicable. Point out to student which information is merely "fact" that must be memorized and which course material is based upon "logic." Show students how to employ logical thinking to learn and retain new information.
Rule 4: Use in class activities to reinforce newly presented material.
Rule 5: Help students create a "link" when teaching something new.
Rule 6: Recognize the importance of vocabulary in a course.
Rule 7: Treat students with respect.
Rule 8: Hold students to a high standard.
Each of these rules can help motivate even the most lethagic student, but Rules 7 and 8 are the most important. If students are not treated with respect and held to a high standard, scrupulously following the first six rules will have much less impact and might end up being an exercise in futility.

Source: The Teaching Professor, August/September 2004: Motivating Students: 8 Simple Rules for Teachers by Lana Becker and Kent N. Schneider, East Tennessee State University.

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Tip #26
As your classes progress

"The best college and university teachers create what we might call a natural critical learning environment in which they embed the skills and information they wish to teach in assignments (questions and tasks) students will find fascinating--authentic tasks that will arouse curiosity, challenging students to rethink their assumptions and examine their mental models of reality. They create a safe environment in which students can try, come up short, receive feedback, and try again. Students understand and remember what they have learned because they master and use the reasoning abilities necessary to integrate it with larger concepts. They become aware of the implications and applications of the ideas and information. They recognize the importance of measuring their own work intellectually as they do it, and in the process they routinely apply the intellectual standards of a variety of disciplines. They cease to be Aristotelian physicists and become Newtonian ones because they've come to care enough to question themselves."
Source: "What the Best College Teachers Do" by Ken Bain, Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 47.

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Tip #29
Principles for Avoiding Overload in College Teaching.

Just over a year ago, in a workshop entitled "Making Time for Good Teaching," Doug Robertson gave us 6 principles for avoiding overload in college teaching. He gave us many ideas for managing the boundaries of our roles in order to create time and energy for the really important work of our teaching lives. Robertson believes that it is a professional responsibility to be intentional about how we use our time. Doing so, increases our ability to be fully present and attentive when we need to be, rather than frazzled, exhausted, distracted, and late. The six principles are:
• Be able to be efficient in all things.
• Express your values in how you use your time.
• Don't hoard responsibility, share it.
• For every aspect of your teaching, find a time befitting it.
• Be short with many so that you may be long with a few.
• Stick to your knitting, refer to other helpers when possible.
In the next few CTE Teaching Tip will focus on each of these principles, individually.

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Tip #30
Principle #1 - In Making Time for Good Teaching we need to Be Able to Be Efficient in All Things

Continued from last week...... Robertson suggests that you:
• Know your "lines in the sand" and state them clearly, early, and often;
• interact with students with intentional time and depth;
• use technological tools in course-related scholarship;
• use technological tools to check for plagiarism;
• digitize everything that you can;
• word process written feedback;
• use group feedback thoughtfully;
• remember that perfect is not beautiful;
• do not permit handwritten student work; and
• parse your time and set appropriate expectations.

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Tip #32
Mid-Semester Evaluations

Do you want to know what's working in your classes and what's not? Have you ever read your semester-end student evaluations and said "I wish I had known that sooner?" Did students not do as well on your midterm exams as you thought they would and you wonder why?
More and more Seaver faculty are using mid-semester evaluations to address these and other questions. As we approach the midpoint of the fall term, consider adopting one of the suggestions below or developing your own evaluation.
From Dan Caldwell:
After the midterm and before handing midterms back: Distribute a midterm evaluation, asking two questions: 1)What aspects of this course do you particularly like? 2)In what ways could this course be improved during the remainder of the semester.
From Paul Contino:
Ask students to write an anonymous paragraph describing what they would like to see sustained in the class and what they might like to see changed, and place it in an envelope in the office mailbox.
From April Marshall:
Modify the questions depending on the course. One of the questions used a lot is: List one specific activity you'd like for us to do again and one you disliked.
From June Palacio:
Complete one of the following statements: 1)I am doing well in this class because . . . 2)I am not doing well in this class because . . . 3)I could do better in this class if .....
As Paul Contino said in his message, the information gained from these evaluations allows you to tweak or change tack while there is still time left in the semester.

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Tip #34
Enthusiasm is Contagious!

If you have a dog who greets you when you arrive home each day, you know the wonder of enthusiasm. How enthusiastic is your teaching style? Do you exude enthusiasm for the students, the subject, and for teaching it?
Thanks to Stella Erbes I have been introduced to Ron Clark who has been called America's Educator. In his book "The Excellent 11" he lists ENTHUSIASM as the number one criteria for motivating, inspiring, and exciting students. Nothing is more important than enthusiasm. Students will be excited about learning a subject if you are eager and excited about teaching it.
(Postscript to Teaching Tip #34 from Joe Burke, Adjunct Professor of Humanities, who reminds us that the word "Enthusiasm" means "filled with God." Thanks, Joe!)

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Tip #35
Attending a Conference

This week's teaching tip: Have you considered attending a teaching conference sometime next year? Attending conferences that focus on teaching can serve to re-invigorate your teaching, provide new ideas and inspirations, give you an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas about teaching with others in your discipline, assist with challenges you may be having, and on and on. The CTE has some funds available to assist faculty who might be interested in attending conferences where the focus is on teaching. Give it some thought and send in your requests.

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Tip #36
Deterring and Detecting Plagiarism

With term papers coming due, this week's tip is intended to provide faculty members with resources to discourage, detect, and deal with plagiarism issues in the classroom. Prevention is always preferable to punishment. Since some plagiarism may be the result of ignorance, explaining what plagiarism is and indicating why it is a serious offense may not only prevent the naïve student from plagiarizing but also may deter the intentional plagiarist. If, despite your preventive techniques you suspect that plagiarism has occurred, what should you do? First confirm your suspicions by checking the content of the paper using either Google or Eve 2. Pepperdine has a site license for the Eve 2 Plagiarism Detection System. Go to http://www.canexus.com/eve/ and follow the prompts. If plagiarism is confirmed, most commonly the student receives a failing grade on the assignment. Depending on the severity of the offense, the incident may also need to be reported to the Academic Integrity Committee. The guidelines and committee forms may be found on the Seaver College website.

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Tip #38
The Final Weeks: Achieving Closure

"The final exam is the closing scene of the course. It can include convergent questions, low-level questions intended to verify what students know, or divergent questions, open, high-level questions that ask students to apply what they know, or it can combine both kinds of questions. . . . Whatever the nature of the final, professors are faced with a triple challenge in designing it: first, it must present a cogent and challenging test while enabling tense students to perform to the best of their abilities; second, it must dignify the classroom community experience, even though the class members work on the exam in isolation at their desks and then file by singly to hand in their (exams); and third, it must test specific information while encouraging students to demonstrate genuine understanding. Creating a final exam is not an easy task, especially when humor and energies are low. But the exam is the finale, and it is as important to plan the design as to grade the performance."
Adapted from "Teaching Within the Rhythms of the Semester," by Duffy & Jones.

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Tip #40
When Grading Gets Tough

At this point in final exams week, are you fantasizing about software that would make grading easier?
Announcing Grader 2.95, whose motto is "When the grading gets tough, the tough go to "Grader 2.95." Grader 2.95 was developed by a colleague at Western Kentucky University for all of us who share in the agony of grading.
Just cut and paste to follow this link: http://www.wku.edu/~sally.kuhlenschmidt/fantasygrader.htm

I hope it gives you a good laugh and a stress break as you face the final task of the term.

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Tip #41
Teaching with Faith

As we begin a new year and a new semester, our enthusiasm and excitement for this new beginning is tempered by the terrible tragedy wrought by the tsunami. It somehow seems more appropriate to share some inspirational thoughts and words this week rather than a practical teaching tip.
Thanks to Carol Adjemian, Professor of Mathematics, for sharing a little book entitled "Quiet Times for Teachers" from which these words are drawn.
Lord of my life, saturate me with your rain,
toughen me in the strong winds of your Spirit,
flow me green in the floodlight of our sunshine.
Let me be a shade for someone's fatigue,
and shapely enough for an artist to want
to paint me into her landscape.
May your small birds want to nest in me.
May I be a landmark, a signpost
to those who are confused
or who have lost their way.
Few professions are more of a proving ground for the concept of faith than teaching. Teachers have faith that it is possible to communicate the most intangible principles to students who are at ages where they are the most tangible of thinkers. Teachers have faith that their influence will somehow draw out the best in the worst of their charges, and that this will become evident to parents who often get rather vague reports from their students about their learning experiences. When it comes to knowing God, teachers want a faith that has "legs." They want a faith by which they can walk on into the "lions' den" of meetings. They want a faith to climb the mountain of essay exam papers that need grading. They want a faith that will carry them all the way through to the end of life.

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Tip #43
Philosophy of Teaching

Have you read your teaching philosophy statement recently? From time to time it's a good idea to take it out, dust it off, review, revise, and assess whether your teaching reflects your philosophy. Reading colleagues' teaching philosophy statements can also be inspiring. I recently read one that so articulately captures beliefs about teaching that I wanted to share it with you. Since it is rather long, here is the first half. I'll save the second half for next week. Many thanks to Barbara Licklider from Iowa State University for sharing her eloquent and insightful teaching philosophy.
I believe a good teacher, first, has a powerful faith in the future. Like the forester planting an oak seedling knowing he or she will never see the tree in all its glory, I know I may never see the fruits of my labors as teacher. My calling is to plant and nurture seeds that will grow and shape tomorrow.
The good teacher knows and understands students, how they develop and learn. I know that students actively construct and transform their own knowledge based on past experiences and prior learning. I know that students do not all learn in the same way or at the same rate. I believe it is my responsibility as a teacher to be an effective diagnostician of students' interests, abilities, and prior knowledge. I must then plan learning experiences that will both challenge and allow every student to think and grow.
I believe a good teacher must also understand motivation and the effects of peer interactions on learning. I want all my students to achieve at high levels, so I avoid sorting them and setting them up to compete with each other. I know most learning happens through social interaction, therefore, I structure learning so that students productively collaborate and cooperate with each other the vast majority of class time.
The good teacher must know her subjects and how to help students learn those subjects. I know the good teacher must have a deep appreciation of how knowledge is created in the discipline, how it is organized and how it is linked to other disciplines. I use my knowledge of the discipline to expose my students to modes of critical thinking, encouraging them to analyze, apply, synthesize, and evaluate all they read and hear. I love the subjects I teach, and I know how to make them come alive for my students.
A good teach cannot begin or continue to inspire learning without being a learner. The good teacher must constantly learn what is new in the discipline. In fact, the good teacher often helps to create new knowledge. To live this belief, I must continuously examine my teaching methods and find new ones.

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Tip #44
Philosophy of Teaching cont.

This week's tip, as promised, is the last half of Barbara Licklider's very thoughtful teaching philosophy statement.
"I believe a teacher is the most powerful of role models. I am ever aware of the awesome obligation I have to "walk my talk" with my students. If I ask them to live their values and beliefs, I must do the same. I expect the best—of myself and others—and, therefore, I usually get the best. I try to treat all people with dignity and respect, and I expect my students to do so also.
Despite writing a teaching philosophy, I really prefer to think about learning and helping others learn as opposed to teaching. I believe many of us have come to accept a working definition that teaching means giving information, which I believe is only the beginning of teaching and certainly only a small part of learning. When one gives information, it is so easy to equate learning with the memorization of that information. Memorization is not always learning because learning requires thinking. I am beginning to understand that the teacher's greatest gift to the learner is helping the learner be motivated to think, and then to want to learn more.
I believe in the power of questions and questioning strategies to cause thinking. I constantly try to ask questions for which there are no "right" answers. I constantly work to become a better "questioner" for the effective us of questions is the most powerful strategy a teacher has to help students learn.
Finally, I believe a teacher lives to serve. A teacher is dedicated to learning, to his or her discipline, to his or her students, and to making the future the best possible place for all of us to live. These are the challenges I accepted when I chose to be a teacher. I remain committed to them."

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Tip #45
The Learning Paradigm

In his recent book, "The Learning Paradigm," John Tagg asks the question, "What is the single most important experience a student should have in college?" Among the possible answers he posits are:
• to learn how to learn
• to have at least one faculty member who shows deep concern
• to learn critical thinking
• to develop a love of learning
• to discover self direction and self knowledge
• to find a connection to something larger than oneself
• to become discerning
• to experience an "aha" moment, an epiphany, in the learning process
• to value something new
• to acquire the skills and values to wrestle with tough questions
What would you add to the list? And, maybe more importantly, do any of these occur in your classroom?

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Tip #46
Continuing with the series, "What Faculty Members Can Do to Engage Students in the Learning Process:"

1. Last Week: Show that you care
2. Face reality – Recognize the cold, hard fact that many students would rather socialize, sleep, play sports, or exercise than study and attend classes. The challenge in the classroom then is for faculty to work to make the content relevant and to make connections with students. Getting to class early and having informal conversations with students as they arrive is one way to make connections. What are some others? How do you make content relevant?

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Tip #47
Continuing with the series "What Faculty Members Can Do to Engage Students in the Learning Process:"

Week #1 – Show that you care.
Week #2 – Make content relevant and make connections with students.
Thanks to Emilie Fitzhugh, Susan Giboney, and Milt Pullen for the following contributions to last weeks tip:
• make comparisons to students' environment and natural surroundings so that they can make a cognitive comparison;
• learn students' names, their activities and interests and talk about it in class;
• attend their performances and/or athletic events;
• invite a class to your home for dinner;
• inspire them with your wisdom, character, or faith;
• give them quick feedback on papers and tests;
• create interest and excitement in your subject by varying the ways that you teach;
• display integrity and honesty;
• display humility…don't be afraid to share your own weaknesses; and
• plan every class and then let the class flow with a degree of spontaneity as if it wasn't planned.
Week #3 – Be prepared
Create plans for each class session that include a variety of activities; be prepared to learn from students; keep up with the new developments in your field; and know and use the current best teaching practices.

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Tip #49

Continuing with the series "What Faculty Members Can Do to Engage Students in the Learning Process:"

Week #1 – Show that you care.
Week #2 – Make content relevant and make connections with students.
Week #3 – Be prepared
And, this week "Find a classroom style that works for you and for your students." If you don't want to be in your own classroom, think how the students must feel. Find a style that makes you love being in your classroom. Teach with passion and evaluate with compassion. A number of research studies link enthusiasm of the teacher to increased learning. Humor and laughter create a good learning climate. Use self-deprecating humor if that is comfortable for you. And, finally, be humble and admit that all knowledge does not emanate from the podium. Confess when you honestly don't know the answer to a question, admit your shortcomings, and actively seek improvement.

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Tip #50
Pedagogical Scholarship: An Innovative Example and an Idea to Ponder

"Scholarship doesn't always have to take the form of articles in refereed journals and sometimes when the scholarship is pedagogical, other formats make very good sense."
"The case in point is a new program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine that recognizes innovation in the classroom. The thinking was that it might be easier to objectively evaluate the scholarship and quality of the various products of instruction rather than the complex and subjective challenge of evaluating teachers themselves. The program was designed with four objective in mind: 1)enhance the profile of scholarship on teaching and learning by using a rigorous peer review process; 2)raise the level of discourse on educational activities; 3)better communicate about new and successful pedagogical ideas; and 4)create a template for teaching recognition that is easily replicable elsewhere."
Faculty members submit a one- to two-page description of a recent educational activity, resource, strategy or approach they have implemented in their classroom. Those descriptions are evaluated by two to three external peer reviewers with interest an expertise in the activity described. They rate the activities based on clear objectives, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, measures of quality/effectiveness, effective presentation, and reflective techniques. Then an internal awards committee meets and selects awardees using the peer review feedback.
Source: The Teaching Professor, Vol. 18, No. 8, October 2004.
What do you think? Would this be something that we might try at Seaver College?

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Tip #51
Empathy Complicates the Classroom

This week's "tip" is really an essay on empathy in the classroom taken from a Random Thought written by Louis Schmier, Professor of History, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA. 2005.
It is a bit long for this busy time in the semester. However, I think it is well worth reading and serves as a very good reminder of what we know intuitively but often tend to forget. June
It's empathy . . . that complicates what so many of us academics want to be so perfect and simple. Empathy takes issue with the academic culture we academics have created, perpetuate, and which has taken on a life of its own. I don't believe that there's any kind of virtue in giving a false picture of serenity or simplicity or even perfection of the classroom. To do otherwise would distort the classroom's reality more than it already is. Unless it's void of all human life, the classroom is not simple. It's not static. It's not pristine. It's not serene. And, it sure isn't perfect.
It's messy. It's dynamic. It's complex. It's complicated. It's fraught with human imperfection. It's as intellectually and ethically challenging as anything. Empathy demands we do something other than just stand up there and talk, test, and grade. It asks whether there is more to teaching and learning than transmitting, receiving, and testing information. It requires that we see students as a "gathering of sacred 'ones.'" It requires us to learn to pay attention to each student, see each student differently and in a different light, learn to love each one of them, acquire a strong and focused kind of love. Yes, empathy does so complicate the classroom.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: That classroom is not so neatly divided into two primary abstract categories, the single professor and a horde of students, as many would have us believe. If we accept a student, and ourselves, as fixed and categorized, already shaped, labeled, then we'll do what we can to confirm this shallow, limited, and limiting presumption.
But, if we see a student as a process of becoming, as living potential, then we'll do what we can to confirm his or her potential. The truth is that students are human beings. They, each of them--not some indifferent, undifferentiating, theoretical, mechanical grouping--are the real stuff of the classroom. Without them, the classroom is a hollow, echoing, meaningless, darkened, empty box. With them, the classroom is a vibrant, sacred place lit up with promise and hope. The way to overcome artificial divisions, the distorting stereotypes, the false assumptions, and oversimplified presumptions is to find ways to welcome and embrace individuals unconditionally each day on a human level, listen to people, one at a time, who(are)not unlike us. Do that and you'll blow the whole dividing "us and them" concept of professor and student to smithereens.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: Empathy is not just a concept. It's not just a feeling. It's a concern for the moral development of each student, that is, a consideration for each student. It's an experience, a way to go beyond your usual boundaries and explore a different way of being. It is a deep, intelligent, respectful exploration of what lies beneath the surface of appearance; it helps us maintain our balance in the constant tidal ebb and flow and swirling eddies of the classroom.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: It requires that you care for each and every student each and every day. And, I find that inherent in it is the principle of caring, and it is much more powerful than most imagine. I was just reading Carl Rogers' On Becoming a Person. In it he talks about the healing power of unconditional "positive regard from others" and "positive self-regard." In fact, he said they were essential for striving for your potential. He said it feels incredibly good to be listened to and to be understood and to be respected and to be valued by someone who sees only the good in us. With acceptance by others comes acceptance of us by ourselves. Without it, most feel small and helpless, and few will strive to become all they can become much less thrive. We academics know that from personal experience. What makes us think we're any different from students. So, what's good for the professorial goose is certainly good for the student gander.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: Rogers talked of "client centered" or "person centered." He emphasized being fully present with the client, removing obstacles, and giving control to the client so that the client can move forward. I use the term "student centered." I mean being fully present with each student, relinquishing control over the student so that the student can strive to become the person he or she is capable of becoming. You know up until 1991 I was asking the question "How can I teach this student." Now I ask, "How can I provide a relationship which this student may use for his or her own growth." To put it another way, I no longer am the "person who knows." I am now there to facilitate a student's growth, to become something of a companion, to offer warmth and safety for what can only be described as a fearful search by the student for who he or she can become.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: When you have that true sense of otherness, when you step into a student's heart, spirit, and mind, control is too heavy a load to bring along. You have to travel light with something of an exquisite risky, innocent, letting go "let's see." Empathy, then, requires that you free yourself up from addictive controlling feelings and manipulating behaviors
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: The classroom is like the ocean. Everything is in motion. Everything is in constant change. It is so easy to look its surface and be lulled into thinking you know and understand its depths. It's so easy to think that we know students from the inside out. Then, we're surprised or disappointed by a currents and whirlpools of emotion and action that appear. The truth is that we academics with all of our accolades don't know enough to make judgments about ourselves much less others. We academics are so educated about some things and so uneducated about other things. We are so informed. And yet, we can be so uninformed and misinformed. Because a student is silent doesn't mean he or she is unprepared or unable or even incompetent. So, we have to ask questions, slow down, mindfully listen, deeply see, and avoid snap judgments. We have to be strong enough to let things flow.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: It's not the students that cause problems for us academics. It's our thinking about students that are the cause of our difficulties. And, those thoughts are too often unexamined thoughts. The acceptance of and attachment to and investment in those thoughts are the problem. Too often we do not project ourselves as trustworthy, liking, respectful, valuing, So, maybe before we struggle to understand students, we have to first have to struggle understand ourselves.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: It requires a strong sense of self, especially that you recognize the impact of your own feelings on your actions. It demands that you have to motivate and inspire yourself, understand yourself, and manage yourself. Between an occurring circumstance and your response to that circumstance is a space for self-control. In other words, we academics have to handle our own emotions, attitudes, and actions so that we can encourage and support rather than interfere and hinder.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: When we say "students should…..." aren't we really saying "I am upset with the students because they don't…….?" So many of us define ourselves by our difficulties with students, rather than defining ourselves as someone who is experiencing some difficult challenges and creating value out of such challenges. What matters most is not what is sent to us and what we find in the classroom. What truly matters, and what speaks volumes about our character, is what we do with it all. The more we accept a student and like him or her, the more we respect him or her, the more we value him or her, the more we prize a student, the more he or she feels warm and safe, the more we are willing to do what will help him or her grow. By this, I mean accepting a student no matter what, no matter how much you've been burnt by another student in the past and no matter how negative and rejecting a student may be. It is what Martin Buber called "confirming the other."
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: I love that complexity. I think so many academics get frustrated, tense, stressed, disappointed, depressed, resigned, angry, or upset when their thinking in stereotypical, simplified, distorting terms argues with the reality of the classroom's complexity. They get themselves into a "students should" tizzy. Wanting that classroom to be other than it is, playing what I call "the perfection game," wanting things and people to go their way, is hopeless. Again, it's not perfect; it's not neat; it's not simple. Think and act as if it is all you want won't make it happen, and you'll lose the game all the time. Those joyless feelings will boomerang back to scorch your heart. All the stress that you feel is caused by arguing with what is. It's like trying to spend your entire career trying to teach a dog to moo. It's called burnout.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: No one can sharply divide and separate the academic from the moral and ethical, the academic and public from the private and personal, the outside from the inside. No one, neither student nor teacher, can leave their "trash" at the classroom's door. Wherever anyone goes, as Jon-Kabbat Zinn says, there he or she is. Empathy is not a teaching technique. It's not a formal practice to be used only in the classroom. It can't be separated from the other aspects of our daily lives. Empathy is a state of naturalness and freedom which need what might be called a "natural heart and mind."
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: You can't stay at a distance, avoiding being vulnerable, and be involved at the same time. There is no weakness in being vulnerable, only authenticity. The more genuine you are with a student, the more helpful you can be. This means you have to be aware of your own feelings rather than presenting an outward façade and hiding another attitude. It's extremely important to be real. Maybe we have to take what's called the "exquisite risk" in order to experience true teaching and learning rather than merely managing the classroom.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: None of these students is a "mini us." There is such a strong tendency to write off large parts of the student body as "poor," "mediocre," or even "losers" because they're not what we now imagine they should be and how we were. Those who do that are corrupted by knowledge, title, experience, authority, and an often selected memory. A lesser grade doesn't translate into a lesser person; a failed test doesn't mean the student is a failure; a screwed up assignment doesn't mean there is a screw-up before us. We should be insistent upon the dignity of the younger, inexperienced, and uninformed. We must be committed. We must pay attention and assistance must be given to such persons.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: You find that the playing field is never level. Students come to us traveling different roads, having different experiences, entering through different doors, carrying different types and amount of baggage. We sacrifice empathy, we close ourselves off, when we are upset, angry, anxious, disappointed with students. These negative emotions interfere with out capacity to understand and offer whatever support and encouragement is needed.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: And, we academics are one of the added complications. Our thoughts in and of themselves are harmless. It's when we believe them and think they're real that we make them powerful. Our attitude, feelings, beliefs, theories, and actions--our story--spring from our thoughts.
Empathy does so complicate the classroom: It you have empathy . . . you have energy, purpose, direction. You can maintain your balance in the ebb and flow of tidal forces. I have found that empathy is a ticket to flying to a higher consciousness of deeper otherness. You know, there are so many access codes to so many of the wild possibilities. When you accept that reality, when you teach deeply and mindfully, your teaching becomes fluid, balanced, natural, kind, encouraging, supporting, hopeful, faithful, loving, dynamic, and fearless. You will magnify the "good stuff" a lot more than the "bad stuff" and be a lot happier and more satisfied and more fulfilled. You will have the most noble and uplifting experiences in life.
You reveal people barely known, people who live stifled beneath the stereotypical language, let them break the surface, and breathe their unique potential. Then, you'll dance from one exciting moment to the next.

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Tip #52

March 31st….Just one month to graduation and only three weeks of classes left in this semester? Time is precious and it is running out. Deadlines are rapidly approaching; there are many commitments, and a lot to finish. Final exams loom ahead. As we bring closure to our classes, it might be a good time to turn to the syllabus and review it with our students. The course outline provides a great tool for review; the explanation of policies, a reminder of expectations; the description of your teaching philosophy and procedures, a good catalyst for a final discussion; and your list of goals and objectives, a framework for the entire course. A review of the course goals, the new knowledge that students have acquired, and the concepts that students have mastered, can lead to a discussion of how their new understandings might become a part of their future.
What do you want your students to remember from your course five years from now? Consider asking them how they think the course will serve them in their future lives?

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Tip #53

As you make your summer plans, you might consider the workshop described below. Tara Gray presented a well received workshop on our campus about 2 years ago. This is an extended version of the workshop she gave at Pepperdine.
Las Vegas Workshop: Publish & Flourish--Become a Prolific Scholar with Tara Gray
June 23–24, 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada
A Pre-Convention Workshop for the 2005 Text and Academic Authors Convention, June 24–25, 2005
Want to finish your book, grant proposal, or journal article?
The myth persists that prolific scholars are born not made, but research suggests otherwise. Much is known about how to become more prolific and any scholar can:
• Write daily for 15–30 minutes
• Post your thesis on the wall and write to it
• Write from the first day of your research project
• Organize around key sentences
• Use key sentences as an after-the-fact outline
• Solicit the right feedback from the right colleagues
• Make effective use of feedback
In this workshop you will apply these steps to one of your (article-length) manuscripts that you bring to the workshop. What previous participants say:
"I tried these steps on a paper I had been trying to put together for five years. Four weeks later the paper is out for review."
"Internalizing these steps has caused my productivity to quadruple."
Who should attend: Any scholar who wants to become more prolific, including those who have never attended the workshop as well as those who have attended the shorter two-hour, four-hour, or six-hour versions but want to refresh and extend their knowledge with this all new ten-hour workshop. Tara Gray serves as an associate professor of criminal justice as well as the Director of the Teaching Academy at New Mexico State University. She has used these steps to publish more than thirty scholarly manuscripts. She is finishing her third book, Publish and Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar. She has presented workshops to 2,000 scholars in more than 20 states, Canada and Mexico. As a presenter, Dr. Gray is "spirited, informative, and entertaining– she's anything but gray!"

June 23–24, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Friday, June 24, 2005 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Imperial Palace Hotel • Las Vegas, Nevada
A Pre-Convention Workshop for the 2005 Text and Academic Authors Convention, June 24–25, 2005
EARLY REGISTRATION ENDS APRIL 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For more information and registration information see http://www.taaonline.net

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Tip #54

As our energy wanes…a few thoughts to keep in mind as we head toward the last week of the term:

GOOD TEACHING: THE TOP TEN REQUIREMENTS
By Richard Leblanc, York University, Ontario

This article appeared in The Teaching Professor after Professor Leblanc won a Seymous Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence including a $10,000 cash award.

One. Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It's about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students.

Two. Good teaching is about substance and treating students as consumers of knowledge. It's about doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. But knowledge is not confined to scholarly journals. Good teaching is also about bridging the gap between theory and practice. It's about leaving the ivory tower and immersing oneself in the field, talking to, consulting with, and assisting practitioners, and liaising with their communities.

Three. Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students. It's about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times.

Four. Good teaching is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It's about getting only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling good. It's about deviating from the course syllabus or lecture schedule easily when there is more and better learning elsewhere. Good teaching is about the creative balance between being an authoritarian dictator on the one hand and a pushover on the other.

Five. Good teaching is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that they are the conductors and the class is the orchestra. All students play different instruments and at varying proficiencies.

Six. This is very important -- good teaching is about humor. It's about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It's often about making innocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings.

Seven. Good teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction.

Eight. Good teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible institutional support -- resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire organization -- from full professors to part-time instructors -- and is reflected in what is said, but more importantly by what is done.

Nine. Good teaching is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one's peers. Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through training and development programs.

Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards ... like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anything else.

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Tip #55
First Impressions

As we prepare to meet our classes for the first time next week, how important are first impressions. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 64, No. 3) Tufts psychologist, Nalini Ambady found that students are surprisingly good at predicting a teacher's effectiveness based on first impressions. The students rated teachers on 13 variables including "accepting," "active," "competent," and "confident." These variables were combined into a global rating for each teacher and correlated with end-of-semester evaluations. The correlation was a very strong 0.76.
The question then is do students learn more from teachers who give a first impression of effectiveness? In an as-yet-unpublished study, Ambady found that students learned more from teachers they rated as having the qualities of better teachers. This rating that was based on the first 10 seconds of their teaching!
For all of our new faculty members, a handout entitled "The First Day of Class" is included in your orientation packet. In brief, it is suggested that the time during the first class be used to establish rapport with your students, to clarify expectations about the course, to gather useful information concerning the students, and to generate excitement about the learning experience you and your students will be sharing.
Best of luck for a great semester!
(Thanks to Don Thompson for sharing the article "'Thin slices' of life" (APA Online, Vol. 36, No.3, March 2005) from which the information on the first impressions studies was taken.)

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Tip #56

As we begin to wind up Week #1, here is a random thought* rather than a teaching tip:
You're on your way to class when you bump into President Benton. After the requisite greetings, he asks you, "What are doing today that you know makes a real difference in the life of each student?" You've got two minutes. What do you say?
What's your answer?
*Adapted from an idea supplied by Louis Schmier, Professor of History at Valdosta State University

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Follow up to Tip #56

Last Week's Random Thought was:
You're on your way to class when you bump into President Benton. He asks you, "What are you doing today that you know makes a real difference in the life of each student?" You've got two minutes. What do you say?
Here's what some of you said:
"I pray for them."
"I am instilling in them the openness and eagerness to learn. And what they learn will have a direct relation to what they will do after graduation."
"I'm helping each student to feel confident, prepared, loved, and accepted as they begin professional preparation for their career in the teaching world. I'm being a "cheerleader" for each one as they are "shaking in their boots." I am praying for each one as they go out into the schools and meet this new professional world."
"In each class I (teach) I take the time to craft into the class a time for focusing on something more important than ourselves and our own needs and even something beyond ourselves. The students appreciate that from me and remark about it in my evaluations. Sometimes it is a "Thought for the Day" or a "Short Story" or a "Prayer" or some other way. I take very little time for this moment but if I forget it someone in the class will say, Dr. ____ we didn't have our thought for the day."
"Today, President Benton, an old student came to visit me. He graduated a year or two ago and was teaching in New York at an inner city school…Josh became dehydrated and passed out while in the subway. He hit his head on the cement platform. His family was called as the doctors thought he would die. He had three brain surgeries and had part of his skull implanted in his abdomen. He came to see me in a walker and with a helmet as for the next six months his brain is vulnerable without the protection of his skull. He is mostly paralyzed on one side at 22 years of age. I'm not sure I made a difference in his life but he certainly made a difference in mine. I learned from him about acceptance, patience, faith and goodwill toward the world. If I did make any difference in his life it was by listening, respecting, and loving…"

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Tip #57

Last week I asked my class of juniors and seniors to think of a teacher from whom they had learned a great deal and then to list the qualities that best described that person. Within a very few minutes the class generated a long list. I thought it was good enough to share as this week's Teaching Tip:
• Dedicated
• Positive
• Enthusiastic about the topic
• Fun-Loving
• Available when needed
• Sincere
• Teaches outside the box
• Unique
• Teaches in more than one way
• Passionate about the topic
• Humorous
• Opinionated
• Organized
• Caring
• Optimistic
• Relates theory to our lives
• Does practical exercises
• Honest
• Straight forward
• Knowledgeable and knows best way to present material
• Makes the classroom a fun environment
• Patient
• Can relate to students
• Has a sense of humor
• Never wastes time
• Has the student's respect
• Can teach beyond the textbook
• Is creative
• Energetic
• Encouraging
• Continual tests our knowledge
• Cares for students and makes them feel important
• Flexible/adaptive
• Thorough
• Makes learning fun
• Uses easy words
• Repeats information
• Asks a lot of questions and makes students think
• Creative style involving activities, props, etc.
• Encourages students to challenge themselves
• Treats students like adults
• Sensitive to students' needs
• Discussion-oriented vs. lecture
• Involves all students' perspectives
• Loving and caring – emails students
• Challenges students – sets high standards
• Loves what they do - passionate
• Works through each step regardless of time
• Gets to know each student on a personal level
• Treats everyone equally
• Experienced

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Tip #59

In response to last week's list of characteristics of good teachers as identified by a class of Seaver students, Professor Steve Rouse shared some handouts from a conference presentation he attended last summer. The presenters, William Buskist and Jared Keeley from Auburn University, used data from these handouts to develop a "Teacher Behaviors Checklist" that may be used as a teaching evaluation instrument. However, I think the information from the handouts is also interesting in light of last week's list.
Some Background: What Do We Know About Effective Teachers?
Baiocco & DeWaters (1998)
(Peer perceptions of teaching awardees)
Strong Work Ethic and Commitment
Enthusiastic and Personable
Strong Communication Skills
Creative Classroom Environment
Concern for Students
Knowledgeable
Engaging and Patient Style
Humanistic Values
Rigorous Academic Standards
Liked by Students
Beidler (1997)
(Personal observations)
Desire to Be a Good Teacher
Take Risks
Positive Attitude
Very Busy
Think of Teaching as Parenting
Give Students Confidence
Continually Seek to Learn More
Motivate Students
Don't Trust Student Evaluations
Listen to Their Students
Lowman (1996)
(Descriptors of Award Nominees)
Enthusiastic
Knowledgeable
Concerned
Inspiring
Helpful
Humorous
Caring
Interesting
Encouraging
Challenging
Strube (1991)
(Author/Student Perceptions) Clear Goals and Course Policies
Understands Teaching Environment
Knows Material
Facilitates Positive Relationships
Effective Communication Skills
Teach to How Students Think
Teaches Through Story Telling
Ample Number of Tests/Quizzes
Evaluations Frequently and Fairly
Has Fun Teaching
A Summary of the Qualities of Master Teachers
Based on a Brief Review of the Literature
General Writings Analyses of Credentials of Award Winning Teachers Analyses of Student Evaluations
Approachable Commitment to field Caring
Creative Concern for students Clear
Current in field Creative Comprehensive
Establishes rapport Enthusiastic* Enthusiastic*
Flexible Good classroom teacher Fair
Genuine High standards Stimulating
Good listener Humanistic Understanding
Trusting Intelligent Warm
Passionate* Knowledgeable Well-organized
High expectations Popular among students Well-prepared
Humorous Scholarly
Knowledgeable Strong communication skills
Models crit thinking Strong work ethic
Promotes cooperation Write about their fields
Respectful
Stresses life-long lrning
Strong speaking skills
Strong work ethic
Thoughtful
Uses active learning methodss
Uses common sense
Uses interdisciplinary approach
Comparison of Student and Faculty Ratings of the "Top 10" Qualities/Behaviors
Students and Faculty Agreement on Top 10:
Students Faculty
Quality/Behavior Category n % rank n % rank
Realistic Expectations/Fair 587 64 1 55 47 9
Knowledgeable About Topic 558 61 2 107 91 1
Approachable/Personable 543 59 4 62 53 5
Respectful 488 53 5 59 50 7
Creative/Interesting 469 51 6 58 49 8
Enthusiastic About Teaching 448 49 10 86 73 2

Students and Faculty Disagreement on Top 10:

Students Faculty
Quality/Behavior Category n % rank n % rank
Understanding 554 60 3 27 23 21
Happy/Positive/Humorous 453 49 7 7 6 27
Encourages/Cares for Students 452 49 8 44 37 12
Flexible/Open-minded 450 49 9 43 36 13
Promotes Critical Thinking 164 18 25 75 64 3
Prepared 208 23 20 72 61 4
Master Communicator 323 35 15 61 52 6
Presents Current Information 166 18 22 55 47 9
When the Teaching Behavior Checklist is published, the SFA may want to take a look at it for use at Seaver.

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Tip #60

Week #5 – I am struck today by the rising stress levels in some of our students. Although widespread, it is particularly noticeable among the first-year students…fear of failure, homesickness, feeling of being stranded on campus without a car, and lack of sleep are among the more common issues confronting them.
I thought an excerpt from the teaching philosophy statement of one of our colleagues might be helpful to all of us as we help students during this particular time of the semester.

"DEALING WITH THE WHOLE STUDENT:

My philosophy is one in which my relationship with the student is not limited to matters relating to the class. If the student wishes, I am available to deal with any other issue that the student feels comfortable sharing. I am there for them. If I can't help, I find ways to get them help. This is one of the most gratifying parts of teaching for me. I have two signs posted on my office door that express my position. "This office is an open non-judgmental, supportive, safe place for airing whatever concerns compel you." The other reads: "Students don't interrupt my work; students are my work."
Several years ago a student in my Human Relations class made a plaque for me. It's a poem by Emily Dickinson"
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
While the notices on my door and the plaque on my wall are not always easy to live up to, they remain there as a challenge for me and a reminder of what is important." Jeff Banks
"Students don't interrupt our work; students are our work."

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Tip #61

Louis Schmier, a faculty member in the Department of History at Valdosta State University, lost a colleague last week to pancreatic cancer. In the memoriam to his friend he echoed the theme that we began in last week's teaching tip. Here is a slightly edited version of his words.
"I will miss his unconditional love of each and every student and his endless faith in each and every one of them and his boundless optimism for each and every one of them.
Though our styles of teaching were different, our visions were not. We agreed on what is at the core, or should be at the core, of what we academics do. If there is one central reality in all of education, it is this: every student--every student--regardless of major, GPA, SAT score, scholarship, physical condition, tattooing, athletic ability, gender, body piercing, skin color, accent, sexual preference, ethnicity, sorority or fraternity, special needs, etc is a sacred, unique human being. He or she is an invaluable piece of the future that is entitled to be treated with respect and dignity and consideration. And, nothing--not fund raising, sports records, research, publication, curriculum, institutional renown, title, reputation, resume--is more important in academia for the administrator, staff person, faculty member, and student than that realization.
It's so easy to find fault with students. It's easy to treat them as an annoyance and intrusion. It's easy to dismiss them. It's easy to cast them aside. It's easy to criticize them and make them feel incapable and unwanted. Anyone can do it. It doesn't take much effort to do it. You don't need any training for that. What takes effort and skill, what takes patience and kindness, what takes perseverance and commitment, what takes empathy and faith, what takes a lot of hard work and dedication, what takes consuming time and effort, what takes hope and love, what takes awareness and "otherness," what takes heart and soul is picking each student up and making him or her feel good about where he or she is, who he or she is, and what he or she is capable of doing, and who he or she is uniquely capable of being.
Many, far too many, academics don't understand that; many, far too few, do."

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Tip #62

As we approach the mid-semester point, many Seaver faculty members have found it very helpful to have students in their classes do a mid-course evaluation. These evaluations take many forms depending on what would be most helpful for you, as the teacher, to know. One such evaluation form is attached to this teaching tip. Steve Rouse was very kind to obtain permission for us to use a form developed at Auburn University and to share his adaptation of the form.
Steve writes, "If anyone else wanted to use this, they would need to first change anything marked in yellow. Later this semester, I'm going to be writing an SPSS command file to score the test; I would be happy to share it (and instructions for scoring) with anyone who wants to try using it.
I do not think this is a flawless course evaluation measure-- I am not, for example, arguing that this should replace our current end-of-semester form. However, (from the point of view of someone who studies psychological measurement) this was a very well-developed evaluation form, and it seems like it would be a good method for getting personal feedback."
You will notice that the checklist is based on the teaching characteristics that were described in Teaching Tip #59.
Teaching Behavior Checklist

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Tip #63

Thanks to David Strong for sharing the following excerpt from the book:
Inspiring Teaching: Carnegie Professors of the Year Speak. John K. Roth, ed., Anker Publishing Co., Boston, MA 1997.
Good Teachers Try to Keep Students and Themselves Off Balance
"I have learned that when I am comfortable, complacent, and sure of myself I am not learning anything. The only time I learn something is when my comfort, my complacence, and my self-assurance are threatened. Part of my own strategy for getting through life, then, has been to keep myself, as much as possible, off balance.
I loved being a student, but being a student meant walking into jungles where I was not sure my compass worked and didn't know where the trails might lead or where the tigers lurked. I grew to like that temporary danger. I try to inject some danger into my own courses, if only to keep myself off balance. When I feel comfortable with a course and can predict how it will come out, I get bored; and when I get bored, I am boring. I try, then, to do all I can to keep myself learning more. I do that in part by putting myself in threatening situations."
This tip comes from a chapter entitled "What Makes a Good Teacher" written by Peter C. Beidler and is one of ten qualities of good teachers that he lists.

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Tip #64
We Teach Who We Are

We teach who we are is the title of Chapter 1 in Parker Palmer's "The Courage to Teach" and it is the essence of a journal article shared with the CTE by Mike Gose:
van Manen, M. (2002). The pathic principle of pedagogical language. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 215-224.
The paper attempts to show that the act of teaching depends on the teacher's personal presence, relational perceptiveness, tact for knowing what to say and do in contingent situations, thoughtful routines and practices, and other aspects of knowledge.
One paragraph in the article spoke of the relational dimension of teaching…"Teachers know that the relational dimension of teaching is always in flux, always relatively fragile, always depending on the perceptiveness of the teacher for what is appropriate to say or do in any particular moment. It is strange that recognition has received so little attention in educational research. The history of philosophy has shown that education, learning, personal growth and the formation of self-identity is to come to oneself through what is other. And the formation of self also occurs through the mediation of others, who open themselves and give us access to the dialog that they hold with the world and with what is other. We all want to be "seen" as somebody. And even that is not always enough. . . . all (students) want to be seen as uniquely different and worthy of respect and affection from teachers that matter to them. So the teacher needs to practice an active, personal, and improvisational discretionary tact. This is not something that one can learn as a method or technique. Rather this pedagogical ability ensues from the teacher's sense of tact."

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Tip #65
Avoiding Overload: Six Steps to Sane Productivity

It's November and the end of the semester is in sight…and so is lots of work for students and for faculty. At a conference I attended a couple of weeks ago Douglas Robertson presented a session on avoiding overload. Dr. Robertson was on our campus a couple of years ago facilitating a workshop entitled, "Making Time for Good Teaching." Here are his six steps for sane productivity:
1. Be able to be efficient in all things. Be able to take less time to do the same things with similar quality.
2. Express your values in how you use your time. Develop a framework explicitly based on your values for making tough choices in how you will spend your time.
3. Don't hoard responsibility, share it. Identify ways for other agents in your environment to do what you do with the same result, a better result, or a good enough result.
4. For every aspect of your work, find a time and place befitting it. Be able to block access to yourself completely when necessary.
5. Be short with many so that you may be long with a few. Use devices that buffer you from interruption, while preserving the information communicated, thereby allowing you to respond at a time, pace, and intensity of your choosing.
6. Stick to your knitting, refer to other helpers when possible. Use the professional practice of referral—i.e. be aware of organizational and community resources for common client problems and refer clients to those resources when appropriate.

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Tip #66Good Teachers Never Have Enough Time

In reading Rick Reis' ten qualities of a good teacher, number 4 (the title above) seems to rebut last week's suggestions for avoiding overload. Is it possible to be a good teacher and not be too busy? At this time of the semester that maybe an unfair question.
"Just about all of the good teachers I have known are eternally busy. They work 80-100 hour weeks, including both Saturdays and Sundays. Their spouses and families complain, with good reason, that they rarely see them. The reward for all this busy-ness is more busy-ness. The good teachers draw the most students, get the most requests for letters of recommendation, work most diligently at grading papers, have the most office hours and are most frequently visited during those office hours, are most in demand for committee work, work hardest at class preparations, work hardest at learning their students' names, take the time to give students counsel in areas that have nothing to do with specific courses, and are most involved in professional activities off campus.
For good teachers the day is never done. While it does not follow that any teacher who keeps busy is a good teacher, the good teachers I know rarely have time to relax. The good teachers I know find that they are as busy teaching two courses as teaching three. They know that they do a much better job with the two courses than the three because they give more time to the individual students, but they also know that for a responsible teacher the work of good teaching expands to fill every moment they can give to it. They might well complain about how busy they are, but they rarely complain, partly because they don't want to take the time to, partly because they don't like whining. Actually, they seem rather to like being busy. To put it more accurately, they like helping students-singular and plural-and have not found many workable shortcuts to doing it."

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Tip #67

At this very busy time of the semester it somehow seems appropriate to share some succinct wisdom. At the 30th Annual Conference of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education last month the program booklet contained a number of quotes that seem to me to be examples of succinct wisdom relevant to our teaching work. Here are a few:
The extraordinary thing about the oyster is when irritations get into his shell. When he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives…make a pearl." Harry Emerson Fosdick
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. Pearl Buck
Those who can, do. Those who believe others can also do, teach. John E. King
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Alfred Lord Tennyson
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. Elie Wiesel
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Carl Buehner
Be the change you want to see in the world. Mahatma Ghandi
Teachers at all levels of education have more in common than we think, and we should not be so glib about which level we call higher. Parker Palmer
I am not a teacher but an awakener. Robert Frost

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Tip #68A Core Quality of a Good Teacher:

During this Thanksgiving week, I am reminded of a story told by a colleague at Valdosta State.
He received an email during Thanksgiving break from an education major who had a class assignment to contact professors during the holiday and ask them what they thought was the core quality of a good teacher. The assignment was due the Monday following the 4-day break. His first thought was that the day after Thanksgiving is not the ideal time to ask anyone to think deeply. Many will have bodies ravaged by vast amounts of serotonin-producing typtophan induced by the Thanksgiving-caloric overdose. The Professor characterized his own feeling as having a cozy turkey hangovers, a digestive system still softly stuffed with stuffing, a brain still in a sleepy daze, and muscles warmly sluggish causing him to walk with an unsteady, hobble gobble wobble! Nevertheless he rallied against his lethargy and answered her survey in this way:
Many teachers only feel that students have so much to learn from them. A core quality that sets the good teachers apart from others is that they are students who learn so much from students.
A very sincere Happy Thanksgiving. We all have far more reasons than we know to offer a humble, "Thank You."

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Tip #69

Last week's teaching tip on the core quality of a good teacher elicited this response from Paul Contino:
"Have you seen Frank McCourt's new book, Teacher Man? In many ways it is reflection on this idea."
Here are a few other wonderful books on teaching that you might be interested for holiday reading or giving to the teacher on your Christmas list.
The Missing Professor by Thomas Jones, Stylus Press
This is a well written academic mystery about the disappearance of the office mate of a new female professor, Nicole, at Higher U. It is also a hilarious satire offering case studies in faculty development.
The Way of the Teacher by J.M. Haile,
This is a philosophical and inspirational book.
Random Thoughts III: Teaching with Love by Louis Schmier, New Forum Press

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Tip #70

A follow-up to last week's teaching tip:
Herb Gore, Coordinator of Collection Development, at Payson Library reports that Frank McCourt's Teacher Man and Louis Schmier's Random Thoughts are available in Payson. He has ordered the other two books.
As we prepare to wrap up the semester grading student work/writing final exams/cleaning out the office/and for our new faculty members-reading and packing for the trip to Florence, it is a good time to reflect on the semester past. What worked well? What didn't?
Here are a few questions we might ask ourselves during our Christmas break:
1) Paraphrasing a question asked on a teaching tip at the beginning of the fall term:
What did I do each and every day in the interest of each and every student so that each leaves here a better person?
2) Have I been a positive or negative influence in their lives?
3) Do I know who the students really are?
4) Do I know where I want them to take themselves?
5) Have I taught such that everyone learns?
6) How might I do a better job next semester?
What about writing and living by an academic version of Matthew 5:43-48 or the Oath of Maimonides?

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Tip #71

I received the following message over the holidays from Pat Hauslein, Associate Professor of Biology and Science Education at Saint Cloud State University, Minnesota and thought it worth passing on to you.
Thin Spots: Setting the Table
"How long does the paper need to be?" "How many questions will there be on the test?" "Will the test cover material from the book or just your lectures?" "I've memorized all the terms is that all I need to do?" Oh and my favorite, "I can't make it to class today are we going to do anything important?"
Don't these questions hurt like little paper cuts? "You're not getting it!" I scream inside. It's not about the length of the paper; it's about what you want to say. It's not about the test but what you have learned. The books and articles, assignments and tests are not hoops to jump but a means to an end. How do I explain to them what I want them to "get"?
And then, what I had seen for a number of days finally got through to me. On my way to school every day I pass by a transport facility of Speedy Express. For the past week they had an employment sign out. All it said was "APPLY WITHIN". Apply within, that's what I want my students to get! Take the stuff I put out for you. Smell it, taste it, mash it about, consume it and make it your own. APPLY WITHIN. Then write about it the way you see it. On that test, show me just how you connected all those concepts.
As instructors the lesson should not get lost on us either. If we teach superficially, with trivial ideas and concepts, without passion, then all they can return to us is their attempts to jump our hoops. If we want them to "get it" we have to share what we have APPLIED WITHIN. Rich full flavored ideas. Concepts of bright color that dance with each other. We have to find a way to teach, such that our students are not afraid or too bored to come to the table with us and APPLY WITHIN. So what kind of table will you set next time?"
…I am so thankful for this season of light (just passed). So whether (your) light comes from the Star of Bethlehem, the Candles of the Menorah or Kwanza, or just the grace-filled time with friends and family, I hope we can all learn to APPLY WITHIN."
Best wishes for a very successful Spring 2006

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Tip #72

This week's "food for thought" was sent to me by a Seaver College Parent.
It comes from the book "Between Teacher and Child" by Haim Ginott.
I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.

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Tip #73

Here is the first in a series of Teaching Tips shared by one of our colleagues on the Seaver College faculty:
"Always Save a Place for Yourself in the Lab"
1) There is only one bad method of imparting new information to students. It is a method that is used again, again, and again. This holds true for PowerPoint as well as for the standard lecture method. Variety is not only the spice of life; it facilitates learning.
2) All of us have our one favorite class of all times. Have you asked the teacher of that class the secret of its success? Do it today. You might be surprised. I was.
I asked my Invertebrate Zoology Teacher at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University what he attributed the success of his class. His surprising answer: "Always save a place for yourself in the lab. When you ask students to be keen observers, to generate testable hypotheses, and perform simple experiments for creative discovery, as the teacher of the class, remain personally engaged in that same quest."
What a wealth of implications!
After his answer to my "secret of success "question, I noticed what I had overlooked before. He was always present during the full duration of laboratory sessions (8 hours every other day in this case), usually in the back of the room, doing personal experiments, testing new ideas, gaining fresh insight into one of the myriad of organisms he had not previously scrutinized.
Wow! I am glad I asked.
Years later, Parker Palmer wrote an entire book on the concepts imbedded in "always save a place for yourself in the lab."
Contributed by Steve Davis, Distinguished Professor of Biology

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Tip #74

An edited excerpt from a Random Thought by Louis Schmier…This is bit long but, in my opinion, well worth the time.
Colleges and universities are supposed to be places of higher learning. But, where does memorable and deep learning really take place. We academics assume and proclaim it should be in the classroom. But, is it? Well, a weak "maybe" at the graduate level, but I'm not all that sure it occurs at the first year level or as much at the upperclassman level as so many suppose. I know that when I reminisce about my high school days Southside, my college days at Adelphi, and my graduate days at St. John's University, and The Hill, when I start telling the stories, when I recall the memorable events that are today as vivid as when they occurred 38 to 51 years ago, when I think of the life shaping experiences, not one--I repeat, not one--is about academics.
What do I mean? Ever walk down the halls and peer into classrooms? What do you see? Really see, not what do you want to see? You don't see many "turned-on" classes. What you see is mostly boredom, not learning. I see an overwhelming majority of students day dreaming, looking at their watches as they feel the minutes are turning into hours, peering out the windows, doodling, slouching, whispering to see other, reading assignments or looking over notes for other classes, tuning out, staring, apathetic, disinterested, disengaged, mechanically taking mindless notes. We all know students will find every excuse and reason and rationale not to attend class: a lack of parking, traffic, a late campus bus, a sister performing in a play, a doctor's appointment, a family illness, a flat tire, a lame alarm clock, a family affair, a sniffle, a rehearsal, a game, a convention, most anything. I see teachers orating. Well, to be honest, most of us aren't paragons of Demosthenes. We more often than not drone in monotones or read from books, looking over students or into books, indifferent to the glazed stares and blank gazes of the students as if filled or empty seats made no difference. I see teachers, backs to the students, talking to the blackboard or heads turned down while scribbling on overheads or punching computer keys or faces turned away reciting some droll PowerPoint presentation.
So what do we do professors do. We defend ourselves. We attack, lash out, blame. We immediately label the students lazy, unworthy, unprepared, lame, air-headed, undisciplined, irresponsible, slack, immature, and uninterested. To cure these debilitating diseases, we chastise them more, blame them more, control them more, penalize them more, and coerce them more. That is, we make the classroom less appealing and more-prison like. Doesn't work, does it. It's little wonder that we then get resigned, annoyed, frustrated, angry, and burnt out.
But, if you hang around these same students outside of class, if you're a fly on the wall in their residences, if you just watch them around campus and off-campus, if you read their journals, guess what you'll find. These lifeless classroom zombies come alive. Their trods transform into dance steps, their slow pace quickens, their juices get going, their blood flows, their blank eyes twinkle, their sullen faces smile, their mournful sighs turn into rowdy laughs. Students who are emotionally absent in the classroom exude emotions outside the classroom. The ugly worm of their apathy metamorphoses into a beautiful butterfly of excitement and interest. They'll eagerly go to their jobs; they'll concentrate as they play computer games. The closed, shy ones open their hearts to others. These classroom slackers have a lot of outside interests that excite them. They're doing things they loved to do. They're putting themselves wholeheartedly into their jobs, teams, clubs, fraternities, sororities, troupes, units, friends, lovers, and ensembles. They are doggone good at these things; they're a bunch of skilled people; they're a bunch of neat people.
Again, I'll ask that question. Why don't those skills and capabilities and enthusiasms and commitments show up more often in what we academics proclaimed is the more important classroom? Well, acting the heretic, what would happen if I turn that question up on its end and ask three questions? First, what if I ask what is it about woodworking, cheerleading, playing in a combo, playing on a team, acting in a troupe, throwing a pot, which they obviously love, that is worthy of their best effort. Second, what if I ask what it is about classes that tend to make them unworthy, or less worthy and important, of that kind of engagement. And finally, what if I asked are we really interested in the answers, of looking at places of joy, places where students lose track of how hard they're working because they're so involved in what they're doing, places where students lose track of time, places where they stop counting minutes, places where hours are turned into minutes, places where students voluntarily learn a difficult skill, where they work and work and work over and over and over again at a thing until they know how to do it, places that might hold some important lessons for us and demand that we change the configuration of our classes.
I've been thinking about this a lot. I haven't done any formal study, just intensely observed and noted for nearly forty years as a professor and teacher. I've been reading an average of 160 student journal entries each day of a term for something like ten years. Let me give you my baker's dozen of answers why students are tuned into teams, troupes, units, fraternities, sororities, clubs, ensembles, combos; why these are a turn-on for students while they're generally turned off and tuned-out in the classroom; why the outside activities are indelibly tattooed onto their souls while the inside the classroom activities are seldom more than temporary ink:
1) In these activities they're active participants and contributors rather than passive recipients. They feel useful. They feel needed. They're using their imaginative and creative powers. They're focusing on the strengths of an empowering "this is what Ican do" rather than on a weakening, submissive, fearful "what do you want." They're not empty heads to be filled in a time, manner, and method determined by others.
2) They're believed in. Someone has faith in them. They're actively encouraged, supported, and prodded to go beyond their best. There's no such thing as "good enough." They're pushed and pushed and pushed. They're congratulated and then are asked to do more and more and more, to stretch their limits, to expand their horizons. It isn't an environment of distant lecture or controlled discussion, test, go on, and never to come back to that stuff again.
3) They're looked up to. They're important. They're noticed. They're valued. They get extraordinary amount of applause, recognition, appreciation, approval from the institutions, audiences, and from peers. That doesn't happen to members in a first year math class.
4) In the band, ensemble, team, sorority, fraternity, squad, club, etc they're acknowledged and treated as unique individuals with the ability to make contributions to the whole. They're not as just another unnoticed, faceless, shadowy number sitting anonymously in a crowd or herd of classroom seats. They're a community of mutually supporting, trusting, and respecting friends and family; there's always an understanding shoulder and a listening ear; they learn that alone each is weaker, by far, than if all are together, that shared confidence is stronger than individual confidence,
5) They can't let others down. They don't want to let others down. They're intertwined with each other. There are webs of mutually reliant connections. There's mutual commitment. There's something larger than them at stake. They're team mates, sisters, brothers, buddies, comrades, partners, members, fellow this's or thats. No isolation here. No stranger here. No aloneness here. No separateness here. Personal achievement is linked directly with responsibility of the achievement of others, as well as the improvement of others. Mutual commitment, support, and encouragement help overcome fears of risk-taking and failure that curtail achievement. They're "openers," not "shut downers."
6) Repetition is honorable and acceptable and understood--and meaningful. You go over and over and over the same stuff. You learn your lines; you learn the playbook; you learn the score; you learn the steps; you learn the maneuvers; you learn to work with others. It's called drills and rehearsals and practice.
7) They're encouraged to take the initiative and act on their own. They're always on their toes, always alert to the unexpected. No time to coast. The practice field is different from the "real thing" of the playing field. Rehearsing is different from the show going on. The audience is always different. The opponent won't cooperate and do as it's supposed to due during a competition Drop line, bust a play, miss a note, and you have to improvise. Little is erected that might limit potential, stifle creativity, shackle innovation, or prevent taking the initiative. It's not an iron-clad class precisely scripted by the professor whose idea of a good class is when things go as he or she planned, when predictions come true, when the expected and prepared for occur, and when there is little or no interruption or disruption or diversion or distraction—or regrettably questions.
8) Spirit, heart, emotion, adrenalin are all part of the mix. A musician has to play with heart; a player has to have his or her heart into it; an actor has to be emotionally involved with his or her part. When a musician does well, he's on a high and ready to go at it again. When a football player misses a tackle, he's angry and ready to go at it again. When an actor misses a cue, he or she curses him/herself and goes at it again. High or low, members of the theater troupe, band, squad, team talk with each other, support each other, encourage each other, and assist each other. But in the classroom we dismiss or disallow or ignore emotion. We don't care about flowing juices. We worship the cold, disconnecting god of objectivity. We generally prohibit communication except for the most restricted exchanges. When we bring 30 to 1000 students together and ask them not to communicate, eyes front, not to cooperate, not to use one another as resources or exhort one another to go further, then we make it clear to them that their being together is simply a matter of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
9) Students follow their hearts, pick their position, choose their roles, and select their instruments. But, with academics, students are seldom empowered. We give them a list of specific classes they have to take--some euphemistically called "guided electives," we enter the classroom as talking heads, we decide the discussion-of-the-day and control it, we give them assignments within those classes that they have to do, we tell them they have to do things our way, we test them, we grade, and we don't offer many class alternatives that are exciting to them or class activities that are interesting to them.
10) Students help each other. That is, the more skilled assist the less skilled because the entire troupe, combo, squad, team, fraternity, sorority is dependent upon each and every member. They inspire each other, model for each other, set examples for others. In the class room, sadly more often than not, the "better" students aren't allowed to stand out per se during the class except to be used as a put down of others.
11) There's a lot of personal contact, a lot of one-on-one instruction and conscious encouraging "good job" from authority figures. The director, coach, leader, commander gives time for relationships to form, gets a good sense of who each student is, finds out what drives each of them, gauges their feelings, finds their confidence levels, understands what each of them can do or not do. The players, actors, whomever will see the coach, director, whomever in a more human and less formal frame, although no less authoritative. There are no more important words than honesty, trust, and respect. Students can ask questions without being put down or without feeling weird.
12) The coaches and directors and commanders and whomever are genuinely interested. They love what they do; they want to be where they are; they want to be there on the field, in the theater, on the court, on the stage. More importantly, they love each student. They say it in words; they say it in body language; they say it in action. How many of us academics can honestly say all that? How many professors will say they love to be in the classroom most of all, they love teaching, they're more dedicated to each student than to the discipline, and they love each student? I wonder how many give the appearance of not caring so that they won't be hurt when the students haven't as yet learned to care and for fear of being chastised and branded as unprofessional or non-professional or touchy-feely. But it is only in those few classrooms where the teachers say, both in word and in action, that they absolutely loved what they were doing and love each student that the students were engaged. We academics forget that we didn't come out of the womb with a love for a discipline. I bet if we thought about it, we'd say someone got them interested, that they followed someone they respected into an activity that that person loved, and they discovered it from there.
13) And last, they emphasize character values: "give it your all, accept nothing less," "do whatever it takes," "get yourself in gear," "no 'pain' no gain," "get your heart into it," "stop feeling sorry for yourself," "be mentally tough," "put your heart into it," "don't be selfish," "success is spelled t-e-a-m," "it is hard," "talk to each other, " "there is no 'I' in 'team,'" "take pride in what you do," "together you're unbeatable," "you can be the difference." It's a hand with five separate, but coordinating fingers that can be clenched into an all-powerful fist: connection, trust, responsibility, caring, and respect. They learn that discipline is simply doing what you're supposed to do as well as you can when you're supposed to do it.
There's a baker's dozen for you. Is each of these taken separately a magic pill? No, of course not, not in themselves. But, look at the pattern. Look at the mutually supportive and encouraging and loving and dedicated and committed social or community model as a vehicle for motivation, inspiration, and learning that is more often than not better than the classroom. Like it or not, it's a model for learning that appears on the field and courts and stage, in clubs, fraternal organizations, and jobs. They're a model for the infectious classroom that transmits the joy of learning from a professor to a student and from student to student.
Maybe we academics can learn a lot from them. They're not an escape from the real world as they often are described. They are closer to that real world than is the academic world of the classroom. Students don't want to be isolated; they don't want to be strangers; they want to be on a team, in a troupe, part of a combo, etc. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good, even if they don't consciously realize it and have been trained to think otherwise. Maybe we academics and our classroom configuration are the escape from the real world and are not the preparations for entry into that real world that we think we are.

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Tip #75

Thanks to the efforts of Herb Gore and Janet Davis, the Center for Teaching Excellence library has been relocated to the reference desk area of Payson Library. You may ask at the Reference Desk to be directed to the shelves that contain books and videos on various aspects of teaching. These resources may be borrowed on the honor system by Seaver College faculty members.
Here is the second in our series of Teaching Tips from Colleagues…a suggestion you might want to file away for the beginning of next semester.
Here's something I often do on the very first day of class, especially with the lower level language courses, but it works with any class really. I ask the students to take out a sheet of paper and write down what their expectations are of me as the professor. They don't include their names and at this point I of course don't recognize their writing. I read the sheets, taking note of the content and setting goals for myself. I will often write two or three words from them (i.e. patient, forgiving, prepared) on the inside of my folder for a particular class or on a post-it note near my desk somewhere, just to remind me. Generally the expectations are not unreasonable and have much more to do with being human than with being a brilliant scholar. I file the papers until the end of the course when I spread them out in front of the class again. Since there are no names I ask them to find their paper and react to their expectations from the first day. Have I met them?? If not, how might I improve??? Collecting the papers again, I can assess one aspect of my semester.
Needless to say, I often take the first day to share my expectations for them as students as well. Often our expectations of one another are quite similar.

April D. Marshall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Spanish
International Studies and Languages

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Tip #76

More and more members of the faculty at Seaver have discovered the benefits of having students do mid-semester evaluations. The Student Government Association is requesting that this be done in every class. This week's teaching tip comes from Regan Schaffer, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management.
I use mid-semester evaluations to glean constructive comments to assess my student's perceptions of my class. I use a format that asks the students to provide positive feedback AND constructive criticism regarding five key areas of my course: 1) textbooks/lecture content; 2) teaching style/class format; 3) grading; 4) assignment structure relevant to the learning objectives; and 5) my accessibility. I provide a one-page template that has a brief explanation of each area and space for the students to state their opinion of what's working and what could be strengthened. I take the results and identify key themes from the feedback. The next class session I share the results with the class and use that time to clarify misunderstandings, explain my reasoning for an approach, or to ask the students for their ideas. While this can be a bit disconcerting at times, I have found that in sharing the results (both the good and the bad) and discussing my rationale with the students that they often become more receptive to my approach even if they disagree. More important, some of my best ideas have come from these discussions and I believe this exercise conveys a deeper level of trust and transparency in my classroom which is critical to what I teach (leadership and management). Regan
Thanks, Regan, this is a wonderful example of good teaching. If you decide to do this, ask what you need to know in teaching your particular class….discuss the results with the students….and be willing to make changes based on the feedback you receive.
As added motivation, this type of formative evaluation at mid-semester often results in better summative evaluations at the end of the semester.

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Tip #77

This week's teaching tip comes from Ken Waters, Professor of Journalism, and is another example of a mid-semester course evaluation technique.
I've just finished completing last semester's assessment data to "prove" students do in fact learn what my syllabus says they're going to learn. I admit it is still a fairly subjective process. Even as I finish it, I wonder if there might more efficient ways to measure student learning.
Some companies have adopted a "net promoter score" by asking one question of customers or clients: "On a scale of zero to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend us to your friends and colleagues?" Apparently there's a correlation between high net promoter scores and a company's revenue growth. Adapted to a classroom situation this might seem like a simple measure of popularity with little usefulness--especially if we equate revenue growth with a continual increase in the number of students cramming our classrooms!
Still, I've included a question like this right after the mid-term and near the end of a course. I list the course objectives and ask students, using a one to five Likert-type scale, to tell me how well they have learned that objective. I use a simple mean score to tell me how we're doing. Of more help, though, are answers to the open-ended follow-up questions: "How might the class be improved?" "What objectives have I beaten into the ground, and which need more attention?" Then I ask a few questions similar to the net promoter questions. "If you were to tell another student about this class, would you recommend it? Why or why not?" (This survey is conducted in a computer classroom so answers are truly anonymous.)
Focusing on course objectives has proven to be a very helpful measure that allows me, especially at mid-term, to see if my perceptions of progress are correct. Students also appreciate the opportunity to critique teaching style, organizational issues and the like. I make sure at the beginning of the next class period that I give them feedback on their comments. While this may not directly measure student learning, it can't hurt for students to know their teacher is listening and isn't afraid to make mid-course corrections to help them learn the necessary course material.

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Tip #78

This week's tip comes from Kendra Killpatrick, Associate Professor of Mathematics.
After some serious thought . . . I have come to realize that I do have some fundamental beliefs about teaching that are important to me. I hope they are helpful to someone!
I firmly believe that teaching is a skill that is learned and as such can be improved, practiced and hopefully someday perfected. Many people fall prey to the belief that they can't use different kinds of pedagogies in the classroom because they believe they "just don't have the personality" to teach that way. Many different kinds of teaching techniques have been proven to be effective in a classroom and we should remain open to trying new and different things. It is often true that the first time we try a new technique we are not good at it, but we can improve. One way to improve is to observe someone you respect teach using the technique you want to learn. Then make a commitment to trying the technique at least three times in the span of three weeks. This will give you enough time to become comfortable with the technique and make adjustments to your own teaching style. If a technique does not go well, don't write it off as "not your style".
Reflect on what went wrong, why it didn't work, what makes the technique work for others and then adjust and try it again. Good teaching can be learned!

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Tip #79

I am always looking for ways to improve my teaching and update what I am doing in the classroom. As part of the program assessment process that the Communication Division has been involved in for two years now, I have been introduced to several classroom assessment techniques. This past August during our division retreat, June Palacio did a presentation on Knowledge Surveys. I had used pre test and post test assessment techniques the year before with some satisfaction. The results of the pre test, post test assessment gave me a sense of how students were learning, but I was left without a real sense of how well I was teaching.
After June's explanation of the Knowledge Survey Assessment, I decided to give this type of assessment a try in the fall semester. I used the surveys in one of my classes which had two sections. Not only was I able to gather data regarding the knowledge the students had at the beginning of the semester as compared to the end, but I was able to assess my own performance based on each individual question. I was also able to compare teaching success by class size based on individual questions. I am applying the results of the Knowledge Surveys to the spring semester class by making adjustments to material I need to emphasize while other material may nearly require a review. Using Knowledge Surveys has enabled me to make better use of my time with the students in the classroom and has improved my performance as well. I am continuing with the Knowledge Surveys in the same class this semester and am looking forward to comparing the end results of the spring class with the fall semester.

Susan Salas, Associate Professor of Telecommunications

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Tip #80

We want our students to be lifelong learners. Do we emulate that goal? Here is a good suggestion from Khanh Bui, Associate Professor of Psychology who writes this week's teaching tip.
"I enjoy improving my teaching by enrolling in classes as a student and seeing how other teachers teach. The classes that I enroll in tend to cover subjects that I am not familiar with or not good at, such as Spanish and swimming. Because these subjects are challenging to me, I can better understand how the topics that I teach, such as statistics, may seem challenging to my students. Also, I have found that I especially appreciate the teachers who teach me by first demonstrating the skill and then having me practice the skill. I try to do the same in my classes. Finally, I learn to continually imagine how my teaching looks like from the perspective of a student."

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Tip #81
Thinking Backwards
Sonia Sorrell

In the movie Camelot, the wise magician Merlin counseled King Arthur to "think backwards" in order to get a different perspective on life. I'm not a wise magician, but I would counsel the same method of thinking backwards to get a different perspective on teaching. Rather than sitting down with our textbooks at the start of each term and deciding how to break up all the wonderful material into manageable units in our syllabi so that we can impart as much important information as possible to our students, I suggest you try an exercise in thinking backwards first. It's fun, it's easy and it's free . . . so what have you got to lose?
Step-by-Step Instructions for Thinking Backwards
The Ultimate Exercise: Project your mind far out into the future--ten, twenty, fifty years—hey, it's your dream, why not go forward a hundred years or even a millennium? In your wildest imagination, what would you like the long-term result of your teaching to be? (No one's listening, so you are free to dream really big.) Would you like for an idea you taught to lead to a scientific breakthrough that brings a cure for all diseases? Would you like the information you imparted to bring about improved crops for better nutrition so people are stronger and live healthier and longer lives? Would you like to see your teaching live on through countless generations who are enriched by the wisdom and achievements of the ancient world? Would you like to know that you had a part in ensuring that the hauntingly lovely sounds of the Gregorian chant will continue to resound through the ages? What is your ultimate dream for your teaching?
The Penultimate Exercise: Once you have your ultimate dream clearly in mind, think about the most important thing you can do to assure that your teaching is carried on through the generations so that your dream one day becomes a reality. I would suggest that the most important thing we can do as teachers is to instill passion and caring in our students. Few ideas, however important or wonderful, are carried forward without someone being deeply passionate about that idea and sincerely caring about its transmission. We can teach and teach, but unless we give our students a thorough understanding of the deep significance and long-term importance of what they are learning, they will simply not care much about carrying the torch forward. In other words, share your dream, pass on your passion, and create an atmosphere of excitement and even urgency in your classroom. After all, that wonderful goal in your ultimate dream is worth it, isn't it?
The Antepenultimate Exercise: You have your ultimate dream and you know that in order to attain it, you will need to instill passion and caring in your students, but how do you do that? Think about your own experiences . . . what made you passionate about your subject matter? Who made you care enough to seek an advanced degree and what made you yearn to share your discipline with later generations? Try to recapture the "ah ha" moments in your past (start a list so you can refer to it when needed) and then recreate those moments in the classroom to share that same excitement with your students. It's easy to become so familiar with our material that we start to think, "Oh, everyone knows that!" Always keep in mind that your students are hearing the information for the very first time—it's new to them and the manner in which you present that material makes all the difference in how they receive and perceive that information. Always enter the classroom with a fresh attitude . . . each and every class meeting is an opportunity to share your excitement and caring . . . and each and every class meeting is an opportunity to carry your ultimate dream a bit closer to reality by passing on your passion for your discipline. We will not live forever, but our dreams can and will live on through our students and our future generations, but it's up to us to make that happen.
The Final Exercise: Return to the present. You are back in front of your textbook working on your syllabus. Again, even in the creation of your course syllabus, begin by thinking backwards. Start by writing your final exam first. Yes, you read that correctly—the first thing you should do each term is write your final exam . . . that way you will establish what your important learning goals are. Decide what information and skills the students should master by the end of the course and determine how you will assess their learning. What skills will your students need to master in order to carry forward the important work in your field and to contribute to the attainment of your ultimate dream? How can students demonstrate that they have mastered that information and those skills? Use this information to construct your final exam.
Now, and only now, are you finally ready to decide what material to teach. At this point I will leave you on your own, after all, the rest is material that anyone can get out of a textbook, including our students . . . the material is not the hard part. It's the teaching, and the learning, that remain our greatest challenge . . . and our greatest joy.

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Tip #82
"CUE Tip" (ha!) for Teaching: Making Connections beyond the Classroom

I recently attended the Computer Using Educators (CUE) Conference with 4 of my full-time student teachers. While there, my student teachers and I learned about all the new innovations in technology that can enhance our classroom practices, and we viewed models of how other teachers are incorporating technology in their classroom. My students, who are prospective teachers, will be expected to engage in professional development conferences one day. Knowing this, I believe that it is important for me to not only share my knowledge of valuable professional activities with them, but also to make efforts to bridge the learning in the classroom to learning in the real world through exercises like taking them to conferences. After reading their reflections about this event, as well as reflecting upon the experience myself, I realized that helping students make these life connections beyond the classroom is a practical tip for all educators.
After their experience at their first professional conference, my students commented:
-My overall impression of the conference was that it was a good experience both to be with the group and among other teachers from all over to come together to continue professional development. It's important to know what a conference is all about and I previously had no idea. It shows us that we could present in our subject matter later on in our career.
- My favorite part was going with my classmates and experiencing our first conference together. It would have been way less enjoyable and (scarier) without them. It was a good introduction to what we will be going through later.
I know that many professors help prepare students for their futures through such activities as undergraduate research conferences, introducing students to graduate schools, and helping students to network at different career venues. Students appreciate these valuable and practical activities, and as an educator, I have found that there are numerous personal rewards in mentoring the students in these ways.

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Tip #83
A Fair Final Exam:

If you did not work backwards as suggested by Professor Sonia Sorrell in Teaching Tip #81, then you are probably in the throes of writing your final exam. A fair final should is based on the attainable and measurable objectives found on your course syllabus. This syllabus is like a contract between you and your students. "At the end of this course, you will be able to..." If you do not have such objectives on your syllabus, consider reading the Syllabus Guidelines, developed by the Academic Affairs Committee and posted on the CTE web site before developing your syllabi for next semester. Also attached to this teaching tip are two lists of action verbs to assist you in writing your measurable learning objectives.
../content/ActionVerbs.pdf
../content/Blooms-Taxonomy-Action-Verbs.pdf

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Tip #84
Determining Final Course Grades

As we approach the end of the term, one of the thornier challenges you will likely face is the determination of students' final course grades. Your challenge is to balance your values of excellence and integrity with the best long-term interests of your students. While being too lenient defeats your purpose for entering teaching in the first place, awarding grades without recognition of a larger context often stifles motivation of individual students who might have closed the term more strongly than they began it. It also hinders your ability to nurture a following of students that contributes to your perceived effectiveness and sense of personal satisfaction.
While "academic freedom" provides a great deal of personal leeway in awarding of grades, there are potential restraining forces of which you should be aware. These include the shared values of the department within which you teach, and institutional concerns and methods to address the rather rampant "grade inflation" in all of higher education in recent years.
As you calculate your final grades -- based upon the scoring criteria and weights published in your syllabus -- you might well be surprised how frequently scores fall on the margin between two letter grades. Think through in advance what factors, e.g. attendance, class participation, discernible trends of student performance-improvement over the term, etc. that you will employ in your decision-making. If possible, confirm your thoughts with your mentor or other veteran instructor. Your goals should be consistency and fairness to all students -- regardless of age, gender, work status, and other demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Be aware that in the increasingly customer-oriented and litigious environment in which higher education operates, you are at some point going to be challenged by a student over the grade you awarded. Defending your actions successfully -- to instructional leaders and/or students -- will enable you to solidify a reputation of which you can be justly proud.

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Tip #8

Based on Ken Bain's, "What the Best College Teachers Do", it has been found that people learn best and most deeply when:
1. They try to answer questions or solve problems they find interesting, intriguing, important, or beautiful.
2. They can try, fail, receive feedback, and try again before anyone makes a judgment of their work.
3. They can work collaboratively with other learners struggling with the same problems.
4. They face repeated challenges to their existing fundamental paradigms.
5. They care that their existing paradigms do not work.
6. They can get support (emotional, physical, and intellectual) when they need it.
7. They feel in control of their own learning, not manipulated.
8. They believe that their work will be considered fairly and honestly.
9. They believe that their work will matter.
10. They believe that intelligence and abilities are expandable, that if they work hard, they will get better at it.
11. They believe other people have faith in their ability to learn.
12. They believe that they can learn.
If we keep these 12 points in mind, and apply them when we develop our syllabi, when we write up our lectures, and every time we enter the classroom, we will most certainly become better teachers and, in doing so, increase learning.

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Tip # 86
"Silent Discussion" – an oxymoron?

Sitting on the floor in a packed seminar room, I listened to Dr. Tamara Rosier from Cornerstone University describe her methods of engaging students through classroom discussion. Before the session officially began, participants were invited to move around the room and write responses to questions posted on large pieces of paper. When she called the session to order, Dr. Rosier said that we had just engaged in "silent discussion," a tactic she often uses to help students focus as they enter the classroom. She tells her students that they are not allowed to use "yes," "no," or "I agree" in a silent discussion. In the act of composing a response, the students commit themselves to a position on a particular question. Dr. Rosier finds that looking at these responses before she opens the class allows her to assess how thoroughly students have understood their reading, homework, the last class session, etc. Silent discussion also allows introverted students time to process their thoughts so that they can participate more fully once the class officially begins. Most importantly, Dr. Rosier stressed her belief that good class discussions don't just happen; they require careful planning beforehand and attentive monitoring in the moment.

In closing, I will share a phrase that I heard repeated several times during the conference: as professors, we can be more effective as "the guide on the side" rather than as "the sage on the stage." Engagement with students as active partners, not mere receivers, in the learning process will lead to greater, longer-lasting student learning.

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Tip # 87Visual vs. Auditory Approaches to Teaching

A fascinating presentation by Drs. Ellyn Arwood and Jacqueline Waggoner, both at the University of Portland, focused on the distinction between auditory versus visual neuro-biological learning systems (these differences have to do with the way our brains are "wired"—not to be confused with "styles," which can be learned.)
According to Arwood and Wagonner, students who have an auditory-dominant system can hear (or read) words and automatically translate those words into concepts, forming patterns without having to visualize the concepts they represent. Those with a visually-dominant system have to translate those words into pictures before they can be understood and retained. Of course, most traditional college classroom instruction is geared to auditory-dominant learners. Unfortunately, they pointed out, 85% of our students are visually focused learners!
To highlight the difference—and to illustrate a way to use a visual approach to teach more effectively—one presenter gave two very different versions of a brief lecture on something most in the audience knew nothing about, sickle-cell anemia. (Both presenters are nursing professors.) The first version, presented in a traditional mode, included a chart of terms which the presenter explained to us. At the end, we knew little more than when we began.
She then presented the same material again, this time couching it within a "story" of a child who comes to the hospital emergency room. She drew a large stick-figure on her white board and described the symptoms, the biological processes causing the symptoms, complete with visual illustrations (e.g, "normal cells are like marbles in a tube, whereas cells affected by the disease are like jacks in a tube"), as well as a diagnosis and treatment—all within this one visually illustrated narrative. Her second presentation included the same terms and concepts as the first, only now they were placed within a meaningful context. A month later, I still remember the basics of her presentation!
Here's how the presenters recommended using this approach to teaching. Typically, we ask students to read a text ahead of time and then to come to class to discuss it. But the students don't have a context into which they can plug what they're reading and so they retain very little. Instead, they recommended creating a visual model in class before they read their assignment. Then, once they have a context—a mental "big picture"—they are prepared to read (and retain) the details.

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Tip # 88

How do you get students to do the assigned reading?

In Wilbert McKeachie's 12th edition of Teaching Tips he offers some suggestions that may be of help to those of you asking this question.
The main reason students come to class unprepared is that they don't see what difference it makes. In many courses, textbook assignments and lectures are independent parts of the course, sometimes overlapping, sometimes supplementary, but often not perceived as interdependent. Thus the first strategy for encouraging reading is frequent use of the phrase "As you read in your textbook assignment for today…" or the question "What was your reaction to [the author of the textbook]'s discussion of…?"
A second strategy is to have students write a one-minute paper at the beginning of occasional class periods on "The most important idea (or two or three ideas) I got from the assignment for today." Alternatively, you can have students write a question—either something they would like explained or something that was stimulated by the reading.
Probably the surest strategy is to announce that there will be a brief quiz on the assignment. Let's hope that once we have formed in our students the habit of reading the assignments, they will develop enough intrinsic motivation that the quizzes become unnecessary.
The basic problem often may be found in the meaning of the word read.
More about teaching students to learn more from reading in the next teaching tip.
Have you developed other ways to get students to do the assigned reading before class? Please share them with us if you have.

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Tip #89

First a response from Bryan McGraw, Assistant Professor of Political Science, to Teaching Tip #88:
I do three things. First, I give exams that are based on the reading. Students are responsible for the reading even if I didn't cover it in class. Second, I ask students to write response papers to the reading. I usually ask them to do 8-10 a semester on weeks of their choosing, taking a point they found particularly interesting in the reading and respond to it with some argument. Finally, I call on students in class. I ask them questions about the readings – and it becomes quite clear who has and who hasn't done the reading. Shame can be a powerful teaching tool at times.
Teaching Students to Learn More from Reading
The research on learning from reading indicates that:
1) When printed materials are compared with lectures, the results favor print;
2) Study questions to guide students' reading can be helpful but do not automatically guarantee learning;
3) Questions that get students to think, rather than low-level factual questions, increase the effectiveness of reading;
4) Thoughtful reading can be encouraged by having students write a half-page answer to a thought-provoking question, bring multiple copies to class to share and discuss with peers in small groups;
5) If tests require deeper understanding and thinking, reading will be influenced by the type of questions students come to expect on tests; and
6) Students benefit from specific instruction (particularly in introductory classes) in picking out the main ideas, asking themselves questions, looking for organizational cues, and attempting to explain what they have read.
W. J. McKeachie, WJ and M. Svinicki, M, McKeachie's Teaching Tips (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), Chapter 4.

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Tip #90

This week's teaching tip is adapted from Chapter 1 of "Inspiring Teaching, Carnegie Professors of the Year Speak" by Peter C. Seidler, Anker Publishing Company, Inc., Bolton, MA.

What Makes a Good Teacher?

10. Good Teachers Listen to Their Students
…after I read…that no one has ever defined what makes a good teacher, I asked the students in my undergraduate Chaucer course at Baylor University to write a sentence or two about what, in their own experience, makes a good teacher. The responses ranged widely, but I sorted through the pieces of paper on which they wrote them and put them in different piles. Then I combined the piles into ones that seemed to be generically related. Three quarters of their responses fell into two piles. The first of those I call the "A" pile, the second I call the "E" pile.
In the "A" pile I found words like "accessible," "available," and "approachable." Here are some of the sentences they wrote in response to my question.

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Good teachers

*are available to assist students with questions on the subject, and they show concern.
*do not have a lofty, standoffish attitude.
*can interact with a student on an individual basis.
*want to know each individual student.
*give time, effort, and attention to their students.
*are personable, on your side.
*are willing to be a friend to students.
*are actually interested in the students.
*are actively involved with their students.
*are first friends, then educators. The friend encourages, supports, and understands; the educator teaches, challenges, and spurs the student on.
In the "E" pile I found words like "enthusiastic." energetic," excited."
Good teachers
*love what they teach and convey that love to the class.
*have both an enthusiasm for and an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.
*have such an obvious enthusiasm for what they do that it is contagious and their students pick up on it.
*have a desire to learn, and for others to learn all of the exciting things they have learned.
*are obviously excited about teaching.

This is #10 of the author's ten qualities that characterize a good teacher. He compiled the lists above based on input of students who are English majors at Baylor University. Do you think the responses of Seaver students would be different?

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Tip #91

Last week's tip focused on the qualities of good teaching as delineated by English majors at Baylor University. I ended the tip by asking the question, do you think the responses of Seaver students would be different? This morning a group of 14 Seaver students gathered to discuss the qualities that, in their opinions, characterize good teaching at Seaver College. They were invited to the discussion by the members of the new faculty/mentor group. Each new faculty member and each mentor invited a student to join the discussion. The students ranged from sophomores to seniors and represented a wide range of majors. The vice president and two academic affairs of officers of the SGA also participated. The students were open and eloquent in their descriptions of good teaching and as at Baylor several recurring themes emerged.
Here is a synopsis of the conversation:

GOOD TEACHERS:

• are able to connect students through a personable demeanor, sense of humor and extra-curricular conversations;
• present material clearly, thoroughly and concisely and communicate expectations for the class unambiguously;
• profoundly enjoy their field of study and are able to strongly communicate and instill that same passion and enjoyment of the subject to the students;
• serve not only as a teacher but also advisor, mentor, confidante, and friend;
• are able to relate the subject to the real world;
• are adaptable and versatile/able to use the various tools and techniques of pedagogy to fit the needs of the class;
• have a servant heart;
• create an environment where it is easy to speak in class, foster class discussion taking material beyond memorization;
• are able to pray with the class and share their personal faith;
• take learning outside of the classroom and off campus;
• put in as much effort as they expect from the students, get papers and tests back in a timely manner;
• capture your attention and make you think more about others than about yourself;
• are willing to reveal themselves through personal facts and stories;
• are aware of the power of their words spoken to students because those words can be inspiring or deflating;
• have respect for students and for their time and investment;
• find something that each student is good at and uses that uniqueness to advantage;
• never speak in a monotone voice; and
• provide good feedback that can be used for learning and improvement.
One student stated that he puts teachers into 2 categories, the best and the worst. He went on to say the thread that connects the two is high standards. Some of the worst teachers have high standards and all of the best teachers have high standards. The difference is that the best teachers always give you the tools and techniques to reach those high standards, the worst teachers never do.
Baylor University Seaver College
A A
Accessible Accessible
Available Available
Approachable. Approachable
Adaptable
E E
Enthusiastic Enthusiastic
Energetic Energetic
Excited Excited
Engaged
It was a great discussion. Many thanks to all of the students who participated and to the faculty who invited them.

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Tip # 92

When representatives from the Student Government Association met with Dean David Baird earlier this semester, they asked that faculty be encouraged to do mid-semester evaluations. So as we approach the mid-semester point, you are being encouraged to do just that. Many Seaver faculty members have found it very helpful to have students in their classes do a mid-course evaluation.
These evaluations take many forms depending on what would be most helpful for you, as the teacher, to know. What works well in one class may not work in the next. Unlike the mandatory end-of-semester evaluations, these allow you to make mid-course adjustments and provide feedback on how the course is going from the students' perspective. An important step in this type of formative evaluation is to review the feedback with the class, indicating which suggestions you intend to implement and discussing differences of opinions among students. It is also important to discuss why you are not adopting some suggestions and give the reasons why you believe that what you have done, and will do, is important for their learning.
Don't feel that you have to use the standard form. If you want ratings, choose items that will be helpful to you. Open- ended questions, such as those shown below, can be equally or more useful.
• "What have you liked about the course so far?"
• "What aspects of the course have been valuable for your learning so far?"
• "What suggestions do you have for improvement?"
• "What have you done that has helped you learn effectively in this course?"
• "What do you need to do to improve your learning in this course?"
• "What have you done to help other students in the course to learn?"
• "What has the teacher done to help you learn?"
• "What would you like the teacher to do that would facilitate your learning?"
Perhaps the benefit of a midcourse evaluation is best summed up by an email message I received last year from Regan Schaffer, Assistant Professor of Management and Howard A. White Award Winner:
The real value in this exercise has been the debrief I have with the students the following session. I can't say enough about this – it's an excellent opportunity for dialogue and I find I get to explain myself. I often receive criticism about being too demanding in my grading and work load. However, I have found that once I explain my philosophy (in particular about this being a capstone course) that I not only receive fewer complaints but that the students actually work harder to meet my expectations. My hope is that I help them capture my vision for what can be gained through the course if they'll put forth the effort and that I'm here to support them along the way.

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Tip #93

"Our attitude is our most important teaching strategy." I found this Random Thought written by Louis Schmier, Professor of History at Valdosta State University, to be worth reading at this stressful time of the term for both our students and for us.
……..a bunch of college professors………..have been responding over the past few weeks to my last few Random Thoughts on happiness as if I had shaken academia to the core with a 9.7 earthquake that threatened to bring down the halls. One hit home. "I basically care about students," one professor proclaimed, summing up most of the e-mails, "but not all the time. We can only go so far. You're being totally unreasonably demanding! Some students just aren't worthy of being cared about, and that's the unhappy truth!"
"Basically care." That phrase stuck with me because it was used over and over and over again by these professors. I replied to each of them, "I don't doubt for a minute you care. Tell me, though, which students, as you say, 'aren't worthy of being cared about?'"
In came the second verbal tsunami of descriptions: "The ones that are such a bother..." "So many aren't appreciative of my efforts, I see no need to care in return;" "the ones who don't care. If they don't, why should I?" "Do you know how many whiners and wimps I come into contact with who complain of the 'hard work?'" "I don't care for those who are disruptive in my classes." "It's the ones who don't do their work.
"They're the students, the bumps on the log, who are never prepared for my discussions and bother to say anything." "You know, there are some students who are just too much." "The ones who never show up to class or always come in late and disturb the class;....the ones who are irresponsible; the disruptive ones, the lazy ones; the ones who are not dedicated to learning; the ones who think sports and fraternities and sororities are more important than the classroom; the ones who are more concerned with partying than studying; the ones with all the lame excuses; the ones who can't write a paper; the ones who don't know how to critically think; I don't like the ones who try my patience; the ones who just want a grade without making any effort; the ones not worth my efforts; the ones who lie and cheat; the ones who take up too much of my valuable time; the ones who just aren't motivated and bore me."
Gosh, that was a lot of 'the ones,' isn't it? Who's left? Aren't the students they list the ones whom we should care about the most? Aren't they who might need our help the most? Aren't they are the ones who might require more of our time and attention.
Isn't a large part of our mission to help them motivate themselves? Do we just give up, abandon them, throw them to the wolves, hand them a broom or dishtowel and say "be gone?"
Don't ever forget, each of these students is a noble, sacred, valuable human being. Each is someone's son or daughter. Each is a vital thread with which the future will be woven.
So it's not easy, simple, convenient, and comfortable to teach them or to help them help themselves. So what! I don't remember Mother Teresa helping only the rich and famous, and walking only the plush streets of the good neighborhoods. I think it was one of the Greek philosophers who said something to the effect that skillful ship captains gain their reputation from braving the stormy and tempestuous seas, not from plying the calm and smooth ones. It just seems to me, then, that it really counts when we give whatever it takes to make it count for and to count those whom we are inclined to discount. We should be measured by the extent to which we assist those who we deem are the least among those in the classroom. We should see such challenging students as opportunities, not as barriers.
……..I've learned over the years ………that our joys and sorrows, our frustrations and fulfillments, our meaninglessness and meaningfulness, usually arise from exactly the same situations. The difference is in our attitudes. Our attitude is our most important "teaching strategy." Our attitudes control our lives. Every thought we think is what we have chosen to think. Our thoughts are a secret power working 24 hours a day for good or bad. They can be toxic and wounding and pathological or an antitoxin, healing and therapeutic. They can be debilitating or energizing. They can be nightmarish or dreamy.
They have more impact than any method, any technique, any resume, and any amount of knowledge. I've said this many times and will continue to say this: we teach who we are.
The attitudes we have and the words as well as the body language we use to express our thoughts, then, to paraphrase the Bard, doth make the person. That's why in this context
I just don't like the word, "basically." As this professor and others have used it, it
just is not a word for a place in my Dictionary of Good Teaching. It's not used as a self-motivating word. It's not a word of patience or understanding. It's at best an "often" or "usually" or "generally" but never an "always" word. It's an excluding word.
It's an empty "in principle" word of diplomatese. It's both a fencing-in and fencing-out word. It's a word haunted by so many self-centered, self-serving, and limiting conditions. It's an expediency word. It's a word that reeks with comfort and convenience. It's a culling out word. It's a weeding out word. It's a leaving a bunch of students behind word. It's a lock out word. It strips some students of their unique, but as yet unseen potential. It's a slothy word. It's a hesitating word that doesn't allow you to just jump in. It's a blinding and deafening and binding word that prevents you from seeing and listening to--and seizing--those little opportunities that can make great differences. It's a disguised complaining word. It's a word of "victimitis" that breeds anger, frustration, resignation, unfulfillment, helplessness, meaninglessness.
"Basically care, but...." is just not good enough. There are no "buts."
Students don't have to earn our care. To say "I basically care, but" is like saying "I really want to care, but not unconditionally, not if it costs too much, not if it takes too much time, not if it's too inconvenient, not if it's too challenging, not if it's too uncomfortable, not if it's not appreciated, not if it prevents me from doing what I really want to do, and not if it stops me from doing what I really need to do."
The point is: we have to be careful to do more than "basically care." It's easy to stretch our list into a longer string of empty 'I basically care' whenever it's convenient to cover our inconvenience, whenever our set conditions aren't met, whenever we stop treating the student as an individual and throw her or him into an impersonal pool.
Be careful, every "I basically care" has to be justified by a balancing moral principle, not simply ease and self-interest. The questions you really have to ask yourself are "How many times do I get to act uncaringly before I don't give a darn?" "How many times do I get before my words 'I care' ring empty?" "How many times do I get before the students don't believe a word I say?"
Caring, only when it suits us, only when it's easy and comfortable and convenient, isn't caring at all. And, unless we truly care for the person of each and every student, unless to stop fussing over who students should be, we'll not make the all out effort to help each and every one of them help her/himself become the person she or he is capable of becoming. And then, we'll not uncover the extraordinary in the supposed ordinary.

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Tip #94

Last week's teaching tip on the importance of having a caring attitude for all students resulted in a flood of replies. Below is a sampling of what four of our colleagues had to say about this:
"I'm trying to picture a good therapist or M.D. or person of the cloth who doesn't care all the time.
Why is it OK for teachers not to care when they feel like it?"
"A simple thank you for these emails…. I look forward to them, read them and then try to apply their message into my teaching. I care. And I continue to do so even when I am tired from my other full time job and my 1 year old has woken in the middle of the night because I know that there are many more mothers and fathers that share the same sentiment as one did with me over parents day weekend:
She simply said: Thank you. My daughter talks about you and all that you have done for her. Thank you for being there in body to support her when I was unable to."
When I was in graduate school at Pepperdine, it was the faculty that made the most difference. I worked full time, had a baby and graduated on time. It was not by my own strength that I did this work but rather it was because my professors cared enough to see me through my task. They carried me when I didn't have the strength to stand and helped me to focus when I was lost in new motherhood, returning to work and finishing my thesis. They cared.
I hope that now that I am in a similar position with my students, that I may make an impact. Why do I care? Why do I bother? …because it is my pleasure to do so."
Marci Rae Blue, Adjunct Professor of Speech
"Okay! This note has pushed some buttons and I am going to spout; then, probably regret it. So here goes:

In general, college professors are the most spoiled and the most self-centered people in academia. And since college professors make up most of the whole, this to me is a problem. We have been molded, through perhaps the process of formal education and scholarly achievement; that "care" has become a "what can you do for me" attitude. "Students who stroke my ego get a semblance of care in return." Students, who don't think my way, aren't as focused, aren't as apt to jump at my beckoning call, are not worthy to sit at my feet. After all, we are micro gods, mortal-divinity (pardon the oxymoron). The sheep shall receive my blessings the goats have no place in my kingdom. Then, we wonder why the product we send out into the world after they graduate, are just like us. Amazing! "
"(A caring) attitude is the truly Christian one. Jesus always reached out to the "losers" of society. Aren't we bound, as Christians, to reach out even more to our "loser" students than to our "winners?" As you say, it sure isn't easy, but we have to keep trying!
Thanks for your uplifting (messages). It helps to inspire me in those moments when I am just annoyed with them all."

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Tip #95
Shaking Things Up
By: James M. Lang

It's late October, memories of summer are receding, and you are now in your eighth or ninth week of teaching. You are on the downhill slope of the semester, which is the good news.
The bad news about this point in the semester comes when you walk into class one morning and realize that the tracks you laid down to guide you through the course have become deep ruts, and you don't have the time or energy to steer out of those grooves and lead the class somewhere new. You probably have shown all the pedagogical cards you have to the students by now, and they know all too well what to expect from a lecture or a discussion or a problem-solving session with you.
In fact, around this point in the semester, I always get the feeling, when I walk in and announce the plan for that days' session, that he students are raising an eyebrow at me, shifting in their chairs, and saying: "Is that all you got?"
Typically, what they have seen by that point is indeed all I've got. I know that most of us are swamped right now, grading papers and exams, advising students for the next semester, and getting papers ready for conference over the winter break. Who has time - in the crush of midsemester deadlines and obligations - to reinvent yourself as a teacher, and wow the students with some dazzling bit of pedagogy?
If you take a few minutes, though, to find out what's happening in the classrooms of your colleagues, either those on your own campus or around the country, you might discover some easy opportunities to break out of the midsemester doldrums.
The simplest approach is to buttonhole your colleagues in the hallway every now and then. Ask them what they did in the classroom that week or the best thing they have done all semester - questions that enable people to engage in that favorite of activities: talking about ourselves and our good ideas.
I found another way to gather some good ideas - this column. They first few installments have generated a tremendous number of e-mail messages from readers who are excited to share their good ideas with the world, and so I will offer a couple of their suggestions here.
Daniel J. Cleary is an instructor of English at Lorain County Community College, just outside of Cleveland. He wrote to tell me about a process called "inkshedding," an excellent means of generating thinking and discussion in small-sized classes.
Inkshedding was first developed by writing teachers Russ Hunt and Jim Reither in the 1980s. You can find all kinds of information about it online. Of course, as with any popular teaching technique, many different practices now fall under the name of inkshedding, as instructors have personalized it and made it their own.
Dan's version of the technique begins by asking students to spend five minutes writing down their thoughts on the main discussion question for the day. That writing should be what composition teachers call "freewriting" - i.e. the student writes whatever comes to mind, without anyone making judgments about it or corrections to it. Freewriting's function is to help generate thoughts and ideas, so it's an excellent starting place for discussions of any kind.
In Dan's session, the students finish their five minutes of freewriting and then pass their notebooks to another student. Everyone reads the notebook in front of them and then spends five minutes freewriting in response to the first student's thoughts. that process continues through several iterations, until - after 20 or 25 minutes - the students have engaged in an extended dialogue with each other, all on paper, and are ready to start talking about their ideas out loud.
As Dan points out, that technique "encourages everyone, even the shy students, to participate in the class 'discussion.'" Moreover, the written process helps to spark the verbal discussion: "I've never had a dead-end discussion after an exercise like this," Dan says. "In fact, students often laugh or jeer or cringe or applaud while reading and listening to the text produced from inkshedding. that'll keep them interested and engaged!"
Inkshedding seems to me an ideal experiment for those of you who may be mired in small-sized classes where the discussion is lagging by the point in the semester, or in the classroom in which a few students have been dominating the conversation. The technique will ensure that everyone takes part, even if they do so only on paper, and you can assure everyone's participation in the oral conversation, simply by asking the shyer students to read aloud one of the statements in their notebook.
I think inkshedding would work in large classes as well, but I also heard from another faculty member this month with a different idea for mixing things up in a large traditional lecture course.
Ron Yaros, who teaches in the department of communication at the University of Utah, wrote to me about this strategy for delivering lectures when he has large amounts of content to convey. Ron developed the strategy as as result of his conviction that deep learning is hard to come by when students sit through a lecture presentation - electronic or otherwise - in which they are given an outline of the topics, and asked to fill in the blanks with the details of the lecture.
rather than organize his PowerPoint presentation around the outline topics, Ron organizes his lecture around five or six questions - big, conceptual questions that the separate parts of the lecture answer with the content he wants students to learn.
That structure, Ron believes, "does a better job retaining students' attention and encourages them to formulate (and write down) answer to my outline questions using their own words," rather than copying down topic phrases from the PowerPoint and filling in the blank spaces with notes.
Ron builds upon those questions in two other ways, though, that seem to me to really push the strategy into a more interactive kind of learning. First, he pauses once or twice a class, after he has posed a question, to let the students discuss what they think the answer might be. Then he provides his answer.
Second, at the end of each lecture, he gives students a quiz that asks them to respond in writing to one of the questions from the outline. the quiz, Ron explains, "offers another in-class opportunity for students to review and to clarity one of the main topics from my lecture, instead of just stuffing their notes away until the next major test."
His approach accomplishes many different pedagogical objectives, including some very practical ones that Ron ticked off for me: Because the students never know which question will appear on the quiz at the end of the hour, they take notes well enough to answer all of them; the quizzes improve the lecture attendance; and their placement at the end of the class helps eliminate the backpack commotion that usually begins when students sense the end of the lecture.
First and foremost, though, his lecture strategy seems designed with student learning in mind. I marries the best practices of lecturing and more interactive forms of teaching in those classes in which you need to convey a lot of information or ideas.
Somewhere on your campus, someone is doing something just as innovative and interesting as the strategies that Ron and Dan wrote to me about. Finding that person could be a simple matter of visiting your campus teaching and learning center, or attending lecture o discussion sponsored by your institution on pedagogical issues, or starting conversations with your colleagues about teaching.
But if you're in the habit of smelling up the hallway by microwaving leftover fish sandwiches in the departmental office, and hence you're not a speaking terms with any of your colleagues, don't despair. There's hope for you, too, if you know the right places to look online and in your library.
I've been trying each month in the space to recommend at least one article, book, or Web site on teaching in higher education that I think is worth a look. This month I would recommend you find a copy of Barbara Gross Davis's Tools for Teaching, a comprehensive overview of just about everything you could or should do in the classroom.
You will find plenty of practical advice in the book, from tips on lecturing or promoting discussion in the classroom to advice on holding office hours and writing letter of recommendation, all grounded in a solid foundation or research on teaching and learning.
It's a bit of a doorstop, but you don't need to read it from cover to cover. You can navigate it like a Web site, using the detailed table of contents to get to whatever topic you need help with. The advice comes in small bits that are easy to digest and ready to use in and out of the classroom.
Carry it with you to the department office, and read a page or two every day as your're waiting next to the microwave - a year's worth of fish sandwiches later, you'll still be unpopular, but you will be a much better teacher.
James M. Lang is an associate professor of English at Assumption College and author of Life and the Tenure Track: Lessons From the First Year (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). He writes about teaching in higher education and welcomes reader mail directed to his attention at careers@chronicle.com
Thanks to Sonia Sorrell, Associate Professor of Art History, for sharing this timely article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis is available from the Center for Teaching Excellence library located behind the reserve desk at Payson Library or from June Palacio.

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Tip #96
Howard A. White Teaching Award Winners Talk About Teaching:

Last week at the Mentor/New Faculty Breakfast Meeting, seven of the Seaver College Howard A. White Teaching Award winners shared with the group their thoughts on teaching. Even though I am not able to reconstruct the exact words, I want o share with you some of the "pearls of wisdom" or "golden nuggets" that were imbedded in the rich discussion.
• show your enthusiasm for your subject and for teaching
• caring for students is essential for good teaching
• set and maintain high standards
• be yourself, be genuine, don't be afraid to show your weaknesses
• be transparent
• get students to examine how they will interact with others
• learn to be okay with the unknown
• develop good pedagogy, work on your teaching consistently, have a taeching plan just as you have a research plan
• read a research article on teaching in your field at least twice a year
• accept the fact that you are not going to be good every day
• pick new pedagogies and try them out at least three times
• find the bliss/joy in the classroom
• approach every new semester as if it were for the first time
• consistently assess your teaching
• be flexible, don't get locked in, change horses and directions if necessary
• there is no one best way to teach, find the best for you and for your students
• don't be afraid to share your life with your students
• critique yourself daily listen to students, some offer help that will help you
• listen to students, some offer help that will help you
• be fair, equitable, and rigorous
• find a way to connect with each student
• begin each semester by getting to know the students and their names
• use grading as developmental feedback - be highly critical, talk through papers with students asking them fundamental questions, the process is critically important
Thanks to Jay Brewster, Kendra Killpatrick, Marilyn Misch, Milt Pullen, Susan Salas, Regan Schaffer and Chris Soper for sharing with us.

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Tip #97
"Give Thanks"

In this week before Thanks-Giving. I "Give Thanks" to Katy Svennungsen, CTE Administrative Assistant, for her work in updating the Center for Teaching Excellence website. Accessed from the Seaver College faculty/staff page, the CTE site now lists 96 teaching tips, upcoming teaching conferences for you to consider attending (with CTE financial support), the links to websites of other teaching centers, syllabus guidelines, a list of the resources in the CTE library, and links to many other teaching resources. Take a look:
http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/cte/
I "Give Thanks" to Provost Darryl Tippens and Assistant Provost Steve Hewgley for sending along a follow-up to last week's tip from the Howard A. White Teaching Award winners. They remind us that the teaching philosophy statements of all of the winners may be found at http://www.pepperdine.edu/provost/awards/recipients.htm .
These statements are inspirational and remind us all to be thankful for our wonderful teaching colleagues at Seaver College.
Happy Thanks - Giving

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Tip #98
Ending the Semester:

How do you end your courses? With a review of the key concepts covered through the semester; discussing the course objectives as outlined on the syllabus; asking students to reflect on what they have learned in the course; giving the obligatory course evaluation and reviewing for the final exam; or quickly "fitting in" the remaining content?
The book, Teaching within the Rhythms of the Semester, suggests ending a course with the same high energy with which we start it. The final weeks of the course are a time to achieve closure that underscores the information and skills absorbed and opens doors to future connections. A final review of the course syllabus is a good place to start.
The course outline on the syllabus provides an excellent tool for review; the explanation of policies, a succinct reminder of expectations; the description of teaching procedures and educational philosophy, a catalyst for a final discussion; and the listing of the educational goals and objectives, a framework for the course.
When first writing the course goals it is a valuable exercise to ask yourself what you want your students to remember from the course in five years time. Now it is time to turn that question around and place the course in the students' ongoing process of learning and point the way to future connections. Ask the students to ponder the question of how they think the course will serve them in their future careers.
This can be an exciting, sad, and stressful time for students and faculty members. This is a period of last chance: when perfectionists must let go; procrastinators much buckle down; professors, behind in their courses, must wrap it all up; and when everyone must meet final deadlines. Fatigue becomes a way of life and bodily reserves are stretched by skipped meals and lack of exercise. Everyone talks about "getting through". The learning community of the class is coming to an end, a lot of work remains, and the final exams loom large.
How do you bring closure in your courses? Share your ideas. We will continue the discussion of ending the semester next week.

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Tip #99
Ending the Semester:

A few more ideas for ending the semester with the same energy and enthusiasm with which we began. The first ins from Cecile Santos, Adjunct Lecturer in Chemistry. Thanks Cecile for sharing this great way to engage students in the course content from Day 1 to the very end.
I teach the Elementary Organic Chemistry class, and since these students will most likely only study organic chemistry this one semester, I have tried to emphasize how even a minimal knowledge of organic chemistry will help them better understand the everyday world around them. Then my new class walks into the first lecture of the semester, they find a variety of recognizable items: a bag of WOW chips, post-it pads, a bar of soap, dissolvable sutures, glow sticks, etc. We spend that first lecture posing questions that they think they might be able to answer about each of these items AFTER they have learned some organic chemistry -- for example, why would the special fat in the WOW chips allow the snack to taste as good as regular chips but without absorbing the fat? Or, what are the chemicals in the glow stick, and how can those chemicals create light?
Then after 14 weeks of the semester, each student casually researches a topic of interest that they can now explain due to their new understanding of organic chemistry. Some students look up one of the prompts from the beginning of the semester and actually answer the question we posed. Others have explained some of the pollutants that they've always heard about but didn't know what it really was until studying organic chemistry, and others have presented a medication that they or a loved one have been taking. It has been an empowering experience to have theme point out to each other their newfound grasp of our physical world, and it actually serves as a review of the concepts as they explain their topic to the class, and hear everyone else's explanations!
It really is cool to literally end up right back where we started, but this time with ANSWERS, not just questions, even if it is at an elementary level.
And, from an anonymous contributor, a tasty way to end the course:
I am thinking that on the last day of class that I will bring to my class of 13 students a baker's dozen of doughnuts. I remember how awful finals were when I was an undergrad, and food is always comforting!
On way to achieve closure offered by Louis Schmier is to give students a departing testament. Below is a slightly edited version of one of his testaments.
May you always believe in yourself.
May you always have confidence in yourself.
May you always love yourself.
May you always have faith in yourself.
May you be smart and strong enough to find a way around every obstacle.
May you always convert an obstacle into an opportunity.
May you always be willing to take risks and do something new.
May you always be adventurous.
May you never place limits on yourself.
May you always be resilient.
May you never be without hope.
May you always give to everything, everything you've got.
May you always smile.
May you always hear the birds singing.
May you always smell the flowers.
May you always swoon at nature's scenery.
May you always see the sun even when it's raining.
May you live each day to the fullest.
May you always laugh.
May you never doubt your are lovable.
May you feel and express gratitude.
May you appreciate the people and the things you have in your life.
May you cherish every moment.
May you always learn and grow.
May you never let unkind or ungrateful people ruin you day.
May you never surrender your integrity when the going gets tough.
May you always be kind to others.
May you always love, yourself and others.
May you always be caring.
May you always be compassionate and generous.
May you always forgive others--for your sake.
May you always be happy.
May you always find meaning and purpose in everything you think, feel, and do.
May you always be physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually fit.
And, may you do all this when it counts, which is everyday.

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Tip #100
Online Rating Student Response Rates
POD Conference 2006, Portland, Oregon
Trav Johnson, Brigham Young University

When institutions consider the shift from paper online student rating systems, a possible drop in student rating response rates is often a concern. Should this be a concern? What are the implications of lower response rates? How can response rates be increased?
Response Rates and Non-response Bias
Non-response bias is when respondents provide different responses than would have been provided by those who did not respond. In theory, the larger percentage of non-respondents, the more likely non-response bias will occur. The typical concern voiced by faculty members is that if response rates are low, the responding group of students is more likely than non-respondents to rate the the course negatively (i.e., non-response bias).
Some research on response rates and overall online rating results
Study 1: Paper and Online Ratings Administered in 74 Course Sections
- The online results were on average 0.1 point higher than the paper ratings, even though the online response rates were typically lower.
- For paper ratings, the correlation between response rates and overall ratings were .41 for the overall course rating and for the overall instructor rating.
- For online ratings, the correlations between response rates and overall ratings were .09 for the overall course rating and .10 for the overall instructor rating.
Study 2 Paper and Online Ratings Administered in 91 Course Sections
- High correlation between paper and online results (0.87, 0.89), even though the same students didn't always complete both types of rating forms.
- For online rating, point estimates suggest that it would take a reduction in the response rate of about 40 percentage points to lower the overall course or instructor rating by 0.1
Conclusions:
- This research suggests that online student ratings are less susceptible to non-response bias than paper student ratings.
- In general, response rates appear to have little effect on overall student ratings (i.e., overall ratings for large groups of courses combined).
- This research does not address the variability of the correlations across courses (i.e., non-response bias could be a serious problem in an individual course).
Strategies to increase response rates
Some strategies for increasing online rating response rates:
- Instructors encourage students to complete the ratings and let students know that they are interested in and use rating results.
- Students who complete ratings are entered into a prize drawing (e.g., iPods, laptops, bookstore certificates).
- Campus-wide advertising/publicity campaigns
Some of the most effective strategies for increasing online rating response rates:
- Those students who complete their ratings can view their grades early online.
Examples from various institutions
Brigham Young University
- Campus-wide advertising/publicity campaign utilizing posters, newspaper ads, flyers, and multiple contacts through email to on-respondents
-Typical response rates: 60-62%
Northwestern University
- Students you complete their ratings can view rating results for all courses. Rating results from 5 core items are available to student pus results from 1 of the 5 student-comment items, if the instructor gives consent. Most instructors give consent.
- Typical response rates: 73-75%
University of Utah
- Students who complete their ratings can view their grades early online. Grades are available to responding students as soon as instructors post them. Students who do not complete rating must wait until grades are made available to all students (about one week later).
- Typical response rate: over 70%
Note: Yale University uses an approach similar to the University of Utah, resulting in response rates over 80%.

Trav D. Johnson, PhD
Faculty Center, 4450 WSC
Brigham Young University
trav_johnson@byu.edu
(801) 422-5845

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Tip #101

The following teaching tip is shared with us by Maire Mullins, Chair/Associate Professor of English, Humanities/Teacher Education Division. Even though Seaver College has a formal mentor program with a designated mentor for each new tenure-track faculty member, each of us "old timers" can and should serve as informal mentors to our new colleagues. Some of the ideas presented in Maire's short paper may be reminders of ways in which we can be helpful. How about making February "Take a New Faculty Member to Lunch" month?

Mentoring New Faculty

Faculty members need mentoring at all stages of their career, not just at the beginning. New faculty, however, are in need of mentoring so that they can acculturate to their new position, their colleagues, their department, and their institution.
The following tips are meant to begin a conversation about each of these areas for the new faculty member.

1. THE NEW POSITION: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
The first year of a full-time tenure track appointment can be difficult and disorienting as the new hire makes the adjustment to a new university, different expectations, a new environment, and a new city or town. If the faculty member has family, the move to a new location can be emotionally draining, absorbing, and time-consuming. In most cases new faculty members will need to take on more of a teaching load than they had previously experienced; they may need to develop new courses, or they may have more than one teaching preparation. Added to this are the challenges, perhaps, of trying to find suitable and affordable housing, a job for their spouse, and quality day care for young children or schooling for older children. The university community should reach out as much as possible to newly appointed faculty to ensure a smooth transition and to welcome the faculty member to the university. New faculty should be advised about housing, schools, day care, and the impact that a commute might have on their work and on their ability to be an active member of the university community. Before a mentor is assigned to the new faculty member, the Chair of the Department or program should take on this role and assist the new faculty member.
Sometimes junior faculty members have had no training in pedagogy. Many have never taught a class and have no idea how to organize a syllabus, assess student sills and performance, or deliver an effective and engaging lecture. Graduate school do not prepare their candidates to teach effectively at the university level. Pedagogy is an acquired art, one that is tangential to the primary aim of the graduate curriculum, which is to create scholars, not teachers. Thus, many graduate students struggle when they make the transition to assistant professor. The document "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" developed in the mid-1980s may be a good place to start a discussion about the components of good teaching. Good teaching encourages student-faculty contact, cooperation among students, and active learning; gives prompt feedback; emphasizes time on task; communicates high expectations; and respects diverse talents and ways of learning. The mentor may wish to address any or all of these principles with her colleague, and to explore the ways in which they can be put into practice effectively. For example, if the new faculty member does not have much experience in leading class discussion, a conversation about different pedagogical prompts to get discussion started and then to guide the discussion might be helpful.

2. COLLEAGUES AND COLLEGIALITY
One of the most challenging areas that a mentor must address with her new colleague is the concept of collegiality. This concept will not , most likely, be addressed or defined in the faculty handbook, but collegiality is absolutely essential to the long term success and retention of the new faculty member. The abilities necessary to get into graduate school, to excel in the graduate program, to receive job interview, and to obtain a tenure track position do not necessarily translate into the skills necessary for collegiality. Many newly hired faculty are not aware of the histories that surround the department into which they have been hired. Because they are joining a community that may have been forming for decades, new faculty need to take careful note of decorum and protocol; this is why attending department meetings is so important. At these meetings, new faculty members can observe the ways in which faculty interact with each other. Who sits next to each other? Who talks to each other? Who makes points during the meeting? Who is mostly silent? Sometimes departments have established a combative atmosphere as a way of conducting business; how should the new faculty member respond to this? Departments can also break in factions, in which a group of faculty tries to advance its agenda. If this is the case, the new hire can be caught in the middle as factions try to recruit her to their side, since the creation of a majority can hinge on one vote. A good mentor will help steer the new faculty member through these situations, offering advice and insight.
Establishing good collegial relations with her colleagues may take some time. Social gatherings, either on campus of off campus, will help the new faculty member to establish collegial relationships. If at all possible, new faculty members should make every effort to accept invitations to these gatherings. If the social gathering includes invitations for spouses and partners, they should be included as well. Sharing a meal at the home of a colleague can contribute to the creation of positive collegial feelings toward the new hire. Universities and colleges make a considerable investment in faculty members. This investment does not just involve salaries and benefits; it represents a commitment to what the candidate has to offer to the institution. A good mentor can help the new faculty member to understand the importance of collegiality.

3. DEPARTMENT ISSUES
Insights about the culture of the department will be helpful to the new faculty member, because she is joining a community that is already well-established and that in some cases has been in place for decades. Are faculty member expected to be in their offices every day, with their doors open? Do faculty members drop in on each other for small talk? Would it create misperceptions in new faculty members did not make an effort to become part of the group that gathers each day in the coffee room? What kinds of demands can the new faculty member make on the department's administrative assistant? How important is it to make your own copies? Some departments do not expect their faculty to be on campus every day; others do. The new faculty member may need some advice on how to navigate these expectations and still get her work done.
Mentors should also explain the importance of attending faculty meetings and department meetings to their new colleague. Being present at department meetings demonstrates a commitment to community and to the mission of the department. If the new faculty member is not present at meetings, this sends a signal to her colleagues. The new faculty member may also need some advice on what occurs during department meetings. Because the new faculty member may also need some advice on what graduate school, being in a room filled with professors may be a bit daunting. Mentors can help the new faculty member know what to expect. Again, first impressions are very important. The department faculty will usually be curious about the new hire, and want to welcome her, especially if the search for her position has been arduous. A new faculty member represents the future of the department.

4. INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE
One of the primary tasks of the faculty mentor is to introduce her colleague to the culture of the institution. This requires a fair-minded, balanced approach on the part of the mentor. The mentor should emphasize and build upon positive experience, and help her junior faculty mentee to understand the dynamics of the institution. This means sharing knowledge about the university that the junior faculty member will not be able to glean from the faculty handbook. How do the various committees on campus function? Which committees should the junior faculty member think about serving on? When should the junior faculty member volunteer for committee assignments and when should she step back? How should the new faculty member best begin to cultivate a positive relationship with her Chair, with the Dean, with the Provost, and with the President? Each institution has ins own unique culture, a culture that has been shaped by the university's mission, by its faculty, and by its administration. What might be most effective at one institution might not be effective at all at another. Ways of accomplishing tasks differ between departments and even between committees. The mentor can provide the new faculty member with background and insight about the culture of her university and its various constituencies.

NOTES:
Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," AAHE Bulletin 39:7 (1987):3-7. Reprinted in Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson, eds., Applying the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991) 63-69.

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Tip #102
A U.S. Professor of the Year and Nobel Prize Winner Speaks About Teaching:

If you Google the name Carl E. Wieman, you will find the autobiography of the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in Physics and the 2004 U.S. Professor of the Year. Here are some interesting excerpts from that autobiography:
"During high school I was a good student, but never quite at the top of the class. I mastered the material, but was usually a little too independent to do precisely what the teaching wanted, and so was never considered among the very best students...From 7th through 10th grade I was a passionate chess player, spending hours a day on it...I was highly ranked in the northwest US among my age group, but at the ripe old age of 16 decided to "retire" to spend my time in more productive activities...studying and playing tennis. My high school grades, although not outstanding, were good enough to get me accepted into MIT."
"My tendency to intensely pursue a particular activity to the exclusion of everything else was and is one of my most notable strengths and weaknesses. After "retiring" from chess, my focus turned to tennis. That continued after I went to MIT and I played intercollegiate my freshman year. I also learned to play squash and took to it so naturally that I was quickly at the top of the freshman intercollegiate squash team...Unfortunately my rather fierce competitive drive exceeded my limited physical capacities, and after surviving several minor injuries caused by throwing myself into walls and such, by the end of my freshman year I had seriously damaged my right elbow from excessive practice at squash and tennis. After several unsuccessful treatments, I then switched to playing left handed, and by early in my second year of college was starting to again be competitive in both sports at the intercollegiate level. At that point I developed serious elbow problems in my left arm, and reluctantly came to the conclusion that at age 19, it was time for my second "retirement". It was only then I turned my full attention to physics."
Now his attention has once again shifted form physics research to undergraduate teaching. At a recent talk in L.A., Dr. Wieman talked about his experience teaching large lecture classes to non-science majors. His first observation was that students, who were very successful in the lecture portion of the class, were clueless in the lab. The focus of his first pedagogical research study was how much information do student's retain from a lecture. Students were interviewed as they came out of a lecture. When asked, "what was the lecture about" the students could answer only with the vaguest generalities. Other researchers (Robello and Zollman) asked six questions after a 14-minute professional lecture. Only one student was able to correctly answer the questions. And Wieman and Perkins gave students a test 15 minutes after a lecture and only 10% were able to pass the test. Wieman found that cognitive load is a maximum of 7 items in short term memory and the processing of a maximum of 4 ideas at once.
He then looked at conceptual understanding and classified it into two categories: novice-like thinking and expert thinking. Novice-like thinking is characterized by: content (isolated pieces of information to be memorized), handed down by an authority, and problem solving accomplished by using a pattern matched to memorized recipes. Expert competence is characterized by content that is coherent, describes nature and is established by experiment, and problem solving that is systematic, concept-based, strategies that are widely applicable. Expert competence is made up of factual knowledge, an organizational structure allowing the effective retrieval and use of facts, and the ability to monitor one's own thinking (do I understand this? And how can I check my understanding?) He found that students were learning novice-like beliefs and were passing classes by learning memorized facts and problem solving recipes. A new way of thinking requires extended, focused mental effort to construct and build on prior thinking and allow long term memory development.
The Principle that people learn by creating their own understanding leads to the idea that effective teaching is the facilitation of that creation. And, by getting students engaged in the subject and then monitoring and guiding thinking is exactly what is happening continually in the research lab.
Dr. Wieman's suggestions for improving teaching:
• reduce cognitive load to improve learning....slow down, reduce jargon, and improve organization
• begin with "Why is it worth learning? How do3es it connect to the real world? Why does it make sense? And how does it connect to what you already know?"
• actively engage students and guide their thinking - know where students are starting from, require extended effortful study (homework) that focuses on developing expert thinking and skills and develops long term memory
• use technology wisely - such as student personal response systems aka "clickers"-- "clickers" have been found to dramatically improve student engagement...They also provide accountability, peer anonymity, and fast feedback for the class. They are most useful when combined with peer instruction.
After implementing these ideas in his large lecture classes, Dr. Wieman found that retention of information from the lecture was 90% after 2 days and concept understanding was 50-70%. Small improvements were made in problem solving ability and belief about the subject.
The teaching awards he has received (The National Teacher of the Year Award in 2004 among all doctoral and research universities and the Physics Teacher of the Year Award this year) recognize his unwavering dedication to undergraduate teaching. The CU President said "Carl Wieman's mantra has always been 'students come first', and his winning this prestigious award leaves no doubt that he holds true to that ideal. His ability to create synergy among his research, his passion for excellence and his vision of education make him one of the university's greatest assets..."
Dr. Wieman is leaving the University of Colorado, Boulder to head a $12 million initiative at the University of British Columbia to improve science education. Even though the focus will be on science education, the principles he touts have application across the curriculum. I invite you to give them some thought.

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Tip #103
"What are the most effective practices to improve teaching?"

At a teaching conference last fall, Pete Seldin of Pace University asked the participants to rank the following activities in terms of their estimated effectiveness in improving teaching. What do you think? Place the number 1 next to your prediction of the most effective practice, the number 2 next to the second most effective and so on through number 10, the least effective practice.
Some Practices Designed to Improve Teaching Rank
1. Systematic ratings by students. _____
2. Classroom visitation by an instructional improvement specialist. _____
3. "Master Teachers" or senior faculty work closely with new instructors. _____
4. Informal, unstructured, assessment by colleagues for teaching/course
improvement. _____
5. Analysis of in-class videotapes to improve instruction. _____
6. Use of grants by faculty members for developing new or different courses or
teaching methods. _____
7. Workshops that explore various methods of instruction
(i.e. the case method). _____
8. Workshops or programs that explore general trends in higher education. _____
9. Programs to help faculty improve their research and scholarship skills. _____
10. System for faculty to assess their own strengths and areas needing
improvement. _____

Eighty Centers for Teaching Excellence participated in this research study. the results were as follows:

1. System for faculty to assess their own strengths and areas needing improvement.
2. "Master Teachers" or senior faculty work closely with new instructors.
3. Classroom visitation by an instructional improvement specialist.
4. Analysis of in-class videotapes to improve instruction
5. Use of grants by faculty members for developing new or different courses or teaching methods.
6. Informal, unstructured, assessment by colleagues for teaching/course improvement.
7. Systematic ratings by students.
8. Workshops that explore various methods of instruction (i.e. the case method).
9. Workshops or programs that explore general trends in higher education.
10. Programs to help faculty improve their research and scholarship skills.

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Tip #104
Revisiting the Course Objectives

With just a few weeks left in the semester, this is a good time to review the course objectives on your syllabus. Have you taught what you said you were going to teach and have your students achieved the objectives listed? If the answer to both questions is "Yes," then the final exam should be constructed to measure the attainment of these objectives. If the answer to either or both is "No," then what could be done differently the next time you teach the course? Do the objectives need to be written in more measurable and attainable terms? Did you "run out of time" and not get to some material? Would a different pedagogy be more conductive to learning the material? Were the students better or more poorly prepared than you expected?
This is also a good time in the semester to go over the course objectives with the students. It can be a good way to review for the final exam and a good way to bring closure to the course, coming full circle from the first day you reviewed the syllabus.

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Tip #105
Changing Student's Educational Metaphors

As we grade the final projects and total each student's points for the semester, it is a good time to reflect on the process we tend to perpetrate in higher education. The article from the Chronicle of Higher Education was forwarded to me by Professor Sonia Sorrell and so aptly describes the dichotomy between the students approach and our approach to the learning process.

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Just Scoring Points
By WALTER R. TSCHINKEL
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i32/32b01301.htm
From the issue dated April 13, 2007

More than 30 years of teaching biology at a large state university has led me to an unsettling conclusion: Professors and students are laboring under very different metaphors for education, and neither group is particularly conscious of that fact.
Let me illustrate my point with a story. I often try to make my students aware that metaphors, though commonly used to help us understand the unfamiliar, can also limit or distort that understanding. Last semester I was discussing metaphors for education, and I asked the students in my course on insect biology whether they thought various ones were apt.
Almost unanimously, the students rejected my comparison of education to the teacher's pouring knowledge into empty vessels. I then proposed a different metaphor: constructing a building — adding facts and concepts like one brick after another, to create an edifice of understanding in which each element is connected to others.
"Is that a good metaphor for education?" I asked. The students generally felt that it was.
"Those of you who believe that you labor under this metaphor," I said, "please raise your hand." All the students raised their hands.
"Now, this is very interesting," I said, smiling. "You do understand that to build an edifice, every brick you add must remain in place? That is, in your education, you have to remember what you learned before, so that you can build on it in the next phase of education. But we have repeatedly experienced here that you remember little from your previous courses — or, for that matter, from the previous test, or even from last week. Your behavior violates the basic requirement of this metaphor."
Some students nodded their understanding; others looked poleaxed.
"My observations suggest that there is another metaphor that describes your mode of operation more closely," I said, "and that is sports. When you play a sport, your preparation reaches a crescendo just before a match (exam). If you win the match (exam), you get points (grades) in proportion to your placement. You keep track of those points, strategizing about how to get more next time. The match leaves no residue other than the points. At the end of college, you enter the working world with your overall standing (grade-point average) and little more. Your approach is certainly effective in getting the points that get you through college, but it is poor when it comes to getting an actual education."
None of the students argued with my interpretation.
Admittedly, the sports metaphor is not perfect, but it does explain why students transfer so little knowledge from one course to the next. The vast majority of students who have learned about levers in basic science courses in middle school, high school, and college cannot recall how a lever works when they study insect biology with me. The same goes for energy metabolism, or why the earth experiences seasons, or what a protein or carbohydrate is.
And even though most students remember individual factoids, they can hardly ever give a coherent account of anything broader. The identity of and relationship among component pieces elude them.
We faculty members love to bemoan students' lack of understanding, and it is tempting to place all the blame on them. Yet in light of how we teach and test them, the sports approach may actually be an intelligent and effective strategy for them to use.
Each professor focuses on a limited subject and assumes that previous courses have placed the foundations securely in students' minds. We rarely demand or even encourage long-term memory or cross-disciplinary thinking. We focus on the latest, red-hot discovery because that is what interests us, and we are blind to the fact that most students don't have a firm foundation to their edifice of knowledge — at best, they possess a jumbled pile of bricks.
Just as in sports, students game the system. That is why they hound professors with the question, "Is this going to be on the test?" In other words, will it possibly add any points to my tally? When they discuss their exams with us, they almost always focus on grades. Increased knowledge is not their goal.
That fact became clear to me when I saw that most of my students did not know, and did not really want to learn, the meaning of important concepts like homology — the idea, basic to biology, that corresponding structures of related creatures can evolve to be quite different, like the bat's wing and the human's hand. I conducted an experiment on students' learning, twice in introductory biology courses with 250 students each, and twice in smaller courses on insect biology, with 20 students each. First I defined and explained homology. In the next lecture, I gave an unannounced quiz that asked them to define it and give examples. Only about 25 percent of the students in the introductory course answered correctly.
I gave the answers again, emphasizing their importance. In the next class meeting, I gave students the identical quiz again; about 35 percent could define homology and give examples. When I gave the same quiz a third time, a week later, about 60 percent of the students managed to answer more or less correctly. Finally, I put the question on the final exam, and still only about 60 percent got it right. In my more-advanced course on insect biology, everybody finally learned the material at the fourth iteration of the quiz.
That lack of effort to learn a concept in a timely fashion is surely more compatible with the sports metaphor, which would focus on the low number of points students could get on the quiz, than with the edifice metaphor.
Every once in a while, I meet a student who does treat education like building, who remembers and can apply material learned in previous courses. It is a stunning difference from the behavior of most students. The vast majority of Americans (including most government officials) probably believe that students with higher grades take more knowledge away from a course. Yet because most students operate under the sports metaphor, that belief is only an illusion — except possibly for the periods immediately before and after exams.
Why do students behave the way they do? Perhaps because our educational system unrelentingly rewards them for their performances on tests. Perhaps because they generally are not interested in the world around them, but feel they need college degrees to get decent jobs. Perhaps because the sports metaphor dominates so much of American life.
It really doesn't matter much. What is important is the behavior's consequence: From an educational standpoint, rather than an economic one, college is a waste of time for most students, and teaching is a waste of effort for most professors. It is a waste of national resources on a colossal and increasing scale.
The students flooding into most state universities are increasingly being subsidized by tax revenues. In my state of Florida, the great majority of students get a free ride through the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. They have to pay for room and board, but they would have to do that whether or not they were in college. All they have to do to keep the free ride going is to win enough matches (pass enough exams) to place (receive a sufficient grade) at the end of the season (semester).
What is to be done? To begin with, don't expect me, a hard-working professor in the trenches, to be able to work miracles. I insist on more long-term learning and more integration across subjects than my students face in most of their other courses. But I am only one person fighting a social phenomenon that is national in scope and many years in the making.
However, there are steps that universities could take to begin changing students' learning metaphors. One is to recognize that the lecture format evolved to serve students who are highly motivated to learn; it is excellent for them, but the average student gets little out of lectures. What could economically replace them in the auditoriums at large state universities is not clear. But whatever it is, it needs to engage students as active participants, or they will not learn.
A second step is to replace multiple-choice exams, now used by almost every professor, with essays. Sure, it takes much more work to grade essays, let alone to give constructive feedback on them, but that is one of the few ways to find out what students really know. It is also an important way to improve their writing, which often is truly pitiful.
A third is to increase the integration of the curriculum. Each course should reinforce, at a higher level, the foundation that students ought to have acquired earlier and should demonstrate how the material from previous courses is relevant in the new context. The Romans had a saying that rings true: Repetition is the mother of learning.
I now see seniors majoring in biology who do not know how natural selection works or what issues are involved in global climate change. And few students can explain such subjects clearly. Only when students become truly competent at explaining their chosen specialties in speech and in writing can we consider that we have succeeded in educating them.
My recent attempts to change my students' educational metaphors have given me hope that it can be done, but it is not easy. I now give a short quiz at the beginning of every class. I also call on every student more than once in each lecture and ask him or her to explain some point to the class, using complete sentences. If the student doesn't know the material, I explain it and how it fits into the current lecture.
The atmosphere is friendly, and the students like talking to their peers; absences have been close to zero. But, of course, I cover less material than I would in a traditional lecture. It is really more like teaching high school than like teaching college, but that is what is needed at large state universities today.
I recently gave my students an unannounced repeated test, and I was gratified that all but one student improved, and a few improved greatly. They are beginning to see that the sports metaphor may get them a degree, but it won't get them an education. And they now know that there is another way, and they can choose to take it.
Truly educating our students would require serious reforms and a great deal of coherent effort by a lot of people. But in the interests of duty and self-respect, we had better get to work.
Walter R. Tschinkel is a professor of biological science at Florida State University and author of The Fire Ants (Harvard University Press, 2006).
http://chronicle.com
Section: The Chronicle Review
Volume 53, Issue 32, Page B13

Copyright © 2007 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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"After the meeting today, several people asked me for copies of my syllabus statement, writing summary example, and the "proper documentation statements" that I have students write and sign.  Anyone is free to use of modify the materials as they choose." - Marilyn Misch

Academic Honesty:
Academic honesty is expected of all students.  Students in possession of any unauthorized materials during a quiz or an examination (including, but not limited to, calculators with stored-text capabilities), students who give or receive unauthorized aid on a quiz or an examination,  students who fail to include appropriate citations in written assignments, and/or students who fail to include quotation marks when necessary in written assignments will receive zeros for that portion of their grade, and will be reported to the Academic Integrity Committee for further action.

Writing Summary Example

BA 447:  International Finance

Referencing Examples using MLA format                                 

1. Original Text as formatted in the Bream and Johnston article on page 18 of the August 25, 2005 Financial Times:

"Chip Goodyear, chief executive officer of BHP Billiton, said yesterday that he would use the group's heavy cashflow primarily to fund expansion opportunities, including acquisitions and organic growth projects. 

Investors expecting a special dividend or a new round of share buy-backs were disappointed and, in spite of BHP's unveiling of record full-year profits, the stock dropped 3.5 per cent to 805p." 

Works Cited:

Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18.

1. Appropriate format for quoting the entire text above in a paper:

BHP Billiton's stock declined significantly, yesterday.  Bream and Johnston note that:

Chip Goodyear, chief executive officer of BHP Billiton, said yesterday that he would use the group's heavy cashflow primarily to fund expansion opportunities, including acquisitions and organic growth projects.  Investors expecting a special dividend or a new round of share buy-backs were disappointed and, in spite of BHP's unveiling of record full-year profits, the stock dropped 3.5 per cent to 805p (18).

Works Cited:

Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18.

1. Appropriate format for quoting less than four typewritten lines in a paper:

BHP's stock performed poorly on Wednesday after the company's CEO announced "that he would use the group's heavy cashflow primarily to fund expansion opportunities" (Bream and Johnston 18).

Works Cited:

Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18.

BA 447:  International Finance

Referencing Examples using MLA format

1. Plagiarism by inappropriate paraphrasing and citation:

The chief executive officer of BHP Billiton said Wednesday that he would use the company's heavy cashflow mostly to fund expansion activities.  Investors were expecting a dividend or a round of share buy-backs and were disappointed.  As a result, despite BHP's record annual profits, the stock price dropped 3.5% to 8.05 pounds.  The stock price also fell in New York. (Bream and Johnston 18)

Works Cited 

Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18.

(Note:   This example has two problems.  1)  Changing a few words in the first three sentences does not constitute "paraphrasing."  2) The only reference is at the end, so it is unclear that the first three sentences are from the same source, but that the fourth sentence is not from that source.)
 

1. Appropriate documentation for quotations with alterations:

BHP's CEO said Wednesday "that he would use [BHP's] heavy cash outflow primarily to fund expansion opportunities" (Bream and Johnston 18). As a result, "investors [who were] expecting a special dividend or a new round of share buy-backs were disappointed" and despite "record full-year profits, the stock dropped 3.5 per cent to 805p" (Bream and Johnston 18).

 Works Cited:

 Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18.

 (Note:  This example has appropriate references and citations, but an entire paper consisting primarily of strings of quotations would receive a failing grade due to a lack of original content.)

1. Paraphrasing with appropriate citation:

On Wednesday, BHP's share price fell 3.5% despite a record earnings announcement, apparently because the company stated that excess cash would be used for expansion, rather than given to stockholders (Bream and Johnston 18).

Works Cited:

Bream, Rebecca, and Tim Johnston.  "BHP to Use its Cash to Expand Further."  Financial Times 25 August 2005: 18

 

Proper Documentation Statements

1. I understand that every time I take a fact or idea from another source, I must include a citation.

1. I understand that every time I use a quotation, even if I am quoting less than a complete sentence,  I must include quotation marks.

1. I understand that adding or changing one word or a few words in a quotation does not eliminate the need for quotation marks, but requires delineating the added or changed words with square brackets [ ].

1. I understand that deleting one word or a few words in a quotation does not eliminate the need for quotation marks, but requires inserting an ellipsis (…) in the quotation at the point of the omitted material.

1. I understand that failing to include citations and/or quotation marks when required constitutes plagiarism, and will result in my receiving a zero on the assignment and being reported to the Academic Integrity Committee for disciplinary action.

(Signature)

Special thanks to Marilyn Misch for the above resources.

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Pepperdine University
Information Technology

Turnitin at Pepperdine University

Turnitin is an online plagiarism detection service.  The service provides a detailed assessment of originality of any submitted work by performing a search for textual similarities to other works in academic journals, on the Internet, and within its own database of submitted work.  Pepperdine University has licensed the Turnitin service for the benefit of its faculty and students in order to educate students about academic integrity, detect instances of academic dishonesty, and deter plagiarism.  This guideline was adopted and approved by the Pepperdine Dean's Council on November 14, 2007.

Turnitin Best Practices:

Faculty members are not required