Let's Change This Thing Called "Teaching"

First a confession.  I’m as guilty as the next professor standing in front of a group of teachers, lecturing them on what they should be doing to become a better teacher.  Decades ago, I delivered these “sermons” from sheets of paper, lecture notes scrawled on 5X8 notecards, on overhead transparencies, or some other comparable format.  Within the last decade, I’ve sometimes used PowerPoint presentations.  (PowerPointless?) Today, when I walk by the open door of one of our School of Education classrooms, I’m more apt to see a PowerPoint presentation on the screen in front of the classroom.  Since reading the biography of Steve Jobs, I’ll never be able to see a PowerPoint presentation without thinking about how he used to go ballistic every time someone tried to use a PowerPoint presentation to convince him of some point.  He used to cry out “Stop this shit” or something equally as offensive.  His point was that presentations should be so polished the presenter shouldn’t have to rely on PowerPoint slides to make his/her point.  (Job’s favorite tool was a white write-on board.)  So, I would like to propose a series of “What if…” scenarios.

What if…you could deliver no more than 25% of your instructional presentations to the use of PowerPoint or some other comparable program (Apple users…that’s Keynote)? 

What if…25% of your candidates’ learning was to take place out of the conventional college classroom?  Students would need to listen to podcasts, iTunes U presentations, YouTube, or some other technology delivered medium.

What if…25% of your class time was spent posing questions to candidates? Candidates would be required to use laptops, iPads, smartphones, etc. to gain information to help them answer the questions you posed?  Teams of students would assemble to discuss what they found for answers.  Then, a whole-group share would occur.  The professor would serve as a moderator and role model for the candidates.

What if…the leadership of the School of Education had a pot of money to support faculty who were interested in building such a learning community?

What if…every faculty member had to redo his/her course outlines every two years?  I’m not talking about simply changing the meeting dates and/or times but substantially redoing the content of the course, attempting to integrate some of the ideas presented earlier in this piece.

What if…there was a group of faculty members who were off-loaded to help faculty members designed courses based on the above principles?

What if…there was a School of Education retreat every year where selected faculty members could share what they’ve done to integrate new learning strategies in their courses?

What if…the union supported this effort instead of kowtowing to some disgruntled faculty member(s) who felt they were being unfairly treated or persecuted?

What if...this effort was linked in some way, some fashion, to the Teach for America or State Department of Education initiatives?

What if…?

Unions

This post is probably going to raise more controversy than I anticipated but I’m putting it out there and you can decide for yourself where you stand on unions.  Let me say that I firmly believe that unions have served a valuable function in America’s past.  This is especially true in blue-collar jobs where company managers and executives sometimes have a tendency to overrun their employees with roughshod labor practices.  But, we’re not talking blue-collar jobs, today.  We’re talking about higher education specifically and education in general. 

Once per year, around tax time, the reoccurring question that comes to my mind is “What union benefits have I derived from my union membership?”  Or more specifically, over the course of my higher education career, what has almost $20,000 in union dues achieved?”  ($500.00 per year X 39 years.)

This same feeling creeps into my soul during the December holiday season.  That’s when our union holds it’s annual holiday party to which all union members are invited.  For some reason, I’ve always felt that the party is the union’s way of justifying it’s biweekly deduction from my paycheck.  Maybe that’s my own issue but I have a high degree of confidence in my gut level feeling and my intuition and that’s how I feel.  Frankly, I would feel much better if the party expenses were donated to some worthwhile charity…say for the homeless or some soup kitchen.  At least I would know that my money’s doing some good instead of expanding the waistlines of my coworkers.

My wife is a public school teacher, just as I was at one point in my career.  She, too, pays a chunk of her salary to support her union.  And while her union is instrumental in negotiating district contracts, they are more active in protecting underperforming teachers who give a bad name to the teaching profession. 

But back to higher education.  There have been two points in my professional career where unions could have supported me.  In each case, they failed miserably.  The first case was when I was chair of our department and I had a faculty member threaten to file a frivolous lawsuit against me because of a scheduling disagreement.  While I’m not permitted to discuss the details of this case because I signed a non-disclosure agreement to settle it, let me simply say that had this faculty member been employed in any other type of business, he/she would have been fired on the spot.  The union failed to support my position.  Indeed, it was the college administration that soothed the roiled waters and not the union!

The second case occurred much later.  I had returned to the faculty and had a student who had lost her job as a public school teacher.  Because she hadn’t completed her college coursework, she received a grade of “incomplete.”  She lost her certification and claimed I (the college) was the cause.  Again, the union never came to my aid.  Instead, it was the college lawyer who was there to support me. 

I know of other cases that haven’t directly involved me, where faculty members were so incompetent that attempts have been made to relieve them of their teaching assignments.  Parents, students, and lawyers have all pressed their cases against these faculty members.  In each instance, the union has chosen what I perceive as the wrong side.  How can I be expected to support such an organization that acts in direct opposition to everything that I hold sacred?

I don’t consider these instances to be issues of labor vs. management or faculty vs. administration.  Instead, I think it’s right vs. wrong.  Most of us know, intuitively, when something is morally wrong.  How then, can we be expected to support such an organization?

I’m waiting for the day when our union officials step forward and publish a yearly summary of how it has improved the education of our students.  After all, that’s why we are in this business.  I think smaller class size is one proactive thing the union has done for us.  There must be others.  Let’s hear a discourse on this topic.  And keep the propaganda mumbo-jumbo out of it.  After all, you’re dealing with an intellectual elite constituency.

A Postscript

I just finished reading Walter Isaacson’s book entitled Steve Jobs.  In it, starting on page 544, Isaacson describes Job’s 2010 private meeting with President Obama.  Job’s went on to describe to the President how teacher’s are crippled by union work rules.  Until unions are broken, he said, there “was almost no hope for education reform.”  Teachers should be treated as professionals and principals should be able to hire and fire teachers depending upon how good they are.  He then went on to tell about how absurd it was that American classrooms were still based on the model of the instructor lecturing to a class and using a single textbook.  (Take note college professors!) Isaacson also described Job’s disappoint with Obama’s leadership style. 

My reason for even mentioning all of this is that I don’t believe business executives know much about education, just as education professors don’t know much about business.  We should stay out of each other’s way.  I do find it compelling, however, that more and more individuals are questioning unions’ effectiveness.  And, it befuddles me why unions aren’t more concerned about the quality of instruction instead of supporting faculty members who have no business being college professors.  

Take a Risk

I’ve pretty much gotten to the point in my life that I consider life itself a crapshoot.  I was once t-boned on Interstate 95 heading for Boston.  The driver behind me went down into the median and came flying back up to broadside me on the driver’s side while I was traveling 65 mph.  I survived. 

I was once flying my own plane in Wisconsin when the engine lost power on climb out.  I kept my wits about me and rectified the situation.  I survived. 

I was on a commercial night flight when the plane I was riding in lost power.  Again, I survived.  I call these “one-second life-changing experiences.”  Our lives are filled with them.  Living life is risky.

In our day-to-day living, however, there are things we can do to mitigate the risks of living.  Wear your seatbelt.  Turn on your headlights during the day.  Eat healthy foods.  Don’t smoke.  Don’t carry too much weight.  Don’t drink to excess.  Don’t attempt double-black diamond ski trails when you are clearly an intermediate skier.  Of course, there are no guarantees that doing these things will see you into your ninth decade, but you’re simply playing the odds and stacking the deck in your favor.

But there are times in your professional life, when you need to take risks.  Without risks in one’s life, there cannot be growth.  I’m not talking about foolish risks that put you way over your head, but small incremental risks that allow you explore new professional avenues.  Here are a few examples.

The easiest and most risk free way of teaching, in my mind, is to do your homework and put all of your lectures and presentations on PowerPoint.  You can stand in front of your classes and blather on nonstop until you run out of slides or time.  While PowerPoint is a cool presentation tool, most faculties simply put up slide after slide, ad naseum.  Or worse yet, every slide uses a different transition mode so your viewers never know what’s going to hit them.  One time it’s a fade.  The next time it’s a flip.  On to the dissolve for the third slide.  On and on it goes.  When coupled with a plethora of print information, you’re sure to numb your audience.  But, no one can fault you for not being prepared.  Instead of doing the PowerPoint lecture lobotomy, though, use your slides to pose some provocative questions.  Instead of lecturing, you’ve turned your class into an inquiry-based hour of probing and questioning, something that’s bound to create much more engagement on the part of your students.  What’s the worst that can happen when you take this kind of risk?  The hour could turn out to be a “plop.”  Not a failure, just a “plop.”  We all have an occasional “plop.”  While things maybe didn’t go exactly as you planned, at least you took a risk…and it wasn’t life threatening.  Moreover, the upside for growth is great. 

Here’s another risk scenario.  You’ve been asked to serve on some local or State professional committee.  It means giving of your already valuable time.  Perhaps time away from your kids and family.  The easy alternative is to say “no” to this invitation.  The upside, however, is that by taking this risk, you may meet some interesting people, gain some additional knowledge that you’ll be able to weave into your courses, or make some connections that have nothing to do with the intention of the committee.  You took a risk.  There was an unexpected reward.  Nothing ventured; nothing gained.

Here’s a final risk scenario.  Your local textbook representative has been encouraging you to try your hand at writing a textbook.  You’ve declined because you know nothing about the publishing business.  You wouldn’t know a textbook prospectus if it fell from the sky and hit you on the head.  Here’s an opportunity to broaden your publishing career.  The time invested in creating a prospectus, examining the competition, and working with an editor may lead to a contract.  If it does, be prepared to commit the next two to three years of your life to nourishing this creation.  Just like conceiving children, there are risks, but there area also rewards.  Again, these aren’t life-threatening risks. 

I hope I’ve convinced you to take some risks in your professional life.  The payoff is certainly worth it.  And, while you’re at it, take some additional risks in your personal life.  Start to eat better.  Go to the gym a couple of times per week.  Learn to play the piano.  You’ll be happy you took a risk.  You’ll be a more interesting person because of it.

Some Cardinal Rules of Teaching

1.     Be Organized.

If you want to impress your class, show up the first day of class with an outline that is comprehensive but not overwhelming.  I’ve seen faculty members show up on Day 1 with twenty-page outlines.  In my mind, this is overkill.  You’re not going to impress them.  If you need twenty pages to keep on track, fine.  But, don’t put his burden on your students.  On the other hand, I’ve also witnessed two-page course outlines that are so generalized; they are seldom worth the paper they’re printed on.  Somewhere between these two extremes, there’s a happy medium.  Think of your syllabus as a road map to get your students where they need to go. Maps usually provide multiple ways to get to your destination.  Just like your automobile GPS, you sometimes need to make adjustments in your journey.  So, too, is it with course outlines.

2.     Undergraduates Are Not Ph.D. Candidates. 

Being a freshly minted Ph.D. usually means you’ve come out of two or more years of intensive academic work.  You’re like a well-conditioned athlete…mentally ready to take on almost any academic challenge.  For most undergrads, their biggest mental challenge of the day is to wake up, get to the snack bar and find a hot cup of coffee.  In my mind, most of them are intellectually flabby.  You need to get them warmed up before you can start your conditioning program! Move slowly but firmly ahead.  A boot camp approach won’t impress them; only alienate them.

3.     Graduate Students. 

I remember my first graduate Reading Research class.  Fresh from my Ph.D. program, I was required to have a comprehensive knowledge of the past ten years of Reading research.  At the time, the Reading Research Quarterly published a yearly edition that summarized the major research investigations of the year.  I could cite study details that would bore individuals to death.  This knowledge was the expectation of my professors who composed my preliminary exams.  When I arrived on campus for my first teaching job, I thought it would be a good idea if my students also possessed the same knowledge.  While I wouldn’t call my class’s reaction a mutiny, I would say they were shocked and overwhelmed.  I had failed to realize that these people were full-time teachers coming back to take one course per semester.  They didn’t have the luxury of being full-time students.  I rapidly needed to adjust my student expectations.

4.     Be Willing to Negotiate With Your Students. 

I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve had to negotiate with my classes.  Even the most well laid plans can become unglued due to circumstances beyond one’s control.  Last year, for example, we had numerous campus closures due to freak snowstorms.  I had to readjust my student expectations.  At times like that, I like to involve my students in the decision-making.  They are more willing to work toward common goals when they have some buy in.  Besides, it’s fun to see how their minds work when faced with tough decision-making choices.

5.     Cover Your A__.

After almost 40 years of teaching, I’m happy to report I’ve met some of the most interesting and exciting people I’ve ever met while I’ve been standing in front of my classroom.  I still get cards and letters from individuals who’ve told me I’ve changed their lives.  The kudos are a real ego trip.  In that same time period, though, I’ve had two students who have made life miserable for me.  In both cases, I’m glad that I’ve kept all paperwork involved in disputes.  In one case, a student came back several years after I had her as a student.  When she was in my class, I bent over backwards helping her deal with some personal issues.  (Now that I think about it, the same was true for the second student.)  Imagine my surprise when I saw a sheriff at my office door issuing me a summons to appear in court.  It seems that the student had lost her teaching job and was now attempting to make me the scapegoat.  Thank goodness for a good college lawyer and my thorough job of record keeping and documenting everything.  Never in a million years did I think that something like this could happen to me.  When you consider the fact that some mental health experts contend that roughly 20% of the adult population suffers from some type of mental imbalance, I shouldn’t have been surprised.  The lessons:  a) Always CYA, b) let no good deed go unpunished.  I suppose two out of almost 10,000 students isn’t a bad batting average, though. 

6.     It’s Not Just Knowledge…It’s Attitude, Too.

One of my old colleagues and I used to spend many late afternoons in each other’s office discussing the ultimate goals of teaching and learning.  They were heady conversations where we picked and probed each other’s thinking.  In the end, we concluded that it wasn’t just about the content we intended to impart.  As important, if not more so, was the attitudes we wanted our students to develop.  He was a Math professor; I was a Reading prof.  In both cases, though, we wanted our students to feel good about what they had learned and we hoped that after taking our courses, they would continue to embark on the journey of learning our respective disciplines.  In the end, it’s all about the journey and not about the destination.

Do-Nothing Professors

If you think I’m frustrated, you’re right.  Year after year, I’ve witnessed a plethora of strategies that I’ve found professors employ to keep the status quo.  But, it’s not just professors who use these strategies.  Classroom teachers use the same techniques.  And, while I’ve not had an opportunity to work extensively in the business sector, I’m sure these same foot-dragger, do-nothing types exist in that environment, too.  So, we in higher education don’t have a corner on the market.  Let’s make this into a game.  The next time you’re in a committee meeting, see how many of the following types pop up.  Then, send me a comment on this blog.  Maybe you can provide all of us with some new insights on how to spot these individuals. 

The Passive Aggressive Type

Also know as “The Get Even” professor.  They sit passively during department or committee meetings but are silently brooding and seething.  They seemingly go along with the majority but then attempt to undermine agreed upon protocols by not adopting majority positions, purposely failing to become part of the team effort, or breed hostility through conversations with other faculty members.

The Silent Type

This is the professorial version of the students who adopt the “do not make eye contact with the professor” type.  They sit silently in meetings, offering neither positive nor negative comments on the points being discussed.  Their primary goal is to add another item to their vita.  When it’s time for promotion, they are able to submit a long list of committee assignments.  They take the position that it’s quantity of work, not quality.  Sometimes they can be spotted sitting in meetings nodding approvingly at the most inappropriate times. 

The My Feelings are Hurt Type

When backed into a corner, you can expect this individual to use the compassion ploy.  Woe is me.  Look at me.  I give my all and I still can’t please anyone.  Now I’m taking this attack personally and my feelings are hurt.  How could you personally attack what I stand for?  The truth be told, this individual stands for no one except his or her self.  When they are finally exposed, they play the sympathy card.    

The Huffer and Puffer Type

Easy to spot.  When threatened, they sit up straight in their chair and reach down for their loudest voice.  Like a steam pot, once the steam starts to percolate out, it can’t be shut down.  The longer they percolate, the less rational they become.  It’s not unusual for their thinking to swing 180 degrees in the course of their diatribes.  They sometimes become so enamored with their own pontifications that they frequently miss many good opportunities to sit down and be quiet.  And, once unleashed, they are almost impossible to settle down.

The I’m Dr. Kindhearted Type

Easy to spot.  Whenever there is a trajedy, illness, or some other type of misfortune, this person jumps to the forefront waving a flag as the angelic martyr who will comfort the afflicted.  “Bless his soul,”  “my heart goes out to her family,” or “let our prayers be with him” are the clichéd phrases they repeat or post in e-mails.  By putting on a compassionate air, they redeem their daily bad behavior of working against group goals.  Or, they absolve themselves of badly treating their students or doing other unethical or underhanded behavior.

The This Too Will Pass Type

Easy to spot characters who have attained senior status and are at the end of their careers.  They sit passively on the sidelines with a smirk on their face as if they are above the fray.  They adopt the attitude of “if only all of you were as brilliant as I, you wouldn’t feel so passionate about this issue.”  Aloof, they can usually be found occupying the back rows of discussion groups. 

The I’m So Overworked Type

Frequently seen running down the halls with papers dropping at random from the piles they have clasped under their arms.  Another dead giveaway is that this type sits in meetings with their calendars open before them, scribbling notes in boxes representing days of the month.  The modern day counterpart is the professor who sits with their smart phones punching in appointments and other data like “Stop for groceries” or “Yoga on Thursday.” 

If you’re as frustrated as I am by these types of individuals, my suggestion is to go for a long walk, go to the gym, or write about them.  I know I’m feeling better now that I’ve got these creeps out of my system.