In a few weeks I will wrap up my third semester teaching classes at a university. When I started last year, I worried a lot about whether or not the students would like the class. Would it even be useful? Would they laugh at my so-called “dry humor?”
I soon realized you don’t have to put that much into it to be a decent college teacher. Students generally appreciate anything you do to engage them or to make the course meaningful.
While I am NOT that skilled at lecturing, for example, my students (for the most part) really enjoy my classes. Not to boast (well, maybe to boast a little), but my class is often among their favorites (on my evaluations for the first semester, I ranked in the 81st percentile in comparison to other classes university-wide).
I try to make sure that the lectures are brief and engaging, that group work involves individual accountability and meaningful tasks (and NO group papers!), and use relevant video clips to discuss course topics. I try to be a real and accessible person. I assign and expect hard work when the work is relevant. If half the class is distracted or asleep, I take it as my fault. I also don’t read to the class from impossibly endless PowerPoint slides.
I have had a handful of really great professors. Many others have been good enough. Some professors, however, either don’t know what they’re doing or don’t care. Some classes are meaningless, useless, and dull. Some teachers are great people and just need some help to improve. Some topics are just difficult to teach.
- What do you think makes the difference? Why are some professors so woefully inadequate and others so engaging and effective?
- What are some of the BEST things about your college courses? What are some of the worst activities?
- What are/were some of the WORST things about your classes, or about college courses in general? What kinds of activities do good teachers use?
- What is the difference between an “okay” class and a great one?
Wheat & Tares 
-What do you think makes the difference?
Your passion and commitment to be an exceptional teacher.
-Why are some professors so woefully inadequate and others so engaging and effective?
Some care, others don’t. Either way, it shows.
-What [were] some of the BEST things about your college courses?
Being exposed to new ways of thinking and being forced to argue positions that were not my own positions — the interactive give and take of inter-class presentations
-What [were] some of the worst activities?
Anything involving rote memorization
-What kinds of activities do good teachers use?
Out of the ordinary make-you-stop-and-think / why-the-hell-is-he-having-us-do-this? / ah-ha-now-I-get-it activities
-What is the difference between an “okay” class and a great one?
You’re just checking to see if we were paying attention, right? Clearly it is Adam F. 81st percentile baby!
Passion and commitment. If you don’t have it, your students can spot it a mile away.
This semester has been a rough one for me, and I can’t really blame the teachers.
I absolutely despise one of my classes…but it’s not the teacher’s fault at all. Rather, I have this sense that the class itself is a class from hell. It involves a major group project (e.g., with five other students, in a group to which you are assigned, pick an outside agency and work on a volunteer project for at least 90 hours).
The thing I hate most about this is that it is so insensitive of other classes — considering most of my other classes also have groupwork projects, but most DON’T require engagement with an outside agency or organization. As a result, everything sours.
Sorry I didn’t have a lot of positivity here…maybe I’ll follow up.
“Passion and commitment. If you don’t have it, your students can spot it a mile away.”
absolutely!
I would add: intensional assignments that are well thought out, intensional engagement of students, intensional expressions that you expect the best for your students.
Great topic Adam. I think education in engineering disciplines has serious problems. Generally, there are two methods:
1. power point slides having theorem after proof after theorem after proof.
2. writing out the theorems and proofs by hand on the board.
I think both methods lack what engineers are really good at – intuition. What separates an engineer from a mathematician (in many cases) is intuition for how things work. My experience is that engineers in academia are really specialized mathematicians. Actually building things is less important than the theory. Indeed, many electrical engineering professors couldn’t build a circuit if their life depended on it. But they could certainly analyze it.
As a result of this, engineers tend to get in industry and have little to no idea how to actually do anything interesting. I think education in engineering has to involve props, experiments, etc. similar to physics. I have one professor who brings tinker toys to class and demonstrates aircraft dynamics using the toys. He is a great teacher because he provides the intuition that goes along with the mathematics.
Additionally, I think group projects and actual construction of physical working systems is a necessity in this field.
There is one other thing that I think is a necessity in any field, and in my experience is what separates good teachers from really great teachers. That’s a narrative. As academics we have a tendency to break up fields into sets of rules, principles, topics, etc. This is sort of a necessity since our academic world is divided into classes. The problem is that students leave and that’s what they know – a sampling of a bunch of different topics with no insight as to tie those topics together. Those who succeed in grad school, and in industry are those who had the foresight to piece together their own narrative to tie topics together. I think teachers MUST tell students WHY they are learning a particular subject, how it fits in with the rest of the field, and indeed the world. It’s a rare teacher who gives that sort of insight.
Of course all of this is in addition to the things everyone has mentioned including passion, commitment, etc.
Good post on an important topic. I am adjunct faculty at a community college and teach an introduction to management class there regularly. I’ve taught the class online as well as face to face. This semester, in the face to face class, I decided to help the students learn about management by having them plan, organize, and lead a fundraising event. Some students did the minimum amount of work (if that), but other students truly impressed with what they did. The event was called Little Kids. Big Futures, and it featured a canned food drive for a local food bank as well as raising money for an east coast charity that helps kids with physical disabilities. They enjoyed working on the project with me much more than hearing me lecture, although I did have to do some lecturing to cover course material.
A good teacher retains his or her own intellectual curiosity. Sometimes passion is not enough. A professor who gives the same impassioned insights over and over feels flat and fails to inspire. But one who is still filled with wonder and also learning is like an intellectual playmate.
Just out of curiosity, how many of us here are academics?
I’m not in academics, but certainly spent a lot of time in school.
I think much of it is allowing for different types of learning, when possible. In my freshman year at BYU (I repented after that and transferred to UofU) I took the physics series. I went to class the first day of each semester and that’s it. I read the book, turned in assignments, and took my tests. I got an A. My friend went to class, NEVER touched the book, and also got an A. I learn by reading. He learned by listening. We both got the same information. A teacher that insisted on one style or the other would have lost one of us.
This strategy served me well, in general, except for one quarter when I took an electrical engineering class the same time as an organic chemistry class, figuring I would just skip both at the same time. I forgot that the finals would also end up being at the same time. Luckily, I had an understanding professor who let me work something out.
Worst class? Business calculus. Quizzes were given with 30 minute time limits, even though they consisted of 5 drawn out problems that could not all be completed within 30 minutes. Very, very frustrating.
Materials Science. I think even the teacher was on the verge of dying from boredom.
adam, something tells me you don’t teach math. (i think approval ratings are generally lower.) when students enjoy the subject, they like the teacher better. I was amazed at how I got great approval from good students, but I was uncaring and moved too fast for the bad students-all in the same class.
i have taught at the community college as well. I taught highly motivated pre-nursing students who thought I was the best teacher ever. they enjoyed my stories about working in a hospital. I have taught low motivated students in college algebra (math 1010-1050) and my stories about why parabolas are cool (parabolas are satellite dishes and espn uses parabolic microphones are used to get crowd noise and coaches barking plays) connected with sports fans, but the rest of the class didn’t care. I mean how cool can a teacher make parabolas? so I didn’t get such good marks for that class, despite my equally zealous attempts to make the class interesting. some students are only in the class because of graduation requirements and it is near impossible to get them to like the class, especially if they suck at math anyway.
materials science is no picnic either. I have utmost respect for engineers. they do hard math, dealing with friction and wind resistance. mathematicians deal with frictionless surfaces to make the math much easier.
but suffice it to say, the subject matter being taught, as well as student motivation has a big impact on whether the teacher is interesting too. if a student doesn’t like a psych class, he drops it. but my math 1050 students don’t have that option if they suck at math and this is the last class to graduate.
mh, materials science isn’t what you think it is.
I agree – the subject does matter, including how interested the students are in it. Another big factor (if the teacher does care about the course and the students) is how much flexibility the teacher has. Some courses are just so streamlined and rigid that the prof really can’t do a whole lot to improve it.