PROFESSOR ISSUES:First AACSB Seminar

A.G. (Tassos) Malliaris

July 21, 2006

• Managing Your Personality Style• Managing Your Relationship with

Students• Managing the Problem Student• Class Culture and Atmosphere

8 Topics Organized in 4 Areas

• “Teaching is the only major occupation for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the “naturals,” the ones who somehow know how to teach.” ~ Peter Drucker

• AACSB’s Seminar

• “Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.” ~ Haim G. Ginott

The Teacher’s Personality and Style

These factors account for about 1/3 of TOTAL TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

What is your personality type?

Teaching Challenges

• Understanding ourselves

• Understanding our students

• Understanding our subjects

Further Challenges for Professors

• Passion for Teaching• Reduce Anxiety• Increase Joy

A Definition of Passion

• Passion is the pursuit of wholeness; the desire to be complete; the commitment to reach integrity; to achieve oneness

• I recommend the book by Parker Palmer: THE COURAGE TO TEACH

The Passion of a Professor

Increasing Joy

• Learning as play : Archimedes• Learning as joy: Einstein• Learning for social benefit: Business

Leader• Learning for personal benefit:

Meaningful Career

• “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” ~ Albert Einstein

Reducing Anxiety

• Homework versus Exams• Team Grading versus Individual Grading• Competency Exams versus Thought

Provoking Exams• Term Papers or Projects versus In-Class

Exams• Frequent Evaluations

Overview

• TEACHING REQUIRES COURAGE

• GREAT TEACHERS INSPIRE STUDENTS TO BE COURAGEOUS

• “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is the necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” ~ Carl Jung

Teaching Requires Honesty

• Teachers should acknowledge the effort it took to learn the material

• Teachers should often confess they do not have all the answers

• Teachers should be honest about the challenges of teaching

Learning as a Dynamic Process

• Review Key Ideas• Ask Questions• Encourage Students to Ask Questions• Encourage students to DO.

Ask for Feedback

• How Often?• Story From Wharton• My Own Story• Optimum: Twice Per Semester ?

Enhancing Teaching By:

• Accessibility• Approachability• Openness

• “Who the teacher is, is more important than what he/she teaches.” ~ Karl Menninger

Class Discussion

• Who was your Best Teacher? Write down 3 adjectives describing him/her

• Who was your Worst Teacher? Write down 3 adjectives describing him/her

Managing Relationships with Students

• Need For Information• Who Am I As A Teacher?• Who Are My Students?

Who Am I as a Teacher?

• How much do I know?• How well do I transmit my knowledge?• Do I enjoy my teaching?• Do I like my students?• What impresses me the most about my

students?• Do my students see me as a mentor?

• “Don’t try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers too have failed.” ~ Marva Collins

• How do we feel when we fail a student?

• “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher draws the student into the process of creation.” ~ William Arthur Ward

• A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplicity.” ~ Louis A. Berman

Who Are My Students?

• Are they my customers?• Are they my future colleagues?• How motivated are they?• How smart are they?• The Story of Robert Parkinson, CEO of

Baxter International

• “A supervisor tells you what he/she expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.” ~ Patricia Neal

Recall

• Socrates• Plato• Aristotle

Building a Positive Relationship Between Teacher & Student

• KEY IDEA:–LEARNING AS A POSITIVE

SUM GAME

Engaging Students in the Learning Process

• Begin with a Question• Encourage Guessing an Answer• Evaluate the Answers

Feedback

• During Discussions• Homework• Exams• Papers• Presentations

Student Cooperation

• Grading on the curve• Value group projects• Encourage group presentations• Praise the idea of TEAMS

Self-Motivation

• Identifying the special factors motivating students

• “The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his/her listeners with the wish to teach themselves.” ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Class Discussion

• Describe your best and worst student using 3 adjectives for each.

Problem Students

• Recognize that most problems have causes only tangentially related to the course

• I.e. Problems are over-determined

The Marginal Performer

• A story from this Autumn

• “Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like cultivating a garden, and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.” ~ Author Unknown

Class Culture

• Teacher and Students have common goals• Teacher and students support each other• Teacher and students celebrate common

achievements

Bonding

• Fun• Humor• Meeting after class• Field Trips• The story of Steven Levitt

Foreign Students

• What are the similarities?

• What are the differences?

• Conclusion: more similarities than differences

Class Discussion

• Use 3 adjectives to describe the best and the worst class you have ever taught