Setting Boundaries

Setting boundaries is a way of protecting yourself from the small percentage of students who will suck up your time and emotional energy.

The 90/10 Ratio of Troublesome Students

In most areas of life the 80/20 rule prevails. This rule reminds us that that 80 percent of life's hassles come from 20 percent of our problems.

However, in the classroom, the 80/20 ratio shifts to 90/10. In other words, when we are teaching, 90 percent of our headaches come from 10 percent of our students. Every semester there are a few needy, or defiant, or obnoxious, or pathetic, or complaining students who cause the vast majority of our problems. Prepare yourself in advance for these difficult students by preparing in advance.

1) Know when and how to refer students to other campus resources .

Be aware of all the helpful campus resources available for problem students. Keep cards with the phone numbers and locations of the resources to hand out when needed. Be ready to refer students who ask you to solve problems beyond your area of expertise or responsibility. These resources include: Counseling and Psychological Services; Health Services; Writing Centers; Academic Services; Learning Disabilities Centers; Deans and Department Chairs. Don't become your students' counselor or writing teacher.

2) Establish clear policies about how you handle email .

Have clear policies for yourself about when and how frequently you will respond to your students' email messages. You would not allow your students to call you at home at 11pm, would you? Then why do you open and respond to their emails late in the evening?

You are not required to be available to students 24/7!

I recommend waiting to read and respond to all student email messages until pre-set email "office hours" - and no more than 2 or 3 times per week. If you can refrain from reading their e-queries, great. If this restraint is impossible for you, then at least keep from answering the messages. Don't train your students to expect email replies from you within minutes or hours. Treat email more like your in-person office hours: a teaching responsibility that is scheduled for specific times of the week. Beware of emails that take a long time to reply to: if a student asks you a question that will take more than 3 minutes to write a response, reply by asking the student to come to your office hours. Decide on your policy regarding email in advance and outline it in the course syllabus. Go over your email policy in the first class and as needed over the course of the semester.

3) Set limits on how much of your time to devote to specific students . All of us have had a few students who became regulars at our office hours, showing up each week with one problem or another. Let these students know that it is unfair to their peers to take so much of your time. Suggest that they find a way to deal with their problems more independently by: seeking out other campus resources; working with other students in the class; or withdrawing from the course. Check with other professors in your department to find out whether they have had problems with the same students - often, particular students become notorious because they wreak havoc in all of their classes. Find out how other professors have dealt with the person who is giving you problems, or how they have handled similar issues.

4) Establish clear and consistent policies on late papers and missed exams.

Talk with other professors in your department about how they handle late and missed assignments. Establish clear and specific policies and state it in your syllabus and early class lectures. Try to avoid becoming the judge of your students excuses. For example, you may want to set a policy that requires a note from health services if students miss exams or deadlines because of illness. If students know about this policy in advance, they can get the required doctor's note and you will never be asked to diagnose flu symptoms again. Beware of making your policies too rigid or punitive: each semester there will be excellent and honest students who face true life crises or serious illnesses and your policies need to account for legitimate excuses in a compassionate and reasonable way.

5) Learn respectful, professional ways of managing student incivilities.

Robert Boice, in his book Advice for New Faculty Members does an excellent job of talking about how to prevent and manage "student incivilities" such as late arrivals to class, obnoxious verbal challenges, etc.,. Many books about teaching give tips for keeping discussions for straying on unproductive tangents and for managing students who talk too much. Develop personal strategies for coping with these common difficulties.

No matter how rude a student is to you, always remain calm and respectful. Growing visibly angry in class will undermine your authority. Never be afraid to give yourself time to think about a situation. When a rude student makes a complaint or a demand in class, avoid giving an answer or making a decision in the heat of the moment. Let's say that several students loudly proclaim that your mid-term was unfair and that the class grade average should be raised significantly. Rather than making a hasty response that you may later regret, say that you'd like time to consider their request carefully. Then get back to the planned class content. Learn to gracefully cut off unproductive class discussions. Never put down or disparage your students. Sarcasm in the classroom will always get you in trouble.

6) Don't over-prepare.

Decide on how much time you should devote to class preparation, keeping in mind your other academic responsibilities and priorities. Then schedule specific hours for preparing lectures and try to keep within your budget. If you consistently find yourself "overspending your budget" for class prep time, then carefully assess the problem. Are you being a perfectionist? No class is ever perfect and no class is superb the first semester it is taught. Realize that you will do well to provide an adequate educational experience the first semester you teach a new class. It takes time to develop an optimum curriculum and teaching methods. Don't expect to be wonderful at first. Allow yourself to teach a "good enough" class.

7) Avoid trying to cover too much.

Most new teachers try to cover about twice as much material as they should. It is much more important to cover the essentials well than to try to squeeze in everything. There are several quick ways of deciding whether you are being overly ambitious in the amount of content you hope to cover. If you consistently run overtime in your class lectures you are trying to cover too much. Students resent teachers who run late. Always try to end five minutes early. Leaving a few minutes at the end of class for questions is an easy way to increase your popularity. If you fall behind on your syllabus then you are trying to cover too much. Don't be afraid to revise your syllabus and cut out sections of material if you find yourself running behind. Go through your notes and cull all but the essential points.

8 ) Request student feedback on a regular basis.
Don't wait until the end of the semester to find out what your students think of you and your class. Instead of relying on final, official evaluation forms, sample your students opinions throughout the semester. There are many ways of getting feedback. Perhaps the easiest is to ask students to write one minute evaluations throughout the semester. Pause during the class, or reserve time at the end of a class, and ask your students to write about what they've learned, or what they think of the particular class, or what they think you are doing well, or how you might improve. There are many benefits of "taking the class temperature" on a regular basis. You'll get many great ideas for improving the course by asking your students for feedback. You'll become more popular because your students will feel like their needs are heard and considered. You'll catch dissatisfactions early and keep small problems from becoming large. You'll get a treasure chest of positive quotes from students that you can use in a teaching portfolio for your tenure review or a job application. You'll find out what the quiet students think - and not allow your course to be hijacked by the loud and demanding minority.

Teaching Early Morning Classes

Teaching Early Morning Classes

by Robert Sommer, distinguished professor of psychology emeritus at the University of California, Davis

I wasn't unhappy when my summer school class in 2006 was scheduled for 8 AM. As a morning person, the hour was not a problem. I had avoided teaching early morning throughout my academic career because this was prime writing time. My head is clearest early mornings and ideas flow more freely. I'd estimate that over 90% of my writing has been done in the early morning. Because teaching an 8 AM class was a novel experience, I kept detailed notes.

An unforeseen advantage of the early morning class was greater thermal comfort. This geographic area has a Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers. It gets very warm during the day in July and August but cools in the evening. Early mornings are always pleasant. Instructors who teach later in the day, especially in the afternoon, must travel to class and return in intense heat. At 8 AM my classroom was cool, clean, and the air was fresh. Later in the day, instructors faced stuffy rooms, smudged blackboards, chalk dust in the air, and floor litter. Teaching the first period of the day allowed me to come early and set up the A/V equipment without needing to rush the preceding instructor and students out of the room. A disadvantage of an early morning hour was difficulty in recruiting a Reader. Most preferred to come to campus later in the day.

Enrollment was significantly lower than in previous offerings of the same course at later hours. This is a popular class, often oversubscribed. Due to its large size, I relied on multiple-choice examinations scored by Scantron machines. My 8 AM class was under-enrolled with only 50 students, a size that allowed me to make the course more interactive and participatory. I included a required term paper and added essay questions to the examinations. Comparing enrollment to sections of the same class I taught the two previous summers at later hours, enrollment was 32% lower, and attendance on the last day (when the teaching evaluations were handed out, providing an attendance record) was 58% of enrolled students, relative to an average of 72% in the two sections of the course taught later in the day. Overall teaching evaluations for the course and instructor were virtually identical (4.2 average on a 5-point scale) in the 8 AM class and the two previous years when the course was taught at a later hour.

Student numbers in the 8 AM class were even smaller when attendance and punctuality are considered. Although I did not call roll, I counted the number of students in the room when class started and midway through the 2-hour session. Excluding exam days, attendance when the class began averaged 15 students, and midway through the period, averaged 24 students, which represented approximately one-third and one-half the course enrollment respectively. The early birds tended to be the same students every period and I made it a point to know them by name. There was another group of tardy but interested students, of whom I knew a few, and about half the class whom I barely recognized. I should point out that this course is highly structured and transparent, with syllabus, lecture outlines, and previous examinations with answers posted online, and lecture notes from previous classes available through a student-run note-taking service. Based on class evaluations and other indices, I am a good (but not outstanding) instructor who teaches a good course, so I don't take it personally when students skip class and pass examinations by reading the assigned materials and archival notes.

I saw myself as having two classes, one of motivated and interested students who attended lecture and a second class of phantoms who showed up primarily for examinations. For the first hour of the two-hour class, I had essentially a seminar with 15 students, and later in the period, a small class of 24 students. This was a welcome change from the large lecture courses I taught for so many years. Still, I was concerned about the number of students who came late or not at all. My laissez faire side said this was none of my business so long as students passed the examinations, but my values as a college teacher said that students who paid tuition should be attending classes. I could not increase attendance and punctuality through penalties, as these practices are explicitly prohibited by academic senate regulations.

My ambivalence about attendance came into play when I requested summer school teaching for the following year. I was torn between requesting an 8 AM class which would mean smaller enrollment and more personal instruction at the cost of poor punctuality and low attendance. For me to request later teaching hours would require other instructors to teach at 8 AM. The campus has room utilization standards and the registrar will not leave classrooms unoccupied because faculty don't want to teach certain hours. I can choose a class time that most instructors avoid in order to receive its benefits (smaller, more participatory class and greater thermal comfort) and accept its liabilities (lower attendance and increased tardiness) or not request the early morning hour and shift 8 AM teaching to other instructors for whom it might be more of a burden.

Accepting the campus prohibition against penalties for absenteeism, there are measures I can legally take to increase attendance. I could give "snap quizzes," thereby penalizing absentees. I could decrease the availability of course material through other channels (put less material online, deny the student note-taking service permission to cover my class; refuse to make previous exams available). I could deliberately introduce lecture material not available from other sources and increase examination coverage of lecture material. Instead of the existing 50-50 split between lectures and readings on tests, I could announce that exams would be based 75% on lectures.

I suspect that any of these measures would increase attendance, and together would have a significant impact. Yet adopting them diminishes my self-image as a college instructor. My role in the classroom has dual objectives- to teach a subject matter and to develop mature, responsible adults. To reduce the transparency of my course by withholding material seems irresponsible and immature on my part. From the start of my teaching career, I have made previous exams available, encouraged the campus note-taking service to cover my classes, and urged students to buy the lecture notes for classes they miss. I choose a comprehensive textbook and evaluate student response at the end of the semester, so I know it is a "good textbook." The idea of reducing coverage of textbook material to 25% of the exam seems poor pedagogy.

Postscript 2007:

I was asked to teach both summer sessions and requested my two classes at 8 AM. For interested students and for me, this will mean a smaller, more personal class with more frequent opportunities for interaction, greater thermal comfort, ease in setting up A/V equipment, and increased use of essay questions and term projects. The 8 AM time will also be a boon to the Registrar who wants to maintain occupancy standards during non-prime hours, and a favor to colleagues who aren't at their best during early morning hours.

Although I have reservations about capitalizing on student aversion to 8 AM courses in order to secure a smaller, more interactive class, my department and the registrar are happy about my decision since it increases classroom utilization. Yet I feel guilty about pandering to motives that I do not respect and choosing to teach at an hour that I know most student will avoid. This decision means less work for me and no complaints. What else should I want or expect?

Motivating Students to Attend Class

Motivating Students: Attending Class
from The Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

A study conducted by the Center for Teaching Excellence in Fall 1999 titled, Why Students Do and Do Not Attend Classes, examined the relationship between course characteristics, student characteristics, and the rationale of students for either attending class or not attending class on a daily basis. The study sought to answer the following four questions:

1. How do characteristics of the students relate to their attendance behavior?

2. How do characteristics of the courses in which students are enrolled relate to their attendance behavior?

3. What reasons do students give for their day-to-day attendance decisions?

4. How do these reasons relate to the number of their absences?

Variables assessed included gender, class standing, age, grade point average, employment, residence (either on campus or off), cost of tuition and who was paying it, and the number of credit hours the student was enrolled in. A total of 333 students participated in this study, and they had an average of 3.17 absences per class, with a range from 0 to 12.25 absences. Some of the reasons provided by students for why they attended classes included personal values, obtaining course content, fulfilling grade requirements, factors related to the teacher, and peer influence. Reasons not to attend class included being sick, participating in other school or non-school-related activities, participating in leisure activities, avoiding teacher- or class-related experiences, and having no incentive to attend. Results indicate that students who had higher GPAs had fewer absences than those students who had lower grades. Other student characteristics, such as gender, age, class, residence, method of funding education, or number of credits enrolled in, did not correlate with number of absences.

Students were more likely to attend classes that were taught by a GTA as opposed to those taught by a professor. The main reason cited for attending GTA-taught classes was that “absences above the minimum affect my grade,” and the one of the main reasons cited for not attending professor-taught classes was that “attendance is not taken or does not affect my grade.” Therefore, it appears that whether or not attendance is required significantly predicts whether students attend class or not. Students also said that they were more likely to attend class if the class size was small due to the teacher noticing if they were present, if their presence affected their course grade, and if they had the opportunity to participate in class discussion.

Overall, a combination of teacher and student influences affect class attendance, with a large factor being whether or not a penalty exists for missing class. The study concludes, “If students believe they should attend class, are not sick, not tired from having fun the night before, and like the subject matter, and if teachers notice when students are there, take their attendance into account for the course grade, and provide information students must be in class to get, attendance will be optimal.”

Resources:

Friedman, P., McComb, J. & Rodriquez, F. (1999). Why Students Do and Do Not Attend Class. The Scholarship of Teaching: Classroom Research at KU. Published by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Lecturing and Presenting

Lecturing and Presenting

From the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

William E. Cashin in his Idea Paper titled, “Improving Lectures,” provides several suggestions for effective lecturing and presenting of material. First, the appropriateness of the lecture format is dependent on the goals of the course, and the instructor should evaluate the course aims before determining whether a lecture-style course will most effectively achieve the course goals. The strengths of the lecture are that it “can communicate the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, and it can present the newest developments” (Walker & McKeachie, 1967).

Other strengths of lecture formats include their ability to restructure information into a unique manner, relevant to the course directions. Lectures are also useful in that they provide a large amount of material to many students at the same time. Finally, they can also be used as examples for how professionals approach an intellectual question.

Faculty lecturing:

The negative aspects of lecturing include the lack of feedback that students receive, the presumption that all students are learning the material at the same pace, and the problem that lectures are not as well suited as other teaching methods for higher levels of thinking, such as what is involved in synthesis and application. To overcome these hurdles, Cashin offers several recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of lectures:

*Fit your lecture to your audience, by gathering information about your audience beforehand.

*Prepare an organized outline with 5-9 major points, and decide which minor points you will include. Present this outline at the beginning of class.

*Present multiple sides to an issue, to make your audience aware of the various viewpoints, or to help strengthen an argument you are making.

*Repeat the points you are making in two or three different ways, and stress the points you deem most important.

*Look at your audience, include discussions, and solicit questions.

Another way to enhance your lectures is with effective visuals—using the blackboard, overhead, document camera, or computer. Students’ notes are often an exact copy of what appeared on the visual, with very few additional points or connections. Effective board work highlights and emphasizes the organization required in problem - solving or the evolution of an argument. Remember that even the best students will occasionally lose the thread of a lesson or forget the original objective of a discussion. The visual is their major, and often their only, resource for reentering the lesson unless you are making your presentation available before or after the lecture. Therefore, be organized, use headings, write clearly, and when solving problems on the board, show each step in a logical sequence. If at the end of a lecture, you can stand back, look at the board, and reconstruct the lecture using what is written, then you are developing good board skills.

If you want to encourage higher levels of thinking through lectures, consider this. In the book, What’s the Use of Lectures? Donald A. Bligh addresses how to promote thought using lecture. He recommends the following:

*Make sure the your lectures encourage application and discovery of the material as opposed to only serving as a platform for the presentation of material. In this way, students learn how to use the information provided to analyze novel situations.

*Second, ask questions throughout the lecture, focusing on questions that promote critical thought, not rote memorization.

*In order to assist student thought, provide a visual display of the presented material, include handouts so that students can focus on thought rather than note taking *Recommend that students pre-read the material so that lecture is not their first exposure to it, and watch the speed of your lecture.

Bligh (1974) found that students performed best with thought-provoking questions when the lecture material was presented at a slow speed, as compared to when the lecture was presented at a faster pace, because a slower pace allows students time to think about the material itself.

Resources:

Cashin, W.E. (1985). “Improving Lectures.” Idea Paper No. 14. Kansas State University: Center for Faculty Evaluation & Development.

Bligh, D.A. (2000). What’s the Use of Lectures? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Using Class Time Well: Classroom Interactions

Using Class Time Well: Classroom Interactions

From the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

Wilbert McKeachie offers several suggestions for ways to encourage students to be active in classroom interactions. Create an expectation of participation early in the semester, by defining the various facets of the course and explaining why participation is valuable. Understand that boredom, lack of knowledge, passivity, cultural norms, and above all, fear of being embarrassed, may contribute to keeping a student from not talking in class. To reduce a fear of embarrassment, use small groups and help students get to know each other. Ask questions that have no wrong answers to help students get used to participating. Call students by name. Ask students to take a couple minutes to write out answers to questions. A shy person will be more likely to respond to being asked, “What did you write?” Get to know those students who don’t participate in class interactions
so you’ll find any special knowledge they may have; ask them to contribute it at appropriate times.

In some scenarios, students may assume some negative roles. If we deal successfully with these situations, we can preserve a positive classroom environment. If the student assumes the Prisoner role, be clear about the benefits of the course. Ask the whole class to brainstorm 12 reasons why they shouldn’t be there. Review this list with the class, and tell them that you can see why they may not want to be there. Then, promise you’ll do your best to make the course worthwhile, and ask students to meet you halfway. Sometimes asking the student to help (e.g. passing out handouts) to show that you trust them, or engaging in a one-on-one talk, will bring the student around.

If the student assumes the role of the Introvert, use small group projects or employ group-generated questioning. This will give shy students a chance to succeed, and may make them more willing to participate in a large group in the future. This can also be achieved by asking for written responses to a question or problem. Most importantly, allow students to participate at their own comfort level; forcing an introverted student into an uncomfortable situation will probably cause him or her to retreat even further.

Finally, if the student assumes the Domineering role, make sure that you establish ground rules that discourage domination. Use small groups and don’t give the floor to a domineering person; while in these small groups, rotate group membership and leadership. And be proactive about the situation; if you can tell early on that someone will be a monopolizer, speak privately with him or her. Say you’ve noticed that others aren’t participating much and ask for help drawing them out. This gives the student a positive role to play, rather than a negative one.

If a few of your students still refuse to participate in classroom interactions, after you have made numerous efforts to engage them, keep in mind that the majority of your students are engaged. “If some students opt out, don’t let it bother you – it’s their loss, not yours” (Felder & Brent, 2003). Focus on the fact that most of the students are engaged, and move forward.

Resources:

Felder, R.M. & Brent, R. (2003). Learning by doing. Chemical Engineering Education, 37 (4), 282-283.

McKeachie, W.J. (2002). Teaching tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 11th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Pike, B. & Arch, D. (1997). Dealing with difficult participants. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The Important First Day: Starting Well

The Important First Day: Starting Well

By Delivee L. Wright, Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska

The first day of class is a very important time for faculty to establish a tone for what will happen the rest of the term. It is appropriate that a teacher reflect on just what climate and first impression she/he would like to establish. This article offers some ideas about that all important day.

Reflecting on the first day of class, McKeachie (1986) suggests that "... meeting a group of strangers who will affect your well being, is at the same time exciting and anxiety producing for both students and teacher." Research on the first day of class by Knefelkamp showed there was a real desire on the part of both students and teachers for connectedness, but neither group realized the other shared that desire. If the participants on both sides don't understand how to develop their relationships, learning will be diminished. If you have experienced some anxiety about this meeting, planning some specific steps can not only reduce that feeling, but can get students to share in the sense of purpose you hold for the class.

Some faculty avoid the "first day anxiety" by handing out a syllabus, giving an assignment, and dismissing the class. This only postpones the inevitable. It also gives students a sense that class time is not too important. Most of all, it loses the opportunity to use the heightened excitement and anticipation that students bring that day; the chance to direct that excitement toward enthusiasm for the class.

What can you do to establish a positive beginning? How can you make sure student's attitudes toward you, the course, and the subject matter will support a constructive learning climate for the term? The following ideas have been gathered to stimulate your thoughts about these questions.

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/dayone.htm

Audiobooks Aid Challenged Readers

I read this encouraging article in the April/May 2007 issue of AudioFile Magazine. I am an avid audiobook reader on my daily commute and I was gratified to see that educators are finding that the introduction of audiobooks to challenged readers has demonstrated significant improvements in oral fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

An excerpt from Listen! It's Good for Kids by Susie Wilde:

"Children today are bombarded with visual images and may not have many opportunities to stimulate their auditory imagination. During Dr. Teri Lesesne's 2006 presentation on audiobooks for the American Library Association, she noted several benefits audiobooks offer such young listeners. 'Audiobooks can help start the movie in the head', she says, 'and allow children to form their own visual images'.

They also serve as models for oral fluency, building both vocabulary and comprehension. 'Kids often lack verbal endurance because they don't read enough. Listening to audio helps develop verbal endurance,' says Lesesne.

Series are a wise way to start for children listening to their first novels, because exposure to one often leaves a newly minted reader asking for more. Choose series that have stood the test of time, such as Beverly Cleary's Henry books or Jeff Brown's Flat Stanley series. Familiarity with a series often gives readers courage to branch out to new stories and unfamiliar characters.

In classrooms across America, teachers worry about ways to develop cultural literacy. Audiobooks help bridge cultural gaps and educate children about their own history. Parents and teachers can use them as departure for discussion. A great example is Blues Journey by Walter Dean and Christopher Myers, a father and son who share a love of blues that they express in pictures and words. Live Oak Media has paired the book with a CD read by Richard Allen that accents the rhythms and allows plenty of room to introduce blues recordings or to talk about how poverty, chain gangs, and persecution gave voice to some of the greatest blues music."

The article goes on to discuss the impact of audiobooks on ESL students:

"Those teaching ESL find that audio helps students pick up cues about phrasing, pronunciation, and intonation. Listening also improves concentration in ADD and ADHD children and can be of significant help to any learner who processes information more easily through listening than reading print. Students with learning disabilities benefit from the support of multi-sensory experience that provides auditory cues to aid in decoding written words."

(Click Chart to Zoom In)

Using Class Time Well: Active Learning

Using Class Time Well: Active Learning

from the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

Teaching is developmental rather than directive or presentational.

Active learning involves the implementation of “learning experiences in which the students are thinking about the subject matter” (McKeachie, 2002). It is based on the premise that students must do more than just listen to fully comprehend new information. They must read, write, discuss, and problem solve. By employing active learning in your classes, you will increase the effectiveness of your teaching and your students’ learning.

Reading

One suggestion for encouraging active learning is the use of the Treasure Hunt technique (Magnan, 1990). This strategy is based on the premise that if you’ve assigned a reading, there must be something valuable for the students in it. Choose several pages or sections, and then ask students to find the most important point, idea, or argument and write it down, along with a sentence or two justifying their selection. If you choose assigned passages well, you can increase understanding and participation immediately.

Writing

John C. Bean suggests several ways to incorporate writing into a class, including:

*Writing at the beginning of class to probe a subject: Ask students to write short answers to a question that reviews previous material or stimulates interest in what’s coming.

*Writing during class to refocus a lagging discussion or cool off a heated one: When students run out of things to say, or when a discussion gets too hot, ask students to write for a few minutes.

*Writing at the end of class to sum up a lecture or discussion: Give students a few minutes to sum up the day’s lecture or discussion and to prepare questions to ask at the start of the next class.

Discussing

While the most common approach to encouraging active learning in the classroom is the use of discussion, not all discussions are created equal, and there are other methods in which to achieve the difficult task of drawing students into lectures, discussions, and readings. One suggestion for engaging students in active learning is using the Thumb’s Up technique (Ukens, 2000). To implement this technique, ask students to form groups of six to ten people, with each group sitting in a circle. Participants will discuss topics within their groups. To keep everyone involved, each person is to extend his or her fist toward the middle of the circle. Once discussion begins, each member is to share, in any order, one idea or piece of information on the topic. As each person shares, his or her thumb will go up. A person may not share again until all thumbs are up. Then, members can begin again and continue the process. After about five minutes, stop the discussion. If you wish, repeat with new topics.

Another method to employ asks the students to frame the discussion, or determine the direction of the discussion. Ask students to identify one question from their readings that they would like to have answered in class. Ask them to share their question with three peers, and then have the group pick one of the three questions to present to the instructor. Allow each group to ask its question.

Problem-Solving

Invite students to use Think-Pair-Share: To help them better understand a lecture, stop for a moment. Ask students to think about a question or problem that relates to the lecture material, turn to a peer, and explain their answer or solution. This is a great way to apply and reinforce key ideas.

Resources:

Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging Ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McKeachie, W.J. (2002). McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 11th Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Magnan, R., Ed. (1990). 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Professors. Madison: Magna.

Stocking, S.H. et al. (1998). More quick hits. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press

Preparing a Course: First Day of Class

Preparing a Course: First Day of Class

From the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

We all have experienced some anxiety about the first meeting of class. Some faculty avoid “first day anxiety” by handing out a syllabus, giving an assignment, and dismissing the class. This only postpones the inevitable. It also gives students the sense that class time is not too important. Most of all, it fails to take advantage of the opportunity to use the heightened excitement and anticipation that students bring to the first day, the chance to direct that excitement toward enthusiasm for the class.

On the first day, make sure that you arrive at the classroom early, to ensure that the equipment is working properly and to engage in small talk with students. Greet students at the door as they enter the class. When students enter your classroom, they have any number of things on their mind. To help them focus, many teachers use a hook, or a three- to five-minute activity to engage students at the beginning of class. (Some instructors use hooks at the start of every class throughout the semester.) Ideas for hooks include playing music and asking students to think about how the lyrics relate to a class topic, presenting a question to the class to begin discussion, giving a brief demonstration of a principle you will be discussing that day, or projecting a photograph, cartoon, drawing, or chart related to the day’s topic.

Some other recommendations for the first meetings of a course include making sure you start class on time and take attendance. Make note of any absences, and follow up with these students after class by contacting them through phone or e-mail.

In addition, start to learn students’ names. To this end, there are several methods you can use to help learn the names of your students quickly:

*Have students give their name before they speak in class.

*Try to memorize a row of students every class period.

*Have students make name plates with 5” x 8” index cards. Ask students to fold the cards in half and write their names on them in large print. You can collect these name plates and hand them out at the start of every class, which will also serve as a means of taking attendance without using extra class time.

*Use students’ names as often as possible.

*If you’re teaching a large class, divide the entire group into smaller working groups. Give each group a short project, and learn the names of everyone in a particular group. Do this several times throughout the semester to learn each student’s name.

*Ask the students to provide index cards with their name, a photo, and an interesting fact about themselves. You can use these to study their names in between class meetings.

*Be honest with the students and patient with yourself. Your students have to remember the names of only four or five teachers every semester, while you have many more names of students to learn. Even if you call a student by the wrong name, the class will appreciate your efforts to acknowledge them on a personal level.

Other ideas for the early meeting of a course include asking students to write out their expectations for the course, as well as what they hope to learn this semester. Assess the students’ previous knowledge by distributing a pre-test over the material you plan on covering that semester, and provide feedback on their responses as soon as possible. Each day, provide the structure for the day’s material using an outline on the chalkboard, overhead, or PowerPoint slide. This will help students see where the lecture is going, as well as aid the organization of their notes. Use multiple types of media for the presentation of the material, including overheads, films, audiotape, and models or demonstrations.

To aid student participation early in the semester, have students write questions on index cards to be collected and answered during the next class period. Finally, gather student feedback regarding the beginning of the course. Ask the students to provide suggestions regarding ways to improve your teaching and their learning.

Preparing a Course: Building a Syllabus

Preparing a Course: Building a Syllabus

From the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

Start with the basic information of the course, including the year and semester of the course, the course title and number, number of credits, and the meeting time/place. Provide your name, office address (and a map if it’s hard to find), and your contact information. Indicate whether students need to make appointments or may just stop in. If you list a home number, be specific about any restrictions for its use. Next, clarify what prerequisites, knowledge, skills, or experience you expect students to have or courses they should have completed. Suggest ways they might refresh skills if they’re uncertain about their readiness.

When discussing the course, outline the course purpose(s); what is the course about and why would students want to learn the material? Outline the three to five general goals or objectives for the course (see Course design for more information), and explain why you’ve arranged topics in a given order and the logic of themes or concepts you’ve selected. When discussing the course format and activities, tell students whether the class involves fieldwork, research projects, lectures, and/or discussion, and indicate which activities are optional, if any.

In regard to the textbooks & readings, include information about why the readings were selected. Show the relationship between the readings and the course objectives. Let students know whether they are required to read before class meetings. Also detail any additional materials or equipment that will be needed.

Specify the nature and format of the assignments, and their deadlines. Give the exam dates and indicate the nature of the tests (essay, short–answer, take–home, other). Explain how the assignments relate to the course objectives. Describe the grading procedures, including the components of the final grade and weights for each component. Explain whether you will grade on a curve or use an absolute scale, if you accept extra credit work, and if any of the grades can be dropped. Also explain any other course requirements, such as study groups or office hour attendance. Clearly state your policies regarding class attendance, late work, missing homework, tests or exams, makeups, extra credit, requesting extensions, reporting illnesses, cheating and plagiarism. You might also list acceptable and unacceptable classroom behavior. Let students know that if they need an accommodation for any type of disability, they should meet with you to discuss what modifications are necessary.

Include a course calendar with the sequence of course topics, readings, and assignments. Exam dates should be firmly fixed, while dates for topics and activities may be tentative. Also list on the course calendar the last day students can withdraw without penalty. Give students a sense of how much preparation and work the course will take.

Finally, a syllabus is a written contract between you and your students. End with a caveat to protect yourself if changes must be made once the course begins; e.g., “The schedule and procedures in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.” For more information, please see Ombud’s Website.

Resources:

Appleby, Drew C. “How to improve your teaching with the course syllabus.” APS Observer, May/June 1994.

Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass, 1993.

“Syllabus Checklist.” (2002). Teaching Matters, 6 (1), 8.

This material is drawn from Eddy, Judy. (2001). Creating a Syllabus. Handout.

Preparing a Course: Course Design

Preparing a Course: Course Design
From the Center for Teaching Excellence, Kansas University

Course design involves the planning of curriculum, assessments, and opportunities for learning which attempt to meet to goals of the course and evaluate whether those goals are indeed being met. The designing of a course can be adeptly performed through the use of backwards design, which is based on the principle of working first from the material and concepts you want students to master, in order to plan how you will assess whether this learning has occurred, and this information thus guides which resources and methods of teaching are employed in order to enact learning of this material.

Four questions from Wiggins & McTighe (1998) are suggested as a guide for condensing the course’s material into a few key topics:

1. To what extent does the idea, topic, or process represent a “big idea” having enduring value beyond the classroom?

2. To what extent does the idea, topic, or process reside at the heart of the discipline?

3. To what extent does the idea, topic, or process require uncoverage?

4. To what extent does the idea, topic, or process offer potential for engaging students?

Also consider the goals and characteristics of your future students. Some reasons that students may be taking your course include: to develop a philosophy of life, to learn to interpret numerical data, to understand scientific principles or concepts, to learn to effectively communicate, to learn to organize ideas, or to understand how researchers gain knowledge. As the instructor, you can use this information, along with your own goals for the course, to guide your course structure and teaching pace.

After having determined which material will guide the course design, the next step in backwards design is to establish the criteria you will employ to evidence student learning. Instead of using a lone cumulative exam to assess learning, however, backwards design is guided by the concept that understanding increases across time, as students process, reassess, and connect information. Therefore, assessments to measure this increasing level of understanding should be conducted throughout the semester, using a variety of methodologies such as discussions, tests and quizzes, projects, and assessments in which students analyze their own level of understanding. Once key concepts and assessment criteria have been decided upon, you can then focus on which teaching methodologies and activities you will use to help students reach these course goals. In this manner, teaching is driven by the concepts that are crucial to the course, rather than the course being driving by the teaching methodology itself.

Resources:

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Merrill Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Teaching for Transformation: From Learning Theory to Teaching Strategies (Part 1)

Teaching for Transformation: From Learning Theory to Teaching Strategies (Part 1)

by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. and is from the newsletter, Speaking of Teaching, produced by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Stanford University

No matter what you teach, you face the challenge of bringing students from point A- what they currently know-to point B-the learning goals of a course. In many courses, the distance between points A and B is huge, and the path is not obvious. Students must not only acquire new skills and information, but also radically transform their approach to thinking and learning. This newsletter explores theories and teaching strategies that address this universal teaching challenge.

The Challenge

Even though students may have no experience in your class or your field, they enter your classroom with a long history of academic training and life experience. For this reason, presenting new information is not enough to guarantee optimal learning. Students must recognize the limitations of their current knowledge and perspectives. This means that you cannot simply unload your knowledge on students. What is required is a true transformation of students' existing knowledge.

Instructors from all fields face this challenge. In the sciences and mathematics, it is common for students to have learned an oversimplified definition or approach in high school. Students making the shift from classical to modern physics, for example, cannot simply layer new information onto old understanding. In the humanities, students may, for the first time, be asked to develop original interpretations of texts or to consider conflicting interpretations of texts instead of seeking the one, instructor-approved, "correct" interpretation. This new approach must replace the approach that students have learned, practiced, and been rewarded for. In the social sciences, instructors often have the difficult job of helping students unlearn common sense beliefs that may be common but unjustified. In all these cases, students' previous knowledge must be completely revised, not merely augmented.

Transformative Learning Theory

Transformative learning theory (see Mezirow, 1997) addresses this common teaching challenge. The theory describes the conditions and processes necessary for students to make the most significant kind of knowledge transformation: paradigm shift, also known as perspective transformation. Mezirow (1991, p. 167) describes perspective transformation as: ...the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our assumptions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; changing these structures of habitual expectation to make possible a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrating perspective; and finally, making choices or otherwise acting upon these new understandings.

Transformative learning is in clear contrast to the more common process of assimilative learning, the type of learning that takes place when students simply acquire new information that can easily fit into their preexisting knowledge structures. Whereas some college-level courses are aimed at assimilative learning, most courses require at least some level of transformative learning.

According to transformative learning theory, paradigm shift/perspective transformation is the result of several conditions and processes:

1. an activating event that exposes the limitations of a student's current knowledge/approach;

2. opportunities for the student to identify and articulate the underlying assumptions in the student's current knowledge/approach;

3. critical self-reflection as the student considers where these underlying assumptions came from, how these assumptions influenced or limited understanding;

4. critical discourse with other students and the instructor as the group examines alternative ideas and approaches;

5. opportunities to test and apply new perspectives.

When these processes occur, students are more likely to revise their underlying assumptions, adopt a new paradigm, and apply this new paradigm (Cranton, 2002).

Transformative learning theory also recognizes that changing one's perspective is not simply a rational process. Being forced to consider, evaluate, and revise underlying assumptions can be an emotionally charged experience. Students have successfully used their current paradigms to excel in school and understand the world. They may reasonably be reluctant to abandon what they believe is the right way to think, create, and solve problems. Resistance to perspective transformation is common, even among students who are motivated to learn (Illeris, 2003). For this reason, instructors who wish to facilitate transformative learning must create an environment that encourages and rewards intellectual openness (Taylor, 1998).

Teaching Strategies

The content of your teaching will necessarily make some strategies more suitable than others, but instructors of any field can make intentional use of transformative learning theory. Below, we consider strategies for each process involved in transformative learning and offer examples of what Stanford faculty members are doing to bring these strategies into their classrooms.

The Activating Event

The activating event can be anything that triggers students to examine their thinking and the possible limitations of their understanding:

* Understand your students' backgrounds. To create an effective critical event, you must anticipate what students believe and know. Invest some time at the beginning of each quarter to learn about students' backgrounds. In addition to basic classroom interactions, anonymous pre-tests, surveys, and early graded or non- graded assignments can all be effective tools.

* Provide conflicting viewpoints. Conflicting perspectives can motivate students to examine their own perspectives. You can provide these viewpoints in readings or in the classroom.

* Create a disorienting dilemma. Specifically, challenge what students believe. You can do this with a case study, quote, experiment, picture, demonstration, or story that does not fit their expectations. The goal is to confuse and intrigue students and thus increase their motivation to learn whatever you will be presenting in class.

* Set students up for failure. Failure-driven approaches to teaching recognize that students are most motivated to learn when their current knowledge is insufficient to solve an interesting problem. When students reach a problem- solving impasse, they should recognize that new information or a new approach is needed. It is not enough to hand students an unsolvable problem; you must convince them that the impasse can be resolved and create conditions that encourage their success. Instructors can present the missing piece in many ways; from a simple explanation to helping students derive an idea or approach themselves.

Identifying Current Assumptions

The best strategies for helping students identify their current assumptions all require that students explain their thinking:

* Use a critical questioning technique. Ask students to explain their reasoning and the reasons behind their reasoning. Help students identify their assumptions by offering counterexamples, alternative scenarios, or differing perspectives.

* Ask students to make a prediction about an experiment, event, or procedure. Have students explain their predictions, in discussion or as a quickly written exercise. This can be particularly effective when the actual outcome will provide a disorienting dilemma.

* Have students talk through their thinking or problem-solving strategy. This is particularly helpful if you use a failure-driven approach as the critical event. Give students a challenging question or problem and have them talk through the thought process. This can be done with partners, small groups, or through direct interaction between student and instructor.

* Ask students to evaluate a specific position, solution, or reading and justify their critique. This can be done as a small group discussion or as a written assignment. If you provide conflicting readings or alternative solutions, ask students to defend one and provide in-depth reasoning. Follow-up with a class discussion.

Creating Memorable Lectures Part 3

How to Create Memorable Lectures (Part 3)

Give Students Opportunities to Review and Apply

Information becomes solidified in long-term memory when we have opportunities to retrieve, review, and reflect on that information. As an instructor, you have two main opportunities to make sure this happens: 1) Give students time, during lecture, to review and apply ideas. 2) Give students assignments that encourage them to review their lecture notes and use the lecture content.

Previously, we described how short breaks during a lecture can give students the opportunity to make sure they have correctly identified and recorded important information. To go beyond this simple fact-checking, give students time in lecture to solve a problem or discuss an idea. You can post the problem or discussion question on a slide at the beginning of the lecture, so that students attend to the lecture with the anticipation of applying the information. You can have students tackle the problem or issue in pairs at the end of the lecture, or work alone and then vote on a solution or position. You can also create a think-tank situation by inviting volunteers to talk through their thought processes as they try to solve the problem or respond to a question. The full class can then discuss both the process and outcome of the thought experiment.

Of course, your students' learning process does not end in the lecture hall. You provide a strong foundation for learning during class, but students typically are overwhelmed by other demands on their time and thoughts. Students rush from one class to the next, and spend time in extracurricular activities, athletics, jobs, and socializing. By the end of the day, any information that is not reviewed may not be accurately remembered.

We can increase students' learning by offering them the opportunity to review each lecture in a meaningful and timely way. It is not enough to hope that students will review their notes; create assignments that encourage or require it. For example, ask students to create a matrix, flow chart, table, or concept map based on the information presented in lecture (Titsworth & Kiewra, 2004, p. 450). Give students a problem that can only be solved using lecture material. Have students prepare a debate, a student panel, or a position paper on a subject related to lecture content (Frederick, 2002, p. 60). If an online discussion forum is part of the course, ask students to respond to questions related to the most recent lecture. By reviewing, interpreting, and applying lecture material, students are more likely to build lasting memories and develop higher-level thinking skills.

Students are also more likely to remember information that relates to ideas or experiences they are already familiar with. You can capitalize on this phenomenon by using examples from student life, current events, or popular culture. You can also ask students to generate their own examples from personal experience in class or as a written assignment. Whenever possible, tell students how new information relates to previous lectures in your course. Show students how specific skills can be applied to real-world problems. Create class activities or assignments that ask students to fit new information into the overall themes of the course. For example, have students compare two ideas, synthesize competing perspectives, or discuss the evolution of one theory to another. All of these techniques will make it more likely that students will remember the information from lecture, because students will integrate the material into already existing knowledge structures and experiences.

Teaching Strategies for Memorable Lectures

We have reviewed several teaching strategies that take into consideration how students learn new information in a lecture setting. We encourage you to apply these strategies to your own teaching, and find out what works best for your lecture content and personal teaching style. We also love to hear about innovative and effective lecturing strategies on campus. Please share your success stories if you have a found a particularly helpful way to keep student's attention, increase student understanding, or improve student performance. You can contact Mariatte Denman at mdenman@ stanford.edu.

Quick and Easy Ideas for Better Lectures

Provide students with a framework for each lecture

o Aim for three to five main points in each lecture.

o Begin the lecture with a high-level question that the upcoming information can answer.

o Prepare a handout of the lecture's main points.

o During lecture, be explicit about what students should focus on.

Don't overload students

o Give students short breaks throughout lecture to review their notes and ask questions.

o Include a formal activity or assignment after every 15-20 minutes of presentation.

o Don't use too many different types of presentation materials at once.

o Don't give students two conflicting things to attend to at the same time.

Students are also more likely to remember information that relates to ideas or experiences they are already familiar with.

o Use examples from student life, current events, or popular culture.

o Ask students to generate their own examples from personal experience.

o Tell students how new information relates to previous lectures in your course.

o Show students how specific skills can be applied to real-world problems.

o Create activities and assignments that ask students to fit new information into the overall themes of the course.

How to Create Memorable Lectures (Part 2)

Direct Students' Attention

But even when students pay attention, they may fail to attend to the most important material in a lecture. Think of how much new content you share with students in just one lecture. Students need to absorb, record, and understand the steady flow of auditory and visual information. To do so, students must listen, view, think, and write, all at once. The juggling of these activities might explain why students' notes capture only 20-40 percent of a lecture's content. Because the content is new to students, it can be difficult for them to identify which ideas are critical and which are peripheral. How can we help students attend to the most important information, so that they understand and remember the key points of each lecture?

The solution is to provide students with a framework for each lecture, so that they can direct their attention to the most important information. One way to do this is to prepare a study guide for your course that describes each lecture's objectives, key concepts, and questions to consider (Schneider, p. 57). A handout with the lecture's major points will prepare students to listen and look for the central elements of the lecture. Skeletal lecture handouts, with room for students' notes, can also help students organize what they hear and see, and may be more effective than providing students with your full lecture notes (Kiewra, 2002, p. 72).As you prepare your lecture outlines, aim for three to five main points in each lecture, with clear links between each lecture topic and your main points.

You can also ask students to answer conceptual questions as they take notes during lecture. Each part of a lecture can be preceded by a high-level question that the upcoming information can answer. This encourages students to interpret and organize lecture content according to an important and useful conceptual framework. In one study, students who took notes trying to answer conceptual questions performed better on a recall test than students who took traditional notes that simply recorded information (Rickards & McCormick, 1988).

During lecture, be as explicit as possible about what students should focus on. Clearly introduce key concepts and definitions. Identify important themes as a way for students to sort through the content of the lecture. Use verbal and visual cues to highlight major points, categories, and steps of an argument. You can also direct students' attention to the most important points by asking them to review or explain those points during class. All of these strategies will help create a framework for students, so that they can quickly and accurately identify and understand the core ideas in your lecture.

Don't Overload the System

Once we have students' attention, we need to consider how quickly students can process information. Short-term memory requires time to process the sensory input we receive; students are not sponges and cannot immediately "absorb" new information. Give students short breaks throughout lecture to review their notes and ask questions. A short break that includes students' questions can also give the lecturer an opportunity to assess student understanding and adjust the remaining part of the lecture if needed.

You can also include a more formal activity or assignment after every 15-20 minutes of presentation. For example, ask students to summarize or paraphrase the last few important points, either in their notes or with the person sitting nearest them. You can then review the points and move on to the next phase in the lecture. Giving students and yourself a break has another advantage. The audience's attention in a lecture drops dramatically after ten minutes of listening (Bligh, 2000, p. 53). Students can remember most of the first ten minutes, but very little from the middle part of the lecture. A short break will revitalize the audience's attention, and students will be much more likely to remember information from throughout the lecture.

A final consideration involves how lecturers present information. Lecturers are often encouraged to use a wide range of presentation materials, including audio, video, and written materials. While this can attract students' attention, it can also overload students' attention. Cognitive overload occurs when different forms of processing interfere with each other (Mayer & Moreno, 2003, p. 45). A common example is when students are presented with an illustration that also includes a written explanation. Students may be unable to process the information quickly, because looking at the illustration and reading the text both place demands on the same sensory channel (vision). Mayer found that replacing the written explanation with an auditory narrative, which uses another sensory channel, is more effective. Another common way to overload attention is to give students two conflicting things to attend to at the same time (say, a transparency on the overhead and a verbal narrative that does not directly relate to the overhead). Students must figure out which sensory channel provides the essential information, and they may not always guess correctly. You can avoid cognitive overload by maintaining a reasonable pace in your presentation and by carefully coordinating your verbal instruction with any other media.

How to Create Memorable Lectures (Part 1)

How to Create Memorable Lectures (Part 1)

In general, students capture only 20-40 percent of a lecture's main ideas in their notes (Kiewra, 2002, p. 72). Without reviewing the lecture material, students remember less than 10 percent after three weeks (Bligh, 2000, p. 40). All instructors hope that their lectures will be the exception, but these numbers present a clear challenge: How can we guarantee that students learn and remember what we teach? How do we create and deliver lectures that stay with students long past the last few minutes of class? In this newsletter we take up this challenge, by considering how students attend to, make sense of, and absorb new information.

The Learning Process: From Attention to Comprehension to Integration

Cognitive theories describe three phases of the learning process (see Schneider for an extensive discussion of theories). In the first phase, we decide what to attend to. We cannot notice everything that is going on in our environment, so we orient our attention selectively. In the classroom, we hope that students are attending to us, but many things compete for their attention. If we want students to learn, we need to capture their attention.

In the second step of learning, we organize what we observe into a coherent mental pattern or structure. In the classroom, students are constantly interpreting what you say, what they read on the blackboard, and what they see on slides. Students must decide how to organize this information in their own minds (and notes). The more you can provide students with a framework for interpreting lecture material, the easier it is for them to understand new ideas.

These first two phases of learning create a short-term memory for new information. To fully "own" new information in long-term memory, we need to rehearse the new information and connect it to existing frameworks of knowledge. This gives new information meaning beyond the particular learning occasion, and makes it easier to retrieve. This final phase of learning begins in the classroom, with review and application, and continues out of the classroom through well-crafted assignments.

How can you use this information in your lecture? James R. Davis describes a simple approach to maximizing the first two stages of learning: "Get the students' attentionŠtell the students what to pay attention to... and don't overload the system" (p. 141). These three strategies address the initial learning environment- the classroom-and can help a lecturer communicate material effectively. To these basic strategies, we add one more strategy that takes into account the final stage of learning: Give students the opportunity to review and apply lecture material, both in class and between classes. This strategy guarantees that students will fully integrate the material and make the knowledge their own-and that is what makes a lecture truly memorable.

Get Students' Attention

Every lecturer hopes that the pure beauty and intrigue of ideas and information will captivate students. Before students engage with ideas, however, they must first be engaged by the instructor. Therefore, like any public speaker, the lecturer's first task is to capture the audience's attention. A lecturer must connect with students and draw them into the lecture.

This rapport can be accomplished in a variety of ways, from attention-grabbing gimmicks to highly thoughtful approaches. Most instructors are wary of gimmicks; a common concern is that any attempt to appeal to students' interests will lower the intellectual quality of a lecture. However, engaging students needn't be at the expense of high academic standards. As a lecturer, you don't need to be a performer or an entertainer; you simply need to keep your audience in mind, and find the most direct way to interest students in your material.

One of the most basic and direct ways to attract and keep students' interest is instructor expressiveness-the use of vocal variation, facial expression, movement, and gesture. This tactic can be applied to any lecture content, from Shakespeare to statistics. Students are more likely to pay attention to instructors who exhibit expressive behaviors, because expressive instructors are more interesting to attend to and easier to understand. For this reason, expressiveness enhances communication and facilitates student comprehension. Students also tend to interpret an instructor's expressiveness as enthusiasm for the subject, and enthusiasm in the classroom is contagious. Expressive behaviors intrigue students, and encourage them to actively consider the lecture material. For these reasons, expressive behaviors lead to higher levels of student achievement and satisfaction (R. P. Perry, 1985, quoted in Murray, p. 192).

The famous "Dr. Fox" experiments, first conducted by Ware and Williams in the mid-seventies, illustrate the effects of instructor expressiveness (see Murray, 1997). The experiments used six videotaped lectures, all given by a professional actor assuming the persona of "Dr. Fox." The topic of each lecture was biochemistry, but the amount of information in each lecture varied (low, medium, or high). In addition, lectures were presented with either a low or high level of "seductiveness." "High seductiveness" was defined in terms of expressive behavior: the use of movement, gesture, vocal emphasis, humor, and charisma. "Low seductiveness" was characterized by a flat, matter-of-fact style.

Students who watched the highly expressive lectures performed better on a multiple-choice recall test than students who watched the less expressive lectures. This suggests that expressiveness enhances students' memory for the lecture content. Students who watched the highly expressive lectures also gave higher ratings to the instructor, independent of the level of information provided in the lectures. The authors coined this last finding the "Dr. Fox Effect." Students may give high ratings to teachers who convey almost no content, but present their lectures enthusiastically. Lectures can be enjoyable but still fail to meet important teaching goals.

However, as Murray argues, there is no reason to believe that expressive behaviors "are in any way incompatible with more traditional criteria of effective teaching, such as content coverage and high academic standards" (p. 196). To avoid the Dr. Fox Effect, keep in mind that expressiveness is more about communication than entertainment. The key teaching goals of each lecture are still to increase students' knowledge and skills, not to entertain students. Expressiveness is simply a tool for engaging students with the material, not an end to itself. A good litmus test for whether expressiveness is effective, rather than merely entertaining, is whether it invites students to be active, rather than passive, learners. It is important to ask yourself: Once you have students' attention, what are you doing with it?

Expressiveness can be learned, through training and practice. The Center for Teaching and Learning provides a number of resources for instructors looking to develop expressive skills (including class videotaping and oral communication training). Expressiveness can also be enhanced by the instructor's own engagement with the material. Even though the material is familiar to you, you can rediscover its importance and appeal each time you share it with new students.

When we think back to those teachers who captivated our attention during a lecture, they undoubtedly used different strategies suited to their individual temperaments, styles, and disciplines. Some may have been more typically charismatic, and others less showy but deeply passionate about ideas. Some may have owned the lecture hall physically, acting out their lectures, while others may have kept us riveted with their ability to tell a good story. What they probably all shared, however, was presence. Not stage presence, but presence in the sense of being truly present: physically, emotionally, and intellectually. The expressiveness that follows from full presence is a natural attention-grabber-no gimmicks needed.