Bring your book to class. Open the book. Say something!
Recently a student interviewed me for a class project. The 19-question interview covers many aspects of teaching, including goals for the course, study habits, and philosophical elements of the classroom situation. As I started writing the answers, I found myself articulating many basic things about my approach to education, better than I have stated them in many a formulaic "teaching philosophy." I share it in full here. Thanks to Ryan Quinn for conducting the interview.
1. What are the goals and purpose of this course [COMS 252, Introduction to Communication Studies]?
To gain a broad overview of the Communication discipline, in the areas of Interpersonal Communication, Group and Organizational Communication, Media Studies, and Intercultural Communication.
2. What do you expect students to be able to do with the information covered in this class/subject?
This class will prepare students for more advanced work in the Communication discipline, and may help prepare them for careers in Communication---related fields such as Public Relations, Human Resources, Marketing, or working in the media. More broadly (liberally), it should enhance students’ perception of complexity in all forms of communication, from the daily and mundane to the global and virtual.
3. What types of reading materials are students asked to read in this class/discipline and why?
The course is structured around a textbook which provides many influential theories in the discipline in short, easy-to-digest chapters. The text has been chosen for its breadth. The fact that it has gone through 9 editions testifies that several generations of students have learned the field from this book.
4. How much reading is required of students in your class?
Active participation in the course requires about 30 pages in the average week, with some weeks focused on review and study for exams.
5. What is the typical speed in which material is covered?
A typical class day (1 hr 15 min) covers one theory per day, a chapter of about 15 pages. Oftentimes theories discussed in earlier class periods are reinforced when introducing new material.
6. How do you assess students’ progress in your class? (i.e. quizzes, exams, projects, essays, etc.)
Mostly through 4 exams spread out over the semester, although small assignments are incorporated into a participation grade.
7. What types of materials are covered on these assessments? (i.e. subjective or objective material, or combination) Are assessments multiple choice, fill in the blank, essay or some other form of questions?
The first exam had 50 multiple choices questions (including True/False), and 6 short answer questions. I am considering experimenting with different exam and assessment formats, but this is my first time teaching the course. With 80 students in a survey class, my biggest priority is to find an assessment that can be graded fairly and consistently (more objective), and it also helps me see how students absorb the material. I find that most college students don’t keep up with course readings, and often don’t even bring their books to class.
The danger with multiple choice exams is the temptation to cheat, and the worry that students won’t retain the material after the exam is over.
I understand the format is a bit dry, and students generally don’t like taking exams. As I continue to teach the course, I (hopefully) may discover new methods of instruction and assessment. As it is a required survey course, however, I am necessarily teaching subjects mostly outside my field of expertise.
8. Please tell me about the role of vocabulary in this class/discipline.
I have found some vocabulary important in the sub-field of rhetoric, mostly ancient Greek and Roman terms. Some philosophical and literary terminology can be very useful, but often times rhetorical scholars use technical words in a looser sense than they do in those disciplines where the terminology arose (for example: “transcendence” as a philosophical term, or “aesthetic” as a literary term).
In COMS 252, I regard technical vocabulary as less important than understanding the basic underlying concepts, and connections between approaches to communication. But some of it will find its way to the exam, because you can easily ask questions about definitions.
9. How much time out of the classroom do you expect students to dedicate to studying in order to succeed?
It depends on the students and how quickly and soundly they absorb material through reading on their own. I would think that if a student expects to get all the information solely from attending class (and not putting in outside work), the student’s exam grades will likely be low. If I had to put a number to it, I’d say perhaps 2–3 hours per week on the low end, and anywhere from 5–8 hours per week on the higher end.
Students with good study habits, who read before class and take notes during class, can probably succeed with 1–2 hours per week on average, and perhaps 3–4 hours per week when there is an exam.
10. What is important for a student to know before taking this course or a course in this discipline?
Communication is taught using many different approaches, not all them which are harmonious and agreeable to each other. It is a broad survey, so every week or class period might not cover a theory to your liking. Chances are you may find a way of thinking with which you won’t agree.
11. In general, what does it take for a student to be successful in your class? What do students who succeed in your class have in common?
1) Attend class regularly. 2) Ask questions. 3) Read the textbook actively, which means annotating in the book if you purchased it, or keeping notes in a separate notebook if you are borrowing, renting, or want to sell back the book in good condition.
12. What is the best way for studies to prepare for an exam or assessment in your course? Do you provide students with study guides before exams? Why or why not?
I do provide a one-page study guide of relevant pages to focus on in the textbook. I also try to provide links to further sources on the web. I try to give as much assistance as possible to students in class and through posted materials, but there is also a limit to what a professor can do, especially with many students in a survey course. Students must take control of their own education. If they are struggling, they should ask the professor. I try to make myself available for all such requests. My job as a teacher is not to guarantee a student’s success, although I certainly want all students to succeed and will try my hardest to help them. My job is to grade fairly and accurately, to confirm who has and has not mastered the knowledge or skill toward which the course aims. The “grade” measures how far along a student is to mastery of the material (knowledge, skill, or both). True “A” grades are usually not in the majority; not by design, just by the typical spread of an average course.
Having said all that, I don’t think I am the perfect teacher. Sometimes it takes mistakes or bad routes before one can learn the best way to teach something (at a specific university, say). The biggest fault of teachers is the difficulty in putting ourselves in the shoes of students. The older we get, the further removed from the condition of being a student. Also, the better we know our material, we try to push our own knowledge, but forget or lose sight of where students happen to be. That’s why the best way to succeed is to ask questions, and let the teacher know how you are doing. If a teaching style isn’t working, tell the teacher! Speaking for myself, at least, I won’t take it personally but welcome the feedback. I sometimes ask for feedback, but I don’t want students to feel they have to criticize or affirm me. I assume they behave in the classroom exactly how they want to behave, which is usually true.
To answer your first question last, I think the best way to prepare goes back to #11. Attend class regularly, 1–2 missed classes maximum if you expect to succeed. Do the reading, whether before class or after class, do the homework on time and consider the feedback. Ask questions when you don’t know. I know some people are intimidated in a large classroom, but they are hurting themselves if they don’t even approach the professor outside of class or through e-mail to ask for help. A teacher has very little way of knowing how carefully a student pays attention, or how well a concept gets through. Sometimes people sleep in class and ace an exam. I have no problem with that, as long as they are not cheating.
With consistent attendance, reading, homework, and study habits, the exams should be manageable in the “B” range, at least. No one gets everything right all the time, and that’s not the point anyway. Lower than “B” may indicate a real struggle or lack of commitment. Either way, those unhappy with grades early in the course should be especially forward in seeking help from the teacher.
Studying in groups can also be helpful if you have friends in the course.
And then, there is a particular skill just to taking tests. In many respects, an exam teaches you how to take an exam and nothing else. That’s why they can offer “SAT” or “ACT” classes, because there is a skill to guessing, budgeting your time, harnessing nervous energy, writing quickly if need be, and not letting one tough question sink you. I suppose this skill is just learned and developed by taking tests. So if practice tests are available, or practice questions, take those. The problem is, as a teacher I don’t want to give out practice questions, because I want to use those questions on the actual test. It is very labor-intensive to design good tests or quizzes, and if you teach a class year-on-year, you have to constantly rewrite quizzes and exams so students won’t pass them on to their friends and cheat.
13. Are there certain note-taking and/or reading strategies or techniques that are helpful to success in your course?
I assume it is different for everyone. When I am a student, my notebook is always open and I am constantly writing, even if it appears pointless. My pen is flying and my hand gets a cramp. It amazes me when I see students reclining with no book, no notebook on their desk, and they want to get good grades. I save many old notebooks, and they are filled with mostly nonsense. But writing while listening helps my mind focus.
When I read, if I am really into it, and it is difficult material, I write so much in the book that you can barely read the original words. If I don’t care for the book and I want to sell it back, I won’t write in it, but if need be I write down important words or phrases along with page numbers in a notebook. I have notebooks filled with page numbers and notes taken from old library books in which I would never write. I don’t like to see pencil marks in a library book. Oftentimes I will erase them myself.
14. Do you give students in your course any advice or tips for reading, notetaking or studying in your course? If so, what are they?
Not usually, but perhaps I should do more. I only hesitate because my whole life has been school, and I don’t feel that it is my place to make people passionate about note-taking, test-taking, talking in class, and the like, if they don’t want to. I try to regard people as adults.
If I did give advice on how to succeed in school, which is not necessarily the same as succeeding in life, I would say: 1) Learn how to take tests, practice taking tests; and 2) Learn how to talk in class when you haven’t done the reading.
Always bring your book to class, and open it to whatever chapter or passage is under discussion or on the syllabus for the day. If you haven’t read it, start reading in class! When a teacher asks almost any question, they usually lob a soft ball just to see who is engaged. Look at your book and try to find the answer before anyone else does. If you’ve talked 2 or 3 times, then maybe it’s time to sit back and hold your tongue. But if no one is talking, for God’s sake, try to find the answer! Usually it will be obvious and you can find it in 30–40 seconds. And if you’re wrong, guess what? You’re just wrong, it’s no big deal. Actually everyone learns when someone gives a wrong answer. Sometimes the teacher has it wrong, and people can learn from that too. Guess what you learn if no one speaks in class? Nothing.
At a minimum, if you open the course book in class you should be able to scan enough of the content quickly enough to say something. Even asking a question! If the teacher doesn’t know, you can find out together, and guess what? Class is going on. No one likes to be in a silent classroom, least of all teachers.
So yes, become comfortable talking in class, even if you haven’t done the reading. At the very least, you will discover some point of your own ignorance and that will motivate you to review the material on your own time. You will then have a motive for learning something instead of just worrying about a good or bad grade. The purpose of school is really to learn, and school-learning is a specific skill learned by being in school. Become comfortable in the classroom and you will succeed in school.
15. If a student is struggling to understand the course materials, what do you recommend?
Ask questions. If the teacher appears stand-offish or cold, that’s too bad, but they might be having a bad day. If you ask the teacher and get a cold response or a brush off, that’s a real shame and a teacher you should avoid at all costs. But you can still ask someone else to help you.
If the struggle is about a genuine matter of learning, say understanding a concept or text, you are actually on the right path to learning. Those who don’t struggle and don’t risk don’t learn anything. A lot of people just want to get good grades and follow directions; they may learn something accidentally. The people who want to learn something sometimes get good grades as an accident. The important thing is not to try and learn everything all the way, but to become satisfied with as much learning as you can absorb for the moment.
The accumulated wealth of human learning, wisdom, knowledge, failure, triumph, etc. is not going anywhere. It’s ok if you learn about something after it happened. Few people really understand what’s happening at any given time anyway. Our brains process things after the fact. That’s why it is so important to struggle and fail if you want to learn anything. A lot of teachers don’t want students to take risks, they just want students to follow directions so they can give them a good grade. Everyone is relieved because no one has to learn anything, struggle, fail, or take any risks.
16. How do you determine what materials to cover in lecture and what students can be expected to learn on their own?
I expect students to learn what is on the syllabus, and I try to be transparent about that. I put things on the syllabus that I want to learn myself, and discuss and work through with students. I want students to solve problems from which I can learn. If I come away from a class discussion, or reading an assignment or exam question, with some new improved knowledge, my life has improved.
As I said above, my whole life has been school and I enjoy being in the classroom. I want students to feel that way too. If we haven’t covered something, I try not to grade them on it. If I ask people to read a chapter, and we haven’t discussed every detail of the chapter in class, one of those “unmentioned” details might be on the test, just as a curve ball to see if people actually read.
But no one can ace every test. The tests would be poorly written if you could. Part of learning to succeed in school (and life?) is do the best you can. Always do the best you can and don’t lie about your education. Cheating and plagiarism are so serious because people not only lie to themselves, they compromise the whole delicate, vulnerable process of people struggling and learning together. It’s basically insulting to everyone who is taking a genuine risk for which they may suffer humiliation or some other painful emotion involved in actual learning. That’s why cheating is offensive. It’s much better to sleep in class than to cheat on a test or turn in a plagiarized assignment. It is healthier to write something crazy and a total failure than to lie and turn in someone else’s work.
If I assigned a textbook, I try to use the textbook, and try to make it worthwhile for the students to purchase it. I’m not to the stage yet where I can teach without a course text, so what I put on the syllabus, if we don’t cover it at all in the classroom (I don’t mean every detail), I won’t put it on the test. If I did something dishonest such as that, test people on something I don’t know, or that we didn’t cover, I would expect students to howl about it, and they would be right.
17. What are some of the reading, note-taking, or studying strategies that you used in your own studies? Did you find these to be helpful? Why or why not? What would you change if anything about yourself as a student?
Writing in a notebook almost every moment of every serious class I took, even if it looks like garbage or it’s a few words here and there. Writing while I’m listening helps me lock into the conversation, and I might flip back a few pages because some word sticks in my head. I’ll go back and circle that word. I’ll look up the word in a book to find its context. Sometimes I’ll spend a long time, hours even, hunting down one passage sticking in my memory. A lot of times that search is the beginning of writing an essay. Sometimes it just helps me solidify something in my mind, so I can forget it. But if you are not constantly burning through pens, filling up notebooks, you’re not doing everything you can. I don’t expect people to be as intense about school as I am, because I’m not as intense about other people’s passions. If you really want to succeed in school, you probably will.
Another benefit of writing all the time during classroom conversations is that a healthy school conversation wanders all over the place. If you have written down all the key moments, key words, you can go back over your notes and connect the dots. Nothing impresses people more in a classroom than when you can respond to several people in one comment, and tie all their thoughts together:
“Going back to ---, who said “---,” this is similar to what XX said regarding “XX.” YY over here picked it up from a different angle with the comment about “YY,” but the issue is resolved if we look at the passage ZZ, on page ZZ (the passage you have been looking up while other people talk).
It is not a dominating way to talk. It may be considered aggressive, but that kind of focus and attention is actually generous to everyone else who is speaking. Most of the time we just speak to hear how the words might sound, and that is how it should be. You are not shutting people down, you are making connections. That’s what I love about teaching, when that can happen. Then you can refer back in every subsequent class to the comment that XX made about “XX.” It becomes a common frame of reference for everyone and you have learned something that day.
Good engaged school conversation is infectious. You learn to be able to talk to anyone, anywhere, on any topic. It’s not about knowing everything, not about showing off. It ultimately doesn’t matter if you’ve done the reading. You are showing that you like school, you are committed to the opportunity to have a school conversation where it doesn’t matter if you are wrong or right. We are only sitting here for about an hour anyway, but we have this opportunity to talk with almost no negative consequences. You are not in the Supreme Court, on the battlefield, in the operating room, on the trading floor. You’re in class, and if the conversation begins to flow, class is over soon.
If it is silent, class drags on, people fall asleep or get on their phones. They start to resent their teacher and each other. They build up a bad attitude toward school and resent the time and money they spend there, they start feeling bitterness and casting blame, and they are well on the road to plagiarism city. They want to get out, but they don’t have the courage to drop out or suffer the pain of mental struggle, the feeling of helplessness, and the other vulnerable feelings involved in real learning. So they put on a mask, lie about their education, and cynically cause trouble for everyone else.
Moral of the story: 1) Bring your book to class. 2) Open it. 3) Say something! Everything else will follow. If you are nervous or shy in class, at least approach the teacher afterwards or write an e-mail to share your thoughts.
18. What is your teaching philosophy or epistemological beliefs about gaining knowledge in your course? (make sure you can explain this if they don’t know what you’re talking about)
If I absorb the basic structure of one of these communication theories, I may not follow it, I even may forget about it, but something of it sticks with me. That is, if it really made an impact on me, it caused me a moment of pain to realize some error I held previously. I do use learning to try to lead a better life, and I want students to live better because of their learning as well.
If it doesn’t help you live life, it might be getting in your way. I sympathize with that frustration: the teacher is making me read this stupid book that is really not telling me anything, but somehow restraining me.
A lot of writers and scholars put forward a limited view of a subject as if it was grand wisdom. Perhaps most writers and scholars, because our minds tend to think we have it all completely right. It is painful to learn that your big idea was totally wrong, or someone else thought of it much better a thousand years ago. The more you give yourself to school, you will learn how to seek and recognize the good teachers, but you will find your teachers’ limitations as well.
Regard everyone you meet in your life as a possible teacher and you will learn, painfully, as you get older, who the best teachers are. Ultimately, follow yourself. Follow Ralph Waldo Emerson, who taught us to follow ourselves. Deep down I am a Romanticist. Everyone has to follow their own way. A lot of times our memory teaches us. I recommend listening to music and associating songs or albums with times in your life. Especially when you are in college! Twenty or thirty years from now you will hear that song again after forgetting about it for a decade, and all of a sudden you feel the full rush of potential that you felt when anything was possible.
Anything becomes possible again, and everything you have learned, everything you have suffered in honesty, will come to aid you. That is real knowledge, real assistance. I think Oscar Wilde, in his letter from prison, wrote, “The only sin is shallowness. Everything realized is right.” [After looking it up: “The supreme vice is shallowness. Everything realised is right.”] I take him to mean, suffer everything, and you will succeed. Don’t lie to yourself, and don’t lie about your education. When you realize something, you have gotten it right. You can’t get something right if you haven’t gotten it wrong.
19. What is your teaching style in the classroom? (i.e. lecture, power points, hands-on-activities, discussion, etc.)
This year I have been lecturing a lot. I don’t really like to, but there is a lot of material to cover, and I can’t depend on students to learn it for themselves. I don’t think that’s sad, just realistic. I spend a lot of time reviewing material from previous classes, especially in advance of exams, because people forget easily. Or some people might have missed class. Reviewing the lessons of two or three classes prior before you start the new lesson also helps make sense of the course as a whole.
I hear this term a lot, “hands-on.” What does that mean? Arts and crafts? Your hands in a classroom, unless you are on a computer or in a laboratory or some other technologized scenario, your hands should be opening a book or writing in a notebook.
I don’t trust students to speak in a classroom all the time, so I try to devise ways. One tactic met with recent success is that I’ll make a bullet-point outline of a chapter and project in on the screen. Then we go through it, but I ask them if this stuff makes sense in their lives. Then we try to talk examples. Examples are the best, frequently taken from the current world.
Right now we talk a lot about the NFL. That is a huge story nowadays, Colin Kaepernick and Donald Trump, and all the complex factors that arouse such major passion in fans, military folks, TV people, sponsors, politicians … even the doctors are still talking about concussions. College students tend to love sports and popular culture, whether movies or music. I don’t watch movies anymore, and my “new” music is over a decade old, so that leaves sports. We can talk politics a little, but people get the noise of politics every day. I don’t want to reproduce that noise in a classroom.
We watched part of the recent speech by Carles Puigdemont, who “didn’t quite” declare independence of Catalonia from Spain. None of the students knew about it, but the speech was airing live through the Internet right during class hours. We stopped class when I was in high school to watch the OJ Simpson verdict. It doesn’t really matter. We can talk about race and police violence, or homecoming and their plans for the weekend.
A lot of college students work all the time. Tons of students work the night shift. They are much better with money than I am, but they are exhausted. Or they lift weights and travel with their sports team all the time. So I don’t know what brings them into the classroom, and that’s also why I don’t want to force somebody to be energetic about school, and reading, and taking notes. I don’t know exactly what brings them to school. As I said above, my job is not to guarantee that everyone succeeds. I couldn’t possibly do that. I give my energy to the classroom, I make myself available to meet outside of class in the office on campus, I spend time planning lessons and grading assignments. At age 36, I hope to be in school for life.
As my comments above suggest, the best part of school (to me) is the conversations. Students talk about their relationships, their families, their workplaces, their high schools. They have experienced trauma, they have survived cancer, they might be raising children. One student told me today he was kicked in the face by a cow. They are taking care of their dying pets or their sick relatives. They talk about the game last night, or the game tonight, or their friends who got in a fight. I love joking with them, playing the old man who didn’t grow up on a cell phone, who remembers Ronald Reagan as a president. Sometimes I’ll break into a few notes of singing, or I try to make jokes to wake them up. I don’t expect them to love class.
I’ll stop here. I think I’ve probably written enough for your exercise! I want to thank you, though, for giving me this opportunity. It is actually doing someone a great honor to ask them about their profession, because usually no one cares, or if it’s in conversation, there is not a lot of time to get into details. I do love my job, though, and one of my oldest friends assures me he can’t imagine me doing anything else. I’ll laugh, but also take some pride in that. As a final word, remember, if you want to succeed in school: 1) Bring your book to class. 2) Open the book. 3) Say something!