like to arrive in the classroom well before the students.

It gives me time to get things

organized. I create an entrance table (I use chairs or desks if there's no table) that
holds handouts for students to pick up. From day one the students learn the routine:
they arrive, pick up handouts on the entrance table, and read the screen for
instructions. They know what to do, and it saves time. Here's how I recommend
introducing the routine on day one.

1. Post your name and the name and section of the class on the screen, so that
when students walk in they know that they are in the right place.
2. Write: "welcome" on the screen and have directions that tell students what
they need to do immediately. Example: "As you enter, please tell me your
name. Then pick up a syllabus, a card, and a folder from the entrance table.
Fold the card so that it will stand on your desk, and write your first name on it
in BIG letters. Add your last name and major in smaller print. Write your
name on the tab of the folder, (last name first, then first name). Read the
syllabus until class starts." Note: By asking students to tell you their name as
they enter, you can hear how the name is pronounced, and avoid the
embarrassment of pronouncing it for the first time yourself.
3. When it's time for class to start - start class! Late arrivals can catch up by
reading the screen.
4. For classes of 25 or less, I have students do brief, 10-second introductions. I
tell them there will be a verbal quiz after all the introductions and that they
can win stars if they know who is who. (Have fun with this, but remember
that these are adults and college is not like junior high.)
5. For larger classes, I have students introduce themselves to three or four people
around them, and then we might do "stand-ups" - stand up if you are a
Spanish major, stand up if you are an education major, and so on. I explain
that students need to know each other for our small group work, and in case
they have a question.
6. I collect the file folders and put them alphabetically by student name into a
big plastic carrying case. When students need to turn in assignments, they find
the box on the entrance table and they put their papers in their respective
folders. When papers are graded, they can pull their graded tests or
assignments from their folders. The beauty of this system is that time is never
wasted by passing out papers. For small classes, I put handouts in the folders
of absent students.
7. After the introductions and the explanation of the folder and box system, I
turn to the "Today we will" list that I've written on the board, posted on a
large paper flip-chart, or projected on the screen. I like to actually write this
list on the board, so I can return to it even while projecting my notes. A "today
we will" list outlines my plan for the day. For example, for the first day, my
"today we will list" says:
o See screen for instruction for card and folder.
o Introductions
o Turn in folders
o Go over syllabus completely

1
 o Mini-lecture on _____________
o Interest inventory
o Do you know what to read/do before the next class?

Note: The "today we will" list lets me walk around the room, teach from the
projection system, and then look at the list for what I should do next. I tend
not to forget things if I have the list. As the semester progresses, the "today
we will" list might contain warm-up questions that then appear as test
questions. The list helps students who arrive late or leave early see what they
have missed.]

8. The mini-lesson/mini-lecture - whether it's a short overview of the first

reading assignment, some sample problems, or 10 interesting questions
students will be able to answer at the end of the course, I strongly recommend
doing some course content on the first day. For classes that last longer than 50
minutes, I include a short student activity. I also think it's important to begin
with course material on day one so that students begin to see who you are and
how you teach. Since I teach courses in teacher education, I often talk about
my teaching career. I include a few stories about how times have changed and
about how some things in teaching never change.
9. Interest inventories are great for the first day of class. An interest inventory is
just a short list of questions about students' backgrounds and interests. It may
assess their prior learning as well. In addition to name and major, students can
write about a hobby, interest, or goal. Do not be too personal. You can have
them answer several questions about content - maybe solve a problem, write a
short paragraph or answer specific questions. Finally open-ended questions
are useful:
o What are your goals after graduation?
o What has a teacher done in the past that helped you to learn ______?
o Is there anything else that you want me to know about you and your
course of study?

You can always add one fun question:

o If your song played when you entered the room, what would that song
be?

10. Every good class has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I usually
teach the mini-lesson, and then save the last six to eight minutes of class for
the interest inventory and individual questions. This way, students don't have
to wait on others to finish. I instruct students to turn in their interest inventory
as they exit. As they are writing, I alphabetize their folders and put them in the
box on the table. Another good closure is to ask if they know what to read/do
before the next class, and if they know three people to ask about the
assignment if they have a question.

2
 Clinical Preceptors: Tips for Effective Teaching With
Minimal Downtime
Harold C. Seim, MD, MPH; O. Guy Johnson, MD

(Fam Med 1999;31(8):538-9.)

Academic physicians know that we would not be able to run our student programs
without the help of volunteer clinical faculty. These faculty love to teach, enjoy the
satisfaction of aiding new physicians in their learning, and especially enjoy seeing the
“aha” response that often comes from these eager learners.

Tips to Make Clinical

Instruction of Students More Efficient
Orient Students to the Practice Setting
Tell students where to hang their coats, where the bathroom is, and introduce them to the
medical and ancillary staff. Watch the students with some patients first, and repeat an
appropriate amount of the history and physical. Once the student is comfortable with the
system, and the preceptor is comfortable with the student, allow the student to make the
first contact with the patient.

Clarify Your Expectations to the Students

Revise your expectations as the students learn.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Immediate feedback is most effective. However, you can provide feedback at regular
intervals in the teaching day. There is time to talk with students about their cases when
walking back from morning rounds, going to noon conferences, or at the end of the clinic
day.

Share the Students With Other Partners

A good method is to have a list of patients in the doctors’ common gathering area, along
with their chief complaints; the students can choose the patients who provide the best
learning experience. Other doctors will have interesting cases to show, as well. Sharing
the students with other partners also helps when the primary preceptor is off. Students can
read about an interesting case if patients are backing up. This will allow the preceptor to
catch up.

Students Need to Learn About How a Clinic Functions

The nurse, business person, lab technician, and receptionist can provide insights for the
student.

Students Generally Like to See Patients Alone First,

Present to the Preceptor, and Then See the Patient Together
This may not always be the best learning strategy. An article by Epstein et al details

3
critical education experiences in which students were only observers of the clinical
encounter.1 Encounters such as these are ones that may take little extra teaching time for
preceptors.

Teaching Students Helps Prevent

Physician Burnout
Teaching students reminds doctors why they enjoy medicine. Students ask questions that
challenge preceptors. These questions require the physicians to have an explanation as to
why they treated a patient in a certain way, and it is an opportunity to rethink the
approach to treating a certain disease state. We are always students, and the preceptor and
student can learn from each other.

Inform Patients That Students Will

Be Participating in Their Care
Some clinics always have a student, and patients know they may be seen by a student.
For those clinics that take students intermittently, patients should be informed about the
student’s presence by the receptionist, the person checking in the patient, or by a sign at
the reception desk. Patients who do not wish to see a student can be seen by the preceptor
alone. Patients should be apprised that their physician has been chosen to participate in
the medical school’s educational program, which lends a measure of prestige to the
clinical faculty.

Be a Role Model
Role models during medical school, in clerkship encounters, and in residency can be a
strong influence in medical students’ specialty choice. Conversely, negative experiences
can turn students away from specific fields. It is incumbant on all of us to provide
positive experiences for students to enhance rather than detract from a career in family
practice.

Include Students in Activities

Outside the Clinical Setting
Invite students for dinners in your home or at local restaurants or to sports events, plays,
musical performances, and other social events. This gives students the opportunity to
interact with preceptors in a more-relaxed situation than in the clinical setting.

Be a Preceptor That Students

Look Up To
Qualities that students rate highly in their preceptors are respect for students and
colleagues, empathy, a sense of humor, enthusiasm, and dependability.2 Highly rated
professional qualities are being a good role model, ability to solve conflict, and fortitude
to look for alternative answers to problems.3

Teaching medical students in the private office setting can and should be a highly
rewarding experience for preceptors and students alike.

4
 FORTY SUCCESSES
By William Watson Purkey and John M. Novak
Inviting School Success, Wadworth, 1984

The following lists of inviting and disinviting verbal comments, personal behavior,
physical environments, and printed signs have been identified by educators and
students as indicators of the quality of life in schools. These lists are only illustrative,
but the presence or absence of items on these lists may help to identify the inviting or
disinviting stance taken by those who live and work in and around schools. These
items may also serve as a checklist for those in schools who are already doing good
things, and who want to do them even better.
Verbal Comments

Forty Inviting Comments Forty Disinviting Comments

Good morning. Keep out.

Thanks very much. What Mary is trying to say is...
Congratulations. Use your head.
Let's talk it over. It won't work.
How can I help? You'll have to call back.
Tell me about it. You can't do that.
I appreciate your help. I don't care what you do.
Happy birthday! Not bad, for a girl.
I enjoy having you here Don't be so stupid.
I understand. Who do you think you are?
We missed you. He can't be disturbed.
I'm glad you came by. Why didn't you stay home?
I like that idea! Woman driver!
I think you can. They don't want to learn.
Welcome. They don't have the ability.
I like what you did. You can't be that dumb.
Welcome back. They're all right, in their place.
You are unique. Who's calling.
That's even better. You should not feel that way.
I've been thinking of you. You ought to know better.
How are things going? You must do as I say.
How are you? How could you?
I'd like your opinion. Shape up or ship out.
Happy holiday! Anybody can do that.
What do you think? Why do you bother coming to school?
Let's have lunch. That's a childish viewpoint.
What can I do for you? That is dead wrong.
Of course I have the time. Hi, Chubby.
That's OK. You goofed.
I am impressed. Get lost.

5
You made me feel good. That's stupid.
Yes. So what?
Please come in. Because I said so, that's why.
I've always got time for you. What, you again?
I think you can do it. Forget it.
Please tell me more. You'll never make it.
May I help you? Sit down and shut up.
Let's do it together. Knock it off.
Come back soon! I know you're not that stupid.
I enjoy our time together. What's your excuse this time?

Personal Behaviors
Forty Inviting Behaviors Forty Disinviting Behaviors

A relaxed posture Giving a thumbs-down sign

Lending a book Interrupting
Smiling Looking at your watch
Listening carefully Yawning in someone's face
Patting a back Shaking your finger at someone
Shaking hands Scowling and frowning
Opening a door for someone Slamming a door
Giving a friendly wink Using ridicule
Sharing lunch together Turning you back on someone
Being on time Cutting people short
Sending a thoughtful note Making fun of a person
Bringing a gift Looking away from someone
Sharing an experience Leaving someone to answer the phone
Accepting praise Hitting someone
Giving wait-time Being obscene
Gazing warmly Laughing at someone's misfortune
Yielding interest Throwing paper on the ground
Noticing new clothes Tapping a pencil (fidgeting)
Learning names Chewing gum loudly
Offering refreshments Breaking a promise
Sending a valentine Forgetting an important date
Hugging (where appropriate) Gawking at an accident
Extending an apology (where Using sarcasm
required) Mimicking
Sharing a poem Forgetting a birthday
Picking up litter Blowing your car horn
Planting a flower Talking with your mouth full
Waiting your turn Playing with your nose
Holding a door Eating loudly
Extending a hand Showing lack of concern
Congratulating someone Sneering
Remembering important occasions Being late
Sharing a sandwich Staring at someone
Using a napkin Littering
Offering someone a chair Shoving ahead
Bringing flowers Stamping your foot
Scratching someone's back Telling a lie
Expressing regret Dumping ashtrays in the street
Waving with both hands Insulting a person
Giving a thumbs-up sign Talking during a movie

6
Overlooking a faux pas

Physical Environments
Forty Inviting Environments Forty Disinviting Environments

Fresh Paint Dark corridors

Pleasant smells Bad smells
Living plant Dingy colors
Attractive, up-to-date bulletin boards Full trash cans
Soft lighting Hard lighting
Big and soft pillows Insects (flies, roaches)
Lots of books Excessive noise
Fresh air Smoke-filled room
Fireplace Bare walls
Comfortable furniture Leftover food
Rocking chair Dirty coffee cups
Flowers on the desk Full ashtrays
Open doors Bare lightbulb
Candy jar with candy Stack of out-of-date materials
Soft music Fluorescent lights that buzz
Attractive pictures Dark parking lots
Comfortable temperature A full pencil sharpener
A cup of coffee, tea or juice Dead plant
Porch light at night Long lines
Porch swing Dingy curtains
Birthday cake Burned-out lightbulb
Fresh towels Sidewalks going where people don't
Well-tended park Opaque windows
Books and magazines Cold room
Stuffed animals Lukewarm coffee
Sunny room Artificial plants and flowers
Game board Cigarette butts on a plate
Thick carpet Sink full of dirty dishes
This morning's paper Exhaust fumes
Holiday tree Straight rows
Matching colors Empty mail box
Birthday card Dirty fingerprints
Positive worded signs Peeling paint and plaster
Blue jeans and cotton shirts Nothing to read
Bright hallways Dusty, cobwebby shelves
Clean aromas Stuffy room
Brightly lit parking lot Sticky floors
Clean windows Broken windows
Clear floors Signs with letters missing
Old pick-up truck Spray-painted graffiti

Printed Signs
Forty Inviting Signs Forty Disinviting Signs

Please Use Sidewalks Office Closed

Welcome Do Not Disturb
Visitor Parking Keep off Grass
Please Leave Message To Trespassing

7
Open, Come in
No Talking
No Appointment Necessary
No Running in Halls
Please Use Other Door
No Admission without Pass
Thank You for Not Smoking
Visitors Must Report to
Come Back Soon
No Smoking
Open House
No Admittance
We're Glad You're Here
Be Seated
Handicapped Parking
Keep Out
Sorry I Missed You, Please Come
Do Not Enter
Back
No Deposit, No Return
Visitors Welcome
Tow Away Zone
Happy Hour
By Appointment Only
Please Put Litter Here
Out of Order
Come As You Are
No Children Allowed
Open to the Public
Closed to the Public
Rest Area
Private Beach
Take Me
No Checks Cashed
Clean Restrooms
No Spitting on Sidewalk
Help Keep Hawaii Beautiful
Members Only
Library
We Do Not Give Change
Have Lunch with Us
Take a Number and Wait
Students Welcome Back
Shop Lifters Will Be Prosecuted:
Please Excuse the Inconvience
Means You!
Good Day
Keep This Door Shut!
Happy Holidays
Not for Public Use
No Waiting
Out to Lunch
You're Here
You Broke It, You Bought It
Please Touch
Books Are for Sale Only
Come on In
Government Property - No Admittance
Pardon Our Dust
Do Not Remove under Penalty of Law
Ample Parking in the Rear
Restrooms for Customers Only
May We Help You?
Parking for Officials Only
Be Back at ___
No Shirt, No Service
Please Watch Your Step
No Facilities
Help Us Conserve Energy
For Faculty Use Only
Directory Assistance
Beware of the Dog
Welcome to Hawaii (or HCC)

8
 101 THINGS YOU CAN DO
THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF CLASS
By Joyce T. Povlacs
Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Introduction

Beginnings are important. Whether the class is a large introductory course for
freshmen or an advanced course in the major field, it makes good sense to start the
semester off well. Students will decide very early - some say the first day of class -
whether they will like the course, its contents, the teacher, and their fellow students.

The following list of "101 Things You Can Do..." is offered in the spirit of starting off
right. It is a catalog of suggestions for college teachers who are looking for a fresh
way of creating the best possible environment for learning. Not just the first day, but
the first three weeks of a course are especially important, studies say, in retaining
capable students. Even if the syllabus is printed and lecture notes are ready to go in
August, most college teachers can usually make adjustments in teaching methods as
the course unfolds and the characteristics of their students become known.

These suggestions have been gathered from UNL professors and from college
teachers elsewhere. The rationale for these methods is based on the following needs:
1) to help students make the transition from high school and summer or holiday
activities to learning in college; 2) to direct students' attention to the immediate
situation for learning - the hour in the classroom: 3) to spark intellectual curiosity - to
challenge students; 4) to support beginners and neophytes in the process of learning
in the discipline; S) to encourage the students' active involvement in learning; and 6)
to build a sense of community in the classroom.
Ideas For the First Three Weeks

Here, then, are some ideas for college teachers for use in their courses as they begin a
new semester.
Helping Students Make Transitions

1. Hit the ground running on the first day of class with substantial content.
2. Take attendance: roll call, clipboard, sign in, seating chart.
3. Introduce teaching assistants by slide, short presentation, or self-introduction.
4. Hand out an informative, artistic, and user-friendly syllabus.
5. Give an assignment on the first day to be collected at the next meeting.
6. Start laboratory experiments and other exercises the first time lab meets.
7. Call attention (written and oral) to what makes good lab practice: completing
work to be done, procedures, equipment, clean up, maintenance, safety,
conservation of supplies, full use of lab time.

9
8. Administer a learning style inventory to help students find out about
themselves.
9. Direct students to the Learning Skills Center for help on basic skills.
10. Tell students how much time they will need to study for this course.
11. Hand out supplemental study aids: library use, study tips, supplemental
readings and exercises.
12. Explain how to study for kind of tests you give.
13. Put in writing a limited number of ground rules regarding absence, late work,
testing procedures, grading, and general decorum, and maintain these.
14. Announce office hours frequently and hold them without fail.
15. Show students how to handle learning in large classes and impersonal
situations.
16. Give sample test questions.
17. Give sample test question answers.
18. Explain the difference between legitimate collaboration and academic
dishonesty; be clear when collaboration is wanted and when it is forbidden.
19. Seek out a different student each day and get to know something about him or
her.
20. Ask students to write about what important things are currently going on in
their lives.
21. Find out about students' jobs; if they are working, how many hours a week,
and what kinds of jobs they hold.

Directing Students' Attention

22. Greet students at the door when they enter the classroom.
23. Start the class on time.
24. Make a grand stage entrance to hush a large class and gain attention.
25. Give a pre-test on the day's topic.
26. Start the lecture with a puzzle, question, paradox, picture, or cartoon on slide
or transparency to focus on the day's topic.
27. Elicit student questions and concerns at the beginning of the class and list
these on the chalkboard to be answered during the hour.
28. Have students write down what they think the important issues or key points
of the day's lecture will be.
29. Ask the person who is reading the student newspaper what is in the news
today.

Challenging Students

30. Have students write out their expectations for the course and their own goals
for learning.
31. Use variety in methods of presentation every class meeting.
32. Stage a figurative "coffee break" about twenty minutes into the hour; tell an
anecdote, invite students to put down pens and pencils, refer to a current
event, shift media.

10
33. Incorporate community resources: plays, concerts, the State Fair. government
agencies. businesses, the outdoors.
34. Show a film in a novel way: stop it for discussion, show a few frames only,
anticipate ending, hand out a viewing or critique sheet, play and replay parts.
35. Share your philosophy of teaching with your students.
36. Form a student panel to present alternative views of the same concept.
37. Stage a change-your-mind debate. with students moving to different parts of
the classroom to signal change in opinion during the discussion.
38. Conduct a "living" demographic survey by having students move to different
parts of the classroom: size of high school. rural vs. urban. consumer
preferences...
39. Tell about your current research interests and how you got there from your
own beginnings in the discipline.
40. Conduct a role-play to make a point or to lay out issues.
41. Let your students assume the role of a professional in the discipline:
philosopher, literary critic, biologist. agronomist. political scientist. engineer.
42. Conduct idea-generating or brainstorming sessions to expand horizons.
43. Give students two passages of material containing alternative views to
compare and contrast.
44. Distribute a list of the unsolved problems. dilemmas. or great questions in
your discipline and invite students to claim one as their own to investigate.
45. Ask students what books they've read recently.
46. Ask what is going on in the state legislature on this subject which may affect
their future.
47. Let your students see the enthusiasm you have for your subject and your love
of learning.
48. Take students with you to hear guest speakers or special programs on campus.
49. Plan "scholar-gypsy" lesson or unit which shows students the excitement of
discovery in your discipline.

Providing Support

50. Collect students' current telephone numbers and addresses and let them know
that you may need to reach them.
51. Check out absentees. Call or write a personal note.
52. Diagnose the students' prerequisites learning by questionnaire or pre-test ant
give them the feedback as soon as possible.
53. Hand out study questions or study guides.
54. Be redundant. Students should hear, read. or see key material at least three
times.
55. Allow students to demonstrate progress in learning: summary quiz over the
day's work. a written reaction to the day's material.
56. Use non-graded feedback to let students know how they are doing: post
answers to ungraded quizzes and problem sets, exercises in class, oral
feedback.
57. Reward behavior you want: praise, stars, honor roll, personal note.

11
58. Use a light touch: smile, tell a good joke, break test anxiety with a
sympathetic comment.
59. Organize. Give visible structure by posting the day's "menu" on chalk- board
or overhead.
60. Use multiple media: overhead, slides, film, videotape, audio tape, models,
sample material.
61. Use multiple examples, in multiple media. to illustrate key points and .
important concepts.
62. Make appointments with all students (individually or in small groups).
63. Hand out wallet-sized telephone cards with all important telephone numbers
listed: office department, resource centers, teaching assistant, lab.
64. Print all important course dates on a card that can be handed out and taped to
a mirror.
65. Eavesdrop on students before or after class and join their conversation about
course topics.
66. Maintain an open lab gradebook. with grades kept current. during lab time so
that students can check their progress.
67. Check to see if any students are having problems with any academic or
campus matters and direct those who are to appropriate offices or resources.
68. Tell students what they need to do to receive an "A" in your course.
69. Stop the work to find out what your students are thinking feeling and doing in
their everyday lives.

Encouraging Active Learning

70. Have students write something.

71. Have students keep three-week-three-times-a-week journals in which they
comment. ask questions. and answer questions about course topics.
72. Invite students to critique each other's essays or short answer on tests for
readability or content.
73. Invite students to ask questions and wait for the response.
74. Probe student responses to questions ant wait for the response.
75. Put students into pairs or "learning cells" to quiz each other over material for
the day.
76. Give students an opportunity to voice opinions about the subject matter.
77. Have students apply subject matter to solve real problems.
78. Give students red, yellow, and green cards (mate of posterboard) and
periodically call for a vote on an issue by asking for a simultaneous show of
cards.
79. Roam the aisles of a large classroom and carry on running conversations with
students as they work on course problems (a portable microphone helps).
80. Ask a question directed to one student and wait for an answer.
81. Place a suggestion box in the rear of the room and encourage students to make
written comments every time the class meets.
82. Do oral show of-hands multiple choice tests for summary review and instant
feedback.

12
83. Use task groups to accomplish specific objectives.
84. Grade quizzes and exercises in class as a learning tool.
85. Give students plenty of opportunity for practice before a major test.
86. Give a test early in the semester and return it graded in the next class meeting.
87. Have students write questions on index cards to be collected and answered the
next class period.
88. Make collaborate assignments for several students to work on together.
89. Assign written paraphrases and summaries of difficult reading.
90. Give students a take-home problem relating to the days lecture.
91. Encourage students to bring current news items to class which relate to the
subject matter and post these on a bulletin board nearby.

Building Community

92. Learn names. Everyone makes an effort to learn at least a few names.
93. Set up a buddy system so students can contact each other about assignments
and coursework.
94. Find out about your students via questions on an index card.
95. Take pictures of students (snapshots in small groups, mug shots) and post in
classroom, office, or lab.
96. Arrange helping trios of students to assist each other in learning and growing.
97. Form small groups for getting acquainted; mix and form new groups several
times.
98. Assign a team project early in the semester and provide time to assemble the
team.
99. Help students form study groups to operate outside the classroom.
100.Solicit suggestions from students for outside resources and guest speakers on
course topics.

Feedback on Teaching

101.Gather student feedback in the first three weeks of the semester to improve
teaching and learning.

13
 BREAK THE ICE

The first day of class is usually spent in part by getting acquainted and establishing goals.
Icebreakers are techniques used at the first session to reduce tension and anxiety, and also
to immediately involve the class in the course. Use an icebreaker because you want to,
not as a time filler or because teaching guides say one should be used. Listed below are
several examples of icebreakers.

• INTRODUCE MYSELF. Participants introduce themselves and tell why they are
there. Variations: Participants tell where they first heard about the class, how they
became interested in the subject, their occupations, home town, favorite television
program, or the best book they have read in the last year.
• INTRODUCE ANOTHER. Divide the class into pairs. Each person talks about
him/herself to the other, sometimes with specific instructions to share a certain
piece of information. For example, "The one thing I am particularly proud of is..."
After five minutes, the participants introduce the other person to the rest of the
class.
• CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS. Have students write down one or two
adjectives describing themselves. Put these on a stick-on badge. Have class
members find someone with similar or opposite adjectives and talk for five
minutes with the other person.
• I'VE DONE SOMETHING YOU HAVEN'T DONE. Have each person introduce
themselves and then state something they have done that they think no one else in
the class has done. If someone else has also done it, the student must state
something else until he/she finds something that no one else has done.
• FIND SOMEONE. Each person writes on a blank index card one to three
statements, such as favorite color, interest, hobby, or vacations. Pass out cards so
everyone gets someone else's card. Have that person find the person with their
card and introduce themselves.
• FAMOUS PERSON. People write a famous name on a piece of paper and pin it
on someone else's back. Person tries to guess what name is pinned on his/her by
asking others around the room yes or no questions. Variation: Use famous place
instead of famous person.
• MY NAME. People introduce themselves and tell what they know about why they
have their name (their mother wanted to name me after her great aunt Helen who
once climbed Pike's Peak in high heels, etc.). It could be the first, middle or
nickname.
• HOW DO YOU FEEL? Ask the students to write down words or phrases that
describe their feelings on the first day of class. List the responses on the
blackboard. Then ask them to write down what they think you as the teacher are
feeling this first day of class. List them on the blackboard in a second column and
note the parallels. Briefly comment on your feelings and then discuss the joint
student/teacher responsibilities for learning in the course.
• COMMON GROUND. This works best for small groups or for each small group
sitting together as a team (4-6 learners). Give the group a specific time (perhaps 5

14
 minutes) to write a list of everything they all have in common. Tell them to avoid
the obvious ("we're all taking this course"). When time is up, ask each group how
many items they have listed. For fun, ask them to announce some of the most
interesting items.
• ME TOO. This also works best for small groups or foe each small group sitting
together as a team (4-6 learners). Everyone in the group gest 10
pennies/toothpicks/scrap of papers, etc. The first student states something he/she
has done (e.g. water skiing). Everyone else who has done the same thing admits it
and puts one penny in the middle of the table. Then the second person states
something (e.g. I have eaten frogs' legs). Everyone who has done it puts another
penny in the center. Continue until someone has run out of pennies.

These are just a few of the hundreds of icebreakers. Be creative and design your own
variations. Don't be afraid to experiment and try different approaches, and above all, have
fun and start that most important first day of class on the right foot!

Index of Icebreakers, Games, and Activities

Icebreakers by group size

• Small group
Games for 2-5 people
• Medium group
Games for 5-10 people
• Large group
Games for 10-30 people
• Extra Large group
Games for 30 or more people

Icebreakers by category

• Active
Action packed icebreakers that might cause you to
break a sweat!
• Get-to-know-you
Icebreakers that help people get to know each other.
• Team building
Activities to build teamwork and unity.

Sponsored Links

15
Icebreakers by name

• Bigger and Better

The classic teambuilding game of trading and upgrading - try to get the biggest
and best item to win!
• Candy Introductions
A fun game that uses multicolored candy to help people get to know each other.
• Defend the Egg
A teambuilding activity that asks teams to protect a fragile egg by building a
protective stucture out of simple supplies.
• Did You Know? Bingo
An interactive game that helps people discover interesting facts about other
people.
• Fabulous Flags
Represent yourself by designing your own flag!
• Fear in a Hat
A teambuilding activity that asks people to anonymously share their fears and to
place them into a hat.
• Four Corners
A get-to-know-you game involving the four corners of a room.
• Icebreaker Questions
A list of simple questions that are very useful for breaking the ice.
• King Elephant
A silly action game that involves hand motions and acting as animals.
• Lost on a Deserted Island
If you were stranded on a island, what items would you take with you? A get-to-
know-you game.
• Never Have I Ever
A game to see who has and hasn’t had various experiences!
• Personal Trivia Baseball
A fun trivia game that combines baseball with a way to learn interesting facts
about people.
• Photo Scavenger Hunt
An active teambuilding game that sends teams off to take photos of interesting
things in a scavenger hunt!
• React and Act Game
A fast-paced game of improv acting!
• Sardines
The classic game of reverse hide-and-go-seek.
• Sorts and Mingle
A fun way to see the similarities and differences people have.
• String Game
An icebreaker that makes use of string or yarn to help people introduce
themselves.

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 • Superlative Game
The fun game of superlatives!
• Telephone Charades
A hilarious twist on the classic game of telephone, involving charades and acting
down the line!
• Trust Walk Teambuilding Activity
The classic teambuilding activity that requires trust and reliance on teammates.
• Two Truths and a Lie
As people introduce themselves, figure out which statement is true and which one
is a lie!
• Unique and Shared
An icebreaker that helps people see their commonalities and unique
characteristics compared with others.
• Who Done It?
A game in which you try to identity who did it!

Share This

Introduction

It's the first day of a new semester. In addition to the enthusiasm and optimism
inherent in a new beginnings, we as teachers also must confront a humbling task: how
to learn the names and faces of the 20 to 40 unfamiliar students expectantly sitting
before us.

And we must learn them quickly! In teaching, as in so many other fields, first
impressions count for much. Before becoming teachers, all of us were students; we
learned, if only subconsciously, that teachers who were slow in learning the names of
their students tended to be uninspired and uninspiring. Although we certainly don't
want our students to come to that harsh prejudgment of us, we are only human.
Almost all of us find it difficult to put together names with the faces of so many new
people in short order. The only individuals who seem to succeed, apart from
professional memory trainers and sales representatives, are politicians.

Actually, there is a technique that can reliably be used to associate the names and
faces of at least 75% of a typical first day class size of 20-40 new students. Even
better, skillful use (i.e., the right amount of showmanship) of this technique can leave
the impression that you have gotten to know almost all the students' names and faces
by the start of the second class meeting.
Step 1

Before coming to class, read the class roster several times. Focus on the last names
and honorifics (Mr./Ms.). Memorize as many of them as you can.

17
By familiarizing ourselves with the names beforehand, we set up a kind of cognitive
dissonance: If we know there is a Jones in the class, them we can concentrate on
looking for Jones and remembering what he or she looks like. Under this procedure,
paradoxically, students with unusual names become easier to remember. At this point
there is no need to focus on the first, or given names. That just increases memory
burden without yielding initial benefits.
Step 2

Start the class by introducing yourself and describing your background and
expectations for the course. Conclude by saying that you would like to learn more
about them, but there isn't time for everyone to be as longwinded as you've been.
Hand out a "Student Expectations Survey" that asks for a name,address, and phone
number(s), and includes an open-ended essay question about backgrounds and
expectations. Allow students at least 15 minutes of writing time.

While the students are busy writing, take the opportunity to study their faces, clothing
styles, posture, haircuts - anything, in short, that you can use to personalize the
individual student. This visual information also sets up a cognitive dissonance; you'll
certainly want to learn the name of the punk rocker with the purple hair.

The writing exercise is not only a chance to study the physiognomy of your students, but is also a way
to take attendance and gauging the overall intellectual potential and interests of your new class.

Step 3

In addition to absorbing the "tableau" of visual information presented by individual

students, set up a mnemonic position framework. For example, in a traditional
classroom layout, call the first row on your left "A", the second row, "B" and so on.
Similarly, call the first student in row"A", 1; the second, 2, etc. Modify this positional
framework to fit various possible seating arrangements.

This framework is the heart of the techniques presented. It relies on a curious fact of
student sociobiology: students almost invariably return to the same seat they occupied
during the first class, or in reasonable proximity. For example, students who choose
to sit in the back of the room on the first day will almost never voluntarily change
their seats to the front, and vise versa. Students who seem to prefer quick access to
the door will sooner die than sit over by the windows, and vice versa.
Step 4

Collect the student papers. Then, starting with position "A1," ask the students to
introduce themselves and say a few words about themselves and their expectations
for the course.

18
Again, this step, like the preceding ones, is not very different from ordinary
classroom practice and sound group leadership. But it does set up the next step.
Step 5

While listening as carefully as possible to what student "A1" is saying, find the name
on the class roster and code "A1" next to it. (Obviously, if the student is not on the
roster, write in the name and the code.) If you have memorized or nearly memorized
the set of names, and have carefully studied the faces and appearances of your
students, then the positional code will serve as the link or index between names and
faces!

At first glance, Step 5 appears to be the result of cross-pollinating cognitive

psychology with an electronic spreadsheet, like LOTUS 1-2-3. Despite the
resemblance, it isn't. You might be surprised to learn that the technique described
above is virtually identical to the method used by ancient orators like Cicero to
deliver complex orations without reading them to their audiences. (For more
information on the techniques, consult any scholarly work on ancient oratory,
particularly Frances Yates.)
Step 6

As soon as you can after class, read the "Student Expectations Surveys," covering up
the names of the student. Attempt to remember the name, based on your recollections
of what students said in class about themselves. Refer to your class roster and
position-code the "Student Expectations Survey" so that you can "triangulate" if
necessary.

This step provides additional reinforcement of the links between names, faces and
places.
Step 7

Before the second class meeting, review the surnames and honorifics of the students
on the class roster. Reread the "Survey" and attempt to recollect names, faces and
places.

By this point, the majority of the names, faces and places should be almost
committed to memory, and if during the second class you don't mind using the roster
with positional codes as a kind of crib sheet -- well, you can make it seem as thought
you know more names and faces that you really do. In fact, with the right amount of
showmanship, you can appear to be a close relative of the "Amazing Kreskin."
CONCLUSIONS

19
Make no mistake: this technique does require a certain amount of work. Like
anything else, practice makes it easier and easier to apply. Bit is it worth the effort?

There is no doubt, in my mind at least, that "the pain is worth the gain." In my own
career as a student, I remember that my best teachers always seemed to take some
extra effort to learn (and use) students' names as quickly as possible. The worst (i.e.,
graduate assistants in large undergraduate lecture courses) never bothered. Teachers
cannot claim to be concerned about how well their students learn, if they themselves
do not try as hard as they can to show they care about one of the most important
possessions anyone can have in a mass civilization: a face and a name

MAGICALLY "LEARN" STUDENTS' NAMES IN MINUTES

By Doug Madden
Honolulu Community College. Printed with permission, August 26, 1999.

Years ago when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, I had a
speech teacher who amazed me, as well as I'm sure the entire class, with his
extraordinary recall and ability to memorize things almost instantly. I think most of
my impression was based on his having "learned" the names of all 25 or so students
in just a few minutes. Much more recently, though, when I took a non-credit class in
magic tricks, I realized he had probably fooled everyone in the class. Remembering
how he demonstrated his purported skill, I now think he used a simple old trick
known as "pushing a card," a magic trick usually performed with playing cards.

What the instructor did was have everyone print his or her name, major, home city
and state, and special personal interest (or something like these things) on a 3x5 card.
He then collected the cards row by row, laid them out in order on his desk, took just a
couple of minutes to "appear" to be connecting the information on the cards to the
students' faces or something, then neatly gathered the cards together by row, each row
into a small pile. He then placed the piles upside down one on top of another so that
the last row was on the bottom of the stack and the first row was on the top. One
exception: I don't actually remember him having done this, but I'd guess he looked
especially hard at the card of the first person in the first row and made sure that that
card ended up out of place on the bottom of the stack.

He then proceeded to recall the names supposedly from memory. In doing so he

essentially introduced the students one by one. From having looked at the first
person's card before he placed it at the bottom of the stack, he was able to correctly
introduce the first person. He then turned over the top card of the stack, looked at it,
and confirmed that he'd been correct. Remember that he'd previously placed the card
of the first person on the bottom of the stack, so he was really looking at the card of
the second person.

When he went on to the second person, of course he knew the person's name because
he'd just looked at that person's card (in pretending to be confirming the first person's

20
name). He went through the entire class like this, always one card ahead of the one he
was pretending to be reading to confirm a name. Occasionally he'd pretend to have a
little difficulty, but in the end he always came up with the correct name. Just as
amazing (so I thought at the time) was his ability to "recall" where a person was
from, what a person's major was, etc. Interesting, huh?

Would I recommend this first day activity to other instructors? Done as I THINK my
own instructor did it years ago, I think it'd be a fairly clear case of misrepresentation,
and I would not recommend that. But with probably a group of students I already
knew and with a clear explanation at the end that it was really a trick, it could be fun
-- and it might serve a good purpose. The objective ought to be a novel way of
introducing students and could include opportunities for students to add to their
introductions and respond to other student or instructor questions. When at the end it's
revealed to be only a trick, it could also provide a light or humorous break in the
normal tension of a first day. And of course the instructor ends up with the cards to
use for other purposes later. Student interest in how the trick was done might also
valuably promote first day involvement and interaction of students. The activity is
offered here, however, only as a possibility or idea, not as a recommendation and
probably not for everyone.

101 WAYS TO COPE WITH STRESS

Courtesy of the Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii

1. Get up 15 minutes earlier

2. Prepare for the morning the night before
3. Avoid tight fitting clothes
4. Avoid relying on chemical aids
5. Set appointments ahead
6. Don't rely on your memory ... write it down
7. Practice preventive maintenance
8. Make duplicate keys
9. Say "no" more often
10. Set priorities in your life
11. Avoid negative people
12. Use time wisely
13. Simplify meal times
14. Always make copies of important papers
15. Anticipate your needs
16. Repair anything that doesn't work properly
17. Ask for help with the jobs you dislike
18. Break large tasks into bite size portions
19. Look at problems as challenges
20. Look at challenges differently
21. Unclutter your life
22. Smile

21
23. Be prepared for rain
24. Tickle a baby
25. Pet a friendly dog/cat
26. Don't know all the answers
27. Look for a silver lining
28. Say something nice to someone
29. Teach a kid to fly a kite
30. Walk in the rain
31. Schedule play time into every day
32. Take a bubble bath
33. Be aware of the decisions you make
34. Believe in yourself
35. Stop saying negative things to yourself
36. Visualize yourself winning
37. Develop your sense of humor
38. Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better today
39. Have goals for yourself
40. Dance a jig
41. Say "hello" to a stranger
42. Ask a friend for a hug
43. Look up at the stars
44. Practice breathing slowly
45. Learn to whistle a tune
46. Read a poem
47. Listen to a symphony
48. Watch a ballet
49. Read a story curled up in bed
50. Do a brand new thing
51. Stop a bad habit
52. Buy yourself a flower
53. Take time to small the flowers
54. Find support from others
55. Ask someone to be your "vent-partner"
56. Do it today
57. Work at being cheerful and optimistic
58. Put safety first
59. Do everything in moderation
60. Pay attention to your appearance
61. Strive for Excellence NOT perfection
62. Stretch your limits a little each day
63. Look at a work of art
64. Hum a jingle
65. Maintain your weight
66. Plant a tree
67. Feed the birds
68. Practice grace under pressure

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69. Stand up and stretch
70. Always have a plan "B"
71. Learn a new doodle
72. Memorize a joke
73. Be responsible for your feelings
74. Learn to meet your own needs
75. Become a better listener
76. Know your limitations and let others know them, too
77. Tell someone to have a good day in pig Latin
78. Throw a paper airplane
79. Exercise every day
80. Learn the words to a new song
81. Get to work early
82. Clean out one closet
83. Play patty cake with a toddler
84. Go on a picnic
85. Take a different route to work
86. Leave work early (with permission)
87. Put air freshener in your car
88. Watch a movie and eat popcorn
89. Write a note to a far away friend
90. Go to a ball game and scream
91. Cook a meal and eat it by candlelight
92. Recognize the importance of unconditional love
93. Remember that stress is an attitude
94. Keep a journal
95. Practice a monster smile
96. Remember you always have options
97. Have a support network of people, places and things
98. Quit trying to fix other people
99. Get enough sleep
100.Talk less and listen more
101.Freely praise other people

BONUS: Relax, take each day at a time...you have the rest of

your life to live!

23
 MOTIVATING STUDENTS: 8 SIMPLE RULES FOR TEACHERS
By Lana Becker and Kent N. Schneider, East Tennessee State University
becker@etsu.edu or kent@etsu.edu

Reprinted from The Teaching Professor

by permission from Magna Publications, Inc., Madison, Wis.
www.magnapubs.com. Subscriptions and submissions at custserv@magnapubs.com
August/September 2004

Principles of Accounting has the reputation of being a "hard and boring" course. It is
difficult to motivate students to invest the time and effort necessary to succeed in the
course. To meet this challenge, we have assembled a list of eight simple rules for keeping
students focused and motivated. These rules are not original, and they aren't just for those
of us who teach accounting classes. Indeed, most of these time-honored suggestions
apply to any course students find hard and boring, and we think that makes them broadly
applicable.

Rule 1: Emphasize the most critical concepts continuously. Reiterate these concepts in
lectures and assignments throughout the course. Include questions relating to these
critical subjects on every exam, thus rewarding students for learning, retaining, and,
hopefully, applying this knowledge in a variety of contexts.

Rule 2: Provide students with a "visual aid" when possible to explain abstract concepts.
A significant proportion of today's students are visual learners. For these students, a
simple diagram or flowchart truly can be more valuable than a thousand words in a text
or a lecture.

Rule 3: Rely on logic when applicable. Point out to students which information is merely
"fact" that must be memorized and which course material is based upon "logic." Show
students how to employ logical thinking to learn and retain new information. For
example, in the double-entry bookkeeping system, "debits" equal "credits," and debit
entries cause assets to increase. These are "facts" or features of the system; they are not
based on logic. However, once the student accepts the system, logic can be used to
operate within the system. Continuing the example, if debit entries increase assets, it is
logical that credit entries will cause assets to decrease.

Rule 4: Use in-class activities to reinforce newly presented material. After a new concept
or subject has been presented via text reading, lecture, or class discussion, allow the
students to put the concept into action by completing an in-class assignment. These
assignments can be short, but they must be developed to ensure that the students
understand the critical concepts underlying the new material. Typically, the most learning
takes place when the students are permitted to work in small groups, to refer to their text
and notes, and to ask questions of the instructor while completing the assignment. If these
in-class assignments are part of the course grading scheme, class attendance also
improves.

24
Rule 5: Help students create a "link" when teaching something new. If the student can
"link" the new material to something already learned, the odds of learning the new
material are greatly increased. Examples of possible links include: prior material learned
in this course (e.g., the critical concepts described in Rule 1), material learned in
prerequisite courses, and "real-life" experiences of the students outside the classroom.

Rule 6: Recognize the importance of vocabulary in a course. Students often struggle with
new vocabulary in many courses, especially introductory ones. To succeed in these
courses, students must become comfortable with the new terminology. As subjects are
presented, new and/or confusing terms should be identified and introduced to the
students. Present "real-world" definitions and alternative terminology, in addition to
textbook definitions. One way to help students assimilate the course vocabulary is to
create a "living" glossary on the instructor's website where new terminology is added,
explained, and illustrated throughout the course.

Rule 7: Treat students with respect. Patronizing behavior may be expected in primary
school teachers, and :drill sergeant" strategies may be effective in military book camps.
However, most college student will not respond well to these techniques. Give students
their dignity, and they will give you their best efforts.

Rule 8: Hold students to a high standard. If students are not required to maintain a
specified level of learning and performance, only the most highly motivated students will
devote the time and effort necessary to learn. In contrast, maintaining high standards not
only will motivate student learning, it will also be the source of student feelings of
accomplishment when those standards are met.

Each of these rules can help motivate even the most lethargic student, but Rule 7 and 8
are the most important. If students are not treated with respect and held to a high
standard, scrupulously following the first six rules will have much less impact and might
end up being an exercise in futility.

25
 30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING
By Ron and Susan Zemke
Innovation Abstracts Vol VI, No 8, March 9, 1984

A variety of sources provides us with a body of fairly reliable knowledge about adult
learning. This knowledge might be divided into three basic divisions: things we know
about adult learners and their motivation, things we know about designing curriculum
for adults, and things we know about working with adults in the classroom.
Motivation to Learn

1. Adults seek out learning experiences in order to cope with specific life-
changing events--e.g., marriage, divorce, a new job, a promotion, being fired,
retiring, losing a loved one, moving to a new city.
2. The more life change events an adult encounters, the more likely he or she is
to seek out learning opportunities. Just as stress increases as life-change
events accumulate, the motivation to cope with change through engagement in
a learning experience increases.
3. The learning experiences adults seek out on their own are directly related - at
least in their perception - to the life-change events that triggered the seeking.
4. Adults are generally willing to engage in learning experiences before, after, or
even during the actual life change event. Once convinced that the change is a
certainty, adults will engage in any learning that promises to help them cope
with the transition.
5. Adults who are motivated to seek out a learning experience do so primarily
because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought. Learning is a
means to an end, not an end in itself.

6. Increasing or maintaining one's sense of self-esteem and pleasure are strong

secondary motivators for engaging in learning experiences.
Curriculum Design

1. Adult learners tend to be less interested in, and enthralled by, survey courses.
They tend to prefer single concept, single-theory courses that focus heavily on
the application of the concept to relevant problems. This tendency increases
with age.
2. Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if
they are going to keep - and use - the new information.
3. Information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true, and
thus forces a re-evaluation of the old material, is integrated more slowly.
4. Information that has little "conceptual overlap" with what is already known is
acquired slowly.

26
5. Fast-paced, complex or unusual learning tasks interfere with the learning of
the concepts or data they are intended to teach or illustrate.
6. Adults tend to compensate for being slower in some psychomotor learning
tasks by being more accurate and making fewer trial-and-error ventures.
7. Adults tend to take errors personally and are more likely to let them affect
self-esteem. Therefore, they tend to apply tried-and-true solutions and take
fewer risks.
8. The curriculum designer must know whether the concepts or ideas will be in
concert or in conflict with the learner. Some instruction must be designed to
effect a change in belief and value systems.
9. Programs need to be designed to accept viewpoints from people in different
life stages and with different value "sets."
10. A concept needs to be "anchored" or explained from more than one value set
and appeal to more than one developmental life stage.
11. Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects over group-
learning experiences led by a professional, they select more than one medium
for learning, and they desire to control pace and start/stop time.
12. Nonhuman media such as books, programmed instruction and television have
become popular with adults in recent years.
13. Regardless of media, straightforward how-to is the preferred content
orientation. Adults cite a need for application and how-to information as the
primary motivation for beginning a learning project.

14. Self-direction does not mean isolation. Studies of self-directed learning

indicate that self-directed projects involve an average of 10 other people as
resources, guides, encouragers and the like. But even for the self-professed,
self-directed learner, lectures and short seminars get positive ratings,
especially when these events give the learner face-to-face, one-to-one access
to an expert.
In the Classroom

1. The learning environment must be physically and psychologically

comfortable; long lectures, periods of interminable sitting and the absence of
practice opportunities rate high on the irritation scale.
2. Adults have something real to lose in a classroom situation. Self-esteem and
ego are on the line when they are asked to risk trying a new behavior in front
of peers and cohorts. Bad experiences in traditional education, feelings about
authority and the preoccupation with events outside the classroom affect in-
class experience.
3. Adults have expectations, and it is critical to take time early on to clarify and
articulate all expectations before getting into content. The instructor can
assume responsibility only for his or her own expectations, not for those of
students.
4. Adults bring a great deal of life experience into the classroom, an invaluable

27
 asset to be acknowledged, tapped and used. Adults can learn well -and much -
from dialogue with respected peers.
5. Instructors who have a tendency to hold forth rather than facilitate can hold
that tendency in check--or compensate for it--by concentrating on the use of
open-ended questions to draw out relevant student knowledge and experience.
6. New knowledge has to be integrated with previous knowledge; students must
actively participate in the learning experience. The learner is dependent on the
instructor for confirming feedback on skill practice; the instructor is
dependent on the learner for feedback about curriculum and in-class
performance.
7. The key to the instructor role is control. The instructor must balance the
presentation of new material, debate and discussion, sharing of relevant
student experiences, and the clock. Ironically, it seems that instructors are best
able to establish control when they risk giving it up. When they shelve egos
and stifle the tendency to be threatened by challenge to plans and methods,
they gain the kind of facilitative control needed to effect adult learning.
8. The instructor has to protect minority opinion, keep disagreements civil and
unheated, make connections between various opinions and ideas, and keep
reminding the group of the variety of potential solutions to the problem. The
instructor is less advocate than orchestrator.
9. Integration of new knowledge and skill requires transition time and focused
effort on application.
10. Learning and teaching theories function better as resources than as a Rosetta
stone. A skill-training task can draw much from the behavioral approach, for
example, while personal growth-centered subjects seem to draw gainfully
from humanistic concepts. An eclectic, rather than a single theory-based
approach to developing strategies and procedures, is recommended for
matching instruction to learning tasks.

The next five years will eclipse the last fifty in terms of hard data production on adult
learning. For the present, we must recognize that adults want their learning to be
problem-oriented, personalized and accepting of their need for self-direction and
personal responsibility.

28
 MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
from Psychology - The Search for Understanding
by Janet A. Simons, Donald B. Irwin and Beverly A. Drinnien
West Publishing Company, New York, 1987

Abraham Maslow developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of

different fields, including education. This wide influence is due in part to the high
level of practicality of Maslow's theory. This theory accurately describes many
realities of personal experiences. Many people find they can understand what Maslow
says. They can recognize some features of their experience or behavior which is true
and identifiable but which they have never put into words.

Maslow is a humanistic psychologist. Humanists do not believe that human beings

are pushed and pulled by mechanical forces, either of stimuli and reinforcements
(behaviorism) or of unconscious instinctual impulses (psychoanalysis). Humanists
focus upon potentials. They believe that humans strive for an upper level of
capabilities. Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches of
consciousness and wisdom. This has been labeled "fully functioning person",
"healthy personality", or as Maslow calls this level, "self-actualizing person."

Maslow has set up a hierarchic theory of needs. All of his basic needs are instinctoid,
equivalent of instincts in animals. Humans start with a very weak disposition that is
then fashioned fully as the person grows. If the environment is right, people will
grow straight and beautiful, actualizing the potentials they have inherited. If the
environment is not "right" (and mostly it is not) they will not grow tall and straight
and beautiful.

Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs,
higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, esthetic
appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the
person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been
satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow's basic
needs are as follows:

Physiological Needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and
a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because
if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come
first in the person's search for satisfaction.
Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling
thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have
little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or
periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting).
Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

29
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the
next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow
states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This
involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can
become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the
esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly
based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs
are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the
world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak,
helpless and worthless.
Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs
for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a
person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A
musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These
needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge,
tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not
loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the
person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there
is a need for self-actualization.

The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels
representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-
actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well
in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by
society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways
education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing
approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an
individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind. Ten
points that educators should address are listed:

1. We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and

to hear their inner-feeling voices.
2. We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become
world citizens.
3. We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or
destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right
mate.
4. We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced
in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of
situations, it makes life worth living.
5. We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner
nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what

30
 to build upon, what potentials are really there.
6. We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety,
belongingness, and esteem needs.
7. We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty
and the other good things in nature and in living.
8. We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad.
It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
9. We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with
the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain,
suffering, and death.

10. We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in
making good choices.

QUIZZES, TESTS, AND EXAMS

By Barbara Gross Davis, University of California, Berkeley.
From Tools for Teaching, copyright by Jossey-Bass. For purchase or reprint information,
contact Jossey-Bass. Reprinted here with permission, September 1, 1999.

Many teachers dislike preparing and grading exams, and most students dread taking
them. Yet tests are powerful educational tools that serve at least four functions. First,
tests help you evaluate students and assess whether they are learning what you are
expecting them to learn. Second, well-designed tests serve to motivate and help
students structure their academic efforts. Crooks (1988), McKeachie (1986), and
Wergin (1988) report that students study in ways that reflect how they think they will
be tested. If they expect an exam focused on facts, they will memorize details; if they
expect a test that will require problem solving or integrating knowledge, they will
work toward understanding and applying information. Third, tests can help you
understand how successfully you are presenting the material. Finally, tests can
reinforce learning by providing students with indicators of what topics or skills they
have not yet mastered and should concentrate on. Despite these benefits, testing is
also emotionally charged and anxiety producing. The following suggestions can
enhance your ability to design tests that are effective in motivating, measuring, and
reinforcing learning.

A note on terminology: instructors often use the terms tests, exams, and even quizzes
interchangeably. Test experts Jacobs and Chase (1992), however, make distinctions
among them based on the scope of content covered and their weight or importance in
calculating the final grade for the course. An examination is the most comprehensive
form of testing, typically given at the end of the term (as a final) and one or two times
during the semester (as midterms). A test is more limited in scope, focusing on
particular aspects of the course material. A course might have three or four tests. A
quiz is even more limited and usually is administered in fifteen minutes or less.
Though these distinctions are useful, the terms test and exam will be used
interchangeably throughout the rest of this section because the principles in planning,

31
constructing, and administering them are similar.
General Strategies

Spend adequate amounts of time developing your tests. As you prepare a test,
think carefully about the learning outcomes you wish to measure, the type of items
best suited to those outcomes, the range of difficulty of items, the length and time
limits for the test, the format and layout of the exam, and your scoring procedures.

Match your tests to the content you are teaching. Ideally, the tests you give will
measure students' achievement of your educational goals for the course. Test items
should be based on the content and skills that are most important for your students to
learn. To keep track of how well your tests reflect your objectives, you can construct
a grid, listing your course objectives along the side of the page and content areas
along the top. For each test item, check off the objective and content it covers.
(Sources: Ericksen, 1969; Jacobs and Chase, 1992; Svinicki and Woodward, 1982)

Try to make your tests valid, reliable, and balanced. A test is valid if its results are
appropriate and useful for making decisions about an aspect of students' achievement
(Gronlund and Linn, 1990). Technically, validity refers to the appropriateness of the
interpretation of the results and not to the test itself, though colloquially we speak
about a test being valid. Validity is a matter of degree and considered in relation to
specific use or interpretation (Gronlund and Linn, 1990). For example, the results of a
writing test may have a high degree of validity for indicating the level of a student's
composition skills, a moderate degree of validity for predicting success in later
composition courses, and essentially no validity for predicting success in
mathematics or physics. Validity can be difficult to determine. A practical approach is
to focus on content validity, the extent to which the content of the test represents an
adequate sampling of the knowledge and skills taught in the course. If you design the
test to cover information in lectures and readings in proportion to their importance in
the course, then the interpretations of test scores are likely to have greater validity An
exam that consists of only a few difficult items, however, will not yield valid
interpretations of what students know.

A test is reliable if it accurately and consistently evaluates a student's performance.

The purest measure of reliability would entail having a group of students take the
same test twice and get the same scores (assuming that we could erase their memories
of test items from the first administration). This is impractical, of course, but there are
technical procedures for determining reliability. In general, ambiguous questions,
unclear directions, and vague scoring criteria threaten reliability. Very short tests are
also unlikely to be highly reliable. It is also important for a test to be balanced: to
cover most of the main ideas and important concepts in proportion to the emphasis
they received in class.

If you are interested in learning more about psychometric concepts and the technical

32
properties of tests, here are some books you might review:

Ebel, R. L., and Frisbie, D. A. Essentials of Educational Measurement. (5th ed.)

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1990.

Gronlund, N. E., and Linn, R. Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching. (6th ed.)
New York: Macmillan, 1990.

Mehrens, W. A., and Lehmann, I. J. Measurement and Evaluation in Education and

Psychology. (4th ed.) New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1991.

Use a variety of testing methods. Research shows that students vary in their
preferences for different formats, so using a variety of methods will help students do
their best (Jacobs and Chase, 1992). Multiple-choice or shortanswer questions are
appropriate for assessing students' mastery of details and specific knowledge, while
essay questions assess comprehension, the ability to integrate and synthesize, and the
ability to apply information to new situations. A single test can have several formats.
Try to avoid introducing a new format on the final exam: if you have given all
multiple-choice quizzes or midterms, don't ask students to write an all-essay final.
(Sources: Jacobs and Chase, 1992; Lowman, 1984; McKeachie, 1986; Svinicki,
1987)

Write questions that test skills other than recall. Research shows that most tests
administered by faculty rely too heavily on students' recall of information (Milton,
Pollio, and Eison, 1986). Bloom (1956) argues that it is important for tests to measure
higher-learning as well. Fuhrmann and Grasha (1983, p. 170) have adapted Bloom's
taxonomy for test development. Here is a condensation of their list:

To measure knowledge (common terms, facts, principles, procedures), ask these kinds
of questions: Define, Describe, Identify, Label, List, Match, Name, Outline,
Reproduce, Select, State. Example: "List the steps involved in titration."

To measure comprehension (understanding of facts and principles, interpretation of

material), ask these kinds of questions: Convert, Defend, Distinguish, Estimate,
Explain, Extend, Generalize, Give examples, Infer, Predict, Summarize. Example:
"Summarize the basic tenets of deconstructionism."

To measure application (solving problems, applying concepts and principles to new

situations), ask these kinds of questions: Demonstrate, Modify, Operate, Prepare,
Produce, Relate, Show, Solve, Use. Example: "Calculate the deflection of a beam
under uniform loading."

To measure analysis (recognition of unstated assumptions or logical fallacies, ability

to distinguish between facts and inferences), ask these kinds of questions: Diagram,
Differentiate, Distinguish, Illustrate, Infer, Point out, Relate, Select, Separate,

33
Subdivide. Example: "In the president's State of the Union Address, which statements
are based on facts and which are based on assumptions?"

To measure synthesis (integrate learning from different areas or solve problems by

creative thinking), ask these kinds of questions: Categorize, Combine, Compile,
Devise, Design, Explain, Generate, Organize, Plan, Rearrange, Reconstruct, Revise,
Tell. Example: "How would you restructure the school day to reflect children's
developmental needs?"

To measure evaluation (judging and assessing), ask these kinds of questions:

Appraise, Compare, Conclude, Contrast, Criticize, Describe, Discriminate, Explain,
Justify, Interpret, Support. Example: "Why is Bach's Mass in B Minor acknowledged
as a classic?"

Many faculty members have found it difficult to apply this six-level taxonomy, and
some educators have simplified and collapsed the taxonomy into three general levels
(Crooks, 1988): The first category knowledge (recall or recognition of specific
information). The second category combines comprehension and application. The
third category is described as "problem solving," transferring existing knowledge and
skills to new situations.

If your course has graduate student instructors (GSIs), involve them in

designing exams. At the least, ask your GSIs to read your draft of the exam and
comment on it. Better still, involve them in creating the exam. Not only will they
have useful suggestions, but their participation in designing an exam will help them
grade the exam.

Take precautions to avoid cheating. See "Preventing Academic Dishonesty"

Types of Tests

Multiple-choice tests. Multiple-choice items can be used to measure both simple

knowledge and complex concepts. Since multiple-choice questions can be answered
quickly, you can assess students' mastery of many topics on an hour exam. In
addition, the items can be easily and reliably scored. Good multiple-choice questions
are difficult to write-see "Multiple-Choice and Matching Tests" for guidance on how
to develop and administer this type of test.

True-false tests. Because random guessing will produce the correct answer half the
time, true-false tests are less reliable than other types of exams. However, these items
are appropriate for occasional use. Some faculty who use true-false questions add an
"explain" column in which students write one or two sentences justifying their
response.

Matching tests. The matching format is an effective way to test students' recognition

34
of the relationships between words and definitions, events and dates, categories and
examples, and so on. See "Multiple-Choice and Matching Tests" for suggestions
about developing this type of test.

Essay tests. Essay tests enable you to judge students' abilities to organize, integrate,
interpret material, and express themselves in their own words. Research indicates that
students study more efficiently for essay-type examinations than for selection
(multiple-choice) tests: students preparing for essay tests focus on broad issues,
general concepts, and interrelationships rather than on specific details, and this
studying results in somewhat better student performance regardless of the type of
exam they are given (McKeachie, 1986). Essay tests also give you an opportunity to
comment on students' progress, the quality of their thinking, the depth of their
understanding, and the difficulties they may be having. However, because essay tests
pose only a few questions, their content validity may be low. In addition, the
reliability of essay tests is compromised by subjectivity or inconsistencies in grading.
For specific advice, see "Short-Answer and Essay Tests." (Sources: Ericksen, 1969,
McKeachie, 1986)

A variation of an essay test asks students to correct mock answers. One faculty
member prepares a test that requires students to correct, expand, or refute mock
essays. Two weeks before the exam date, he distributes ten to twelve essay questions,
which he discusses with students in class. For the actual exam, he selects four of the
questions and prepares well-written but intellectually flawed answers for the students
to edit, correct, expand, and refute. The mock essays contain common
misunderstandings, correct but incomplete responses, or absurd notions; in some
cases the answer has only one or two flaws. He reports that students seem to enjoy
this type of test more than traditional examinations.

Short-answer tests. Depending on your objectives, short-answer questions can call

for one or two sentences or a long paragraph. Short-answer tests are easier to write,
though they take longer to score, than multiple-choice tests.

They also give you some opportunity to see how well students can express their
thoughts, though they are not as useful as longer essay responses for this purpose. See
"Short-Answer and Essay Tests" for detailed guidelines.

Problem sets. In courses in mathematics and the sciences, your tests can include
problem sets. As a rule of thumb, allow students ten minutes to solve a problem you
can do in two minutes. See "Homework: Problem Sets" for advice on creating and
grading problem sets.

Oral exams. Though common at the graduate level, oral exams are rarely used for
undergraduates except in foreign language classes. In other classes they are usually
time-consuming, too anxiety provoking for students, and difficult to score unless the
instructor tape-records the answers. However, a math professor has experimented

35
with individual thirty-minute oral tests in a small seminar class. Students receive the
questions in advance and are allowed to drop one of their choosing. During the oral
exam, the professor probes students' level of understanding of the theory and
principles behind the theorems. He reports that about eight students per day can be
tested.

Performance tests. Performance tests ask students to demonstrate proficiency in

conducting an experiment, executing a series of steps in a reasonable amount of time,
following instructions, creating drawings, manipulating materials or equipment, or
reacting to real or simulated situations. Performance tests can be administered
individually or in groups. They are seldom used in colleges and universities because
they are logistically difficult to set up, hard to score, and the content of most courses
does not necessarily lend itself to this type of testing. However, performance tests can
be useful in classes that require students to demonstrate their skills (for example,
health fields, the sciences, education). If you use performance tests, Anderson (1987,
p. 43) recommends that you do the following (I have slightly modified her list):

• Specify the criteria to be used for rating or scoring (for example, the level of
accuracy in performing the steps in sequence or completing the task within a
specified time limit).
• State the problem so that students know exactly what they are supposed to do
(if possible, conditions of a performance test should mirror a real-life
situation).
• Give students a chance to perform the task more than once or to perform
several task samples.

"Create-a-game" exams. For one midterm, ask students to create either a board
game, word game, or trivia game that covers the range of information relevant to
your course. Students must include the rules, game board, game pieces, and whatever
else is needed to play. For example, students in a history of psychology class created
"Freud's Inner Circle," in which students move tokens such as small cigars and toilet
seats around a board each time they answer a question correctly, and "Psychogories,"
a card game in which players select and discard cards until they have a full hand of
theoretically compatible psychological theories, beliefs, or assumptions. (Source:
Berrenberg and Prosser, 1991)
Alternative Testing Modes

Take-home tests. Take-home tests allow students to work at their own pace with
access to books and materials. Take-home tests also permit longer and more involved
questions, without sacrificing valuable class time for exams. Problem sets, short
answers, and essays are the most appropriate kinds of take-home exams. Be wary,
though, of designing a take-home exam that is too difficult or an exam that does not
include limits on the number of words or time spent (Jedrey, 1984). Also, be sure to
give students explicit instructions on what they can and cannot do: for example, are

36
they allowed to talk to other students about their answers? A variation of a take-home
test is to give the topics in advance but ask the students to write their answers in
class. Some faculty hand out ten or twelve questions the week before an exam and
announce that three of those questions will appear on the exam.

Open-book tests. Open-book tests simulate the situations professionals face every
day, when they use resources to solve problems, prepare reports, or write memos.
Open-book tests tend to be inappropriate in introductory courses in which facts must
be learned or skills thoroughly mastered if the student is to progress to more
complicated concepts and techniques in advanced courses. On an open-book test,
students who are lacking basic knowledge may waste too much of their time
consulting their references rather than writing. Open-book tests appear to reduce
stress (Boniface, 1985; Liska and Simonson, 1991), but research shows that students
do not necessarily perform significantly better on open-book tests (Clift and Imrie,
1981; Crooks, 1988). Further, open-book tests seem to reduce students' motivation to
study. A compromise between open- and closed-book testing is to let students bring
an index card or one page of notes to the exam or to distribute appropriate reference
material such as equations or formulas as part of the test.

Group exams. Some faculty have successfully experimented with group exams,
either in class or as take-home projects. Faculty report that groups outperform
individuals and that students respond positively to group exams (Geiger, 1991;
Hendrickson, 1990; Keyworth, 1989; Toppins 1989). For example, for a fifty-minute
in-class exam, use a multiple-choice test of about twenty to twenty-five items. For the
first test, the groups can be randomly divided. Groups of three to five students seem
to work best. For subsequent tests, you may want to assign students to groups in ways
that minimize differences between group scores and balance talkative and quiet
students. Or you might want to group students who are performing at or near the
same level (based on students' performance on individual tests). Some faculty have
students complete the test individually before meeting as a group. Others just let the
groups discuss the test, item by item. In the first case, if the group score is higher than
the individual score of any member, bonus points are added to each individual's
score. In the second case, each student receives the score of the group. Faculty who
use group exams offer the following tips:

• Ask students to discuss each question fully and weigh the merits of each
answer rather than simply vote on an answer.
• If you assign problems, have each student work a problem and then compare
results.
• If you want students to take the exam individually first, consider devoting two
class periods to tests; one for individual work and the other for group.
• Show students the distribution of their scores as individuals and as groups; in
most cases group scores will be higher than any single individual score.

A variation of this idea is to have students first work on an exam in groups outside of
class. Students then complete the exam individually during class time and receive

37
their own score. Some portion of the test items are derived from the group exam. The
rest are new questions. Or let students know in advance you will be asking them to
justify a few of their responses; this will keep students from blithely relying on their
work group for all the answers. (Sources: Geiger, 1991; Hendrickson, 1990;
Keyworth, 1989; Murray, 1990; Toppins, 1989)

Paired testing. For paired exams, pairs of students work on a single essay exam, and
the two students turn in one paper. Some students may be reluctant to share a grade,
but good students will most likely earn the same grade they would have working
alone. Pairs can be self-selected or assigned. For example, pairing a student who is
doing well in the course with one not doing well allows for some peer teaching. A
variation is to have students work in teams but submit individual answer sheets.
(Source: Murray, 1990)

Portfolios. A portfolio is not a specific test but rather a cumulative collection of a

student's work. Students decide what examples to include that characterize their
growth and accomplishment over the term. While most common in composition
classes, portfolios are beginning to be used in other disciplines to provide a fuller
picture of students' achievements. A student's portfolio might include sample papers
(first drafts and revisions), journal entries, essay exams, and other work
representative of the student's progress. You can assign portfolios a letter grade or a
pass/not pass. If you do grade portfolios, you will need to establish clear criteria.
(Source: Jacobs and Chase, 1992)
Construction of Effective Exams

Prepare new exams each time you teach a course. Though it is timeconsuming to
develop tests, a past exam may not reflect changes in how you have presented the
material or which topics you have emphasized in the course. If you do write a new
exam, you can make copies of the old exam available to students.

Make up test items throughout the term. Don't wait until a week or so before the
exam. One way to make sure the exam reflects the topics emphasized in the course is
to write test questions at the end of each class session and place them on index cards
or computer files for later sorting. Software that allows you to create test banks of
items and generate exams from the pool is now available.

Ask students to submit test questions. Faculty who use this technique limit the
number of items a student can submit and receive credit for. Here is an example
(adapted from Buchanan and Rogers, 1990, p. 72):

You can submit up to two questions per exam. Each question must be typed or legibly
printed on a separate 5" x 8" card. The correct answer and the source (that is, page of
the text, date of lecture, and so on) must be provided for each question. Questions can
be of the short-answer, multiple-choice, or essay type.

38
Students receive a few points of additional credit for each question they submit that is
judged appropriate. Not all students will take advantage of this opportunity. You can
select or adapt student's test items for the exam. If you have a large lecture class, tell
your students that you might not review all items but will draw randomly from the
pool until you have enough questions for the exam. (Sources: Buchanan and Rogers,
1990; Fuhrmann and Grasha, 1983)

Cull items from colleagues' exams. Ask colleagues at other institutions for copies of
their exams. Be careful, though, about using items from tests given by colleagues on
your own campus. Some of your students may have previously seen those tests.

Consider making your tests cumulative. Cumulative tests require students to

review material they have already studied, thus reinforcing what they have learned.
Cumulative tests also give students a chance to integrate and synthesize course
content. (Sources: Crooks, 1988; Jacobs and Chase, 1992; Svinicki, 1987)

Prepare clear instructions. Test your instructions by asking a colleague (or one of
your graduate student instructors) to read them.

Include a few words of advice and encouragement on the exam. For example,
give students advice on how much time to spend on each section or offer a hint at the
beginning of an essay question or wish students good luck. (Source: "Exams:
Alternative Ideas and Approaches," 1989)

Put some easy items first. Place several questions all your students can answer near
the beginning of the exam. Answering easier questions helps students overcome their
nervousness and may help them feel confident that they can succeed on the exam.
You can also use the first few questions to identify students in serious academic
difficulty. (Source: Savitz, 1985)

Challenge your best students. Some instructors like to include at least one very
difficult question -- though not a trick question or a trivial one -- to challenge the
interest of the best students. They place that question at or near the end of the exam.

Try out the timing. No purpose is served by creating a test too long for even well-
prepared students to finish and review before turning it in. As a rule of thumb, allow
about one-half minute per item for true-false tests, one minute per item for multiple-
choice tests, two minutes per short-answer requiring a few sentences, ten or fifteen
minutes for a limited essay question, and about thirty minutes for a broader essay
question. Allow another five or ten minutes for students to review their work, and
factor in time to distribute and collect the tests. Another rule of thumb is to allow
students about four times as long as it takes you (or a graduate student instructor) to
complete the test. (Source: McKeachie, 1986)

Give some thought to the layout of the test. Use margins and line spacing that

39
 make the test easy to read. If items are worth different numbers of points, indicate the
point value next to each item. Group similar types of items, such as all true-false
questions, together. Keep in mind that the amount of space you leave for short-answer
questions often signifies to the students the length of the answer expected of them. If
students are to write on the exam rather than in a blue book, leave space at the top of
each page for the student's name (and section, if appropriate). If each page is
identified, the exams can be separated so that each graduate student instructor can
grade the same questions on every test paper, for courses that have GSIs.

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New York State Code of Ethics for Educators

Statement of Purpose

The Code of Ethics is a public statement by educators that sets clear

expectations and principles to guide practice and inspire
professional excellence. Educators believe a commonly held set of
principles can assist in the individual exercise of professional
judgment. This Code speaks to the core values of the profession.
"Educator" as used throughout means all educators serving New
York schools in positions requiring a certificate, including classroom
teachers, school leaders and pupil personnel service providers.

Principle 1: Educators nurture the intellectual, physical,

emotional, social, and civic potential of each student.

Educators promote growth in all students through the integration of

intellectual, physical, emotional, social and civic learning. They
respect the inherent dignity and worth of each individual. Educators
help students to value their own identity, learn more about their
cultural heritage, and practice social and civic responsibilities. They
help students to reflect on their own learning and connect it to their
life experience. They engage students in activities that encourage
diverse approaches and solutions to issues, while providing a range
of ways for students to demonstrate their abilities and learning. They
foster the development of students who can analyze, synthesize,
evaluate and communicate information effectively.

41
Principle 2: Educators create, support, and maintain
challenging learning environments for all.

Educators apply their professional knowledge to promote student

learning. They know the curriculum and utilize a range of strategies
and assessments to address differences. Educators develop and
implement programs based upon a strong understanding of human
development and learning theory. They support a challenging
learning environment. They advocate for necessary resources to
teach to higher levels of learning. They establish and maintain clear
standards of behavior and civility. Educators are role models,
displaying the habits of mind and work necessary to develop and
apply knowledge while simultaneously displaying a curiosity and
enthusiasm for learning. They invite students to become active,
inquisitive, and discerning individuals who reflect upon and monitor
their own learning.

Principle 3: Educators commit to their own learning in order to

develop their practice.

Educators recognize that professional knowledge and development

are the foundations of their practice. They know their subject matter,
and they understand how students learn. Educators respect the
reciprocal nature of learning between educators and students. They
engage in a variety of individual and collaborative learning
experiences essential to develop professionally and to promote
student learning. They draw on and contribute to various forms of
educational research to improve their own practice.

Principle 4: Educators collaborate with colleagues and other

professionals in the interest of student learning.

Educators encourage and support their colleagues to build and

maintain high standards. They participate in decisions regarding
curriculum, instruction and assessment designs, and they share
responsibility for the governance of schools. They cooperate with
community agencies in using resources and building comprehensive
services in support of students. Educators respect fellow
professionals and believe that all have the right to teach and learn in
a professional and supportive environment. They participate in the
preparation and induction of new educators and in professional
development for all staff.

Principle 5: Educators collaborate with parents and community,

building trust and respecting confidentiality.

Educators partner with parents and other members of the

community to enhance school programs and to promote student

42
learning. They also recognize how cultural and linguistic heritage,
gender, family and community shape experience and learning.
Educators respect the private nature of the special knowledge they
have about students and their families and use that knowledge only
in the students' best interests. They advocate for fair opportunity for
all children.

Principle 6: Educators advance the intellectual and ethical

foundation of the learning community.

Educators recognize the obligations of the trust placed in them. They

share the responsibility for understanding what is known, pursuing
further knowledge, contributing to the generation of knowledge, and
translating knowledge into comprehensible forms. They help
students understand that knowledge is often complex and
sometimes paradoxical. Educators are confidantes, mentors and
advocates for their students' growth and development. As models for
youth and the public, they embody intellectual honesty, diplomacy,
tact and fairness.

This Code shall not be used as a basis for discipline by any

employer and shall not be used by the State Education
Department as a basis for a proceeding under Part 83 of
Commissioner's Regulations, nor shall it serve as a basis for
decisions pertaining to certification or employment in New York
State. Conversely, this Code shall not be interpreted or used to
diminish the authority of any public school employer to
evaluate or discipline any employee under provisions of law,
regulation, or collective bargaining agreement.

• Background on the Development of the Code

The State Board of Regents, as part of its teaching reform initiatives

outlined in the 1998 report, New York's Commitment: Teaching to
Higher Standards, called for the State Professional Standards and
Practices Board for Teaching to develop a Code of Ethics for
Teachers. In New York State, a teacher is defined as anyone for
whom a certificate is required for service in the State's public
schools. This includes classroom teachers, school administrators,
and pupil personnel service providers.

The Standards Board is a 28-member board that serves in an

advisory capacity to the Regents and the Commissioner of
Education. Its membership consists of teachers, school
administrators, higher education representatives, public members,
and a teacher education student. The Board worked for over a year
to develop a draft Code of Ethics. The process involved a review of
numerous other codes developed by professional organizations and

43
 by other jurisdictions, both for the teaching profession and for other
professions. Individual Board members also consulted with their
colleagues in the field to inform the process.

A draft was presented to the Regents Committee on Higher and

Professional Education at the October 2001 Board of Regents
meeting. Following this preliminary review by the Regents, the draft
Code of Ethics was released for public comment. Reactions and
suggestions were received from as broad a spectrum as possible:
classroom teachers, school administrators and pupil personnel
professionals, other members of the school community, teacher
education students, college faculty, professional organizations,
boards of education, parents and the general public.

The State Standards and Practices Board reviewed all comments

received and produced the final version of the code in June 2002.
The New York State Code of Ethics for Educators was presented to
the Board of Regents at its July 2002 meeting, at which time the
Regents authorized the release of the Code to the public.

For more information, contact:

Nancy Taylor Baumes
Secretary, State Professional Standards and Practices Board for
Teaching
New York State Education Department
Office of Teaching Initiatives, Room 5N EB
Albany, New York 12234
Phone: (518) 474-4661

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Last Updated

EVALUATING YOUR OWN TEACHING

By L. Dee Fink
Published in Improving College Teaching by Peter Seldin (ed.).
Reprinted here with permission of the University of Oklahoma Instructional Development Program, July
20, 1999.

Introduction

Each year faculty members in institutions of higher education take on the task of
teaching others. For most of these people, this is a recurring task. In fact, for the
majority, this is the central task of a life-long career.

44
Assuming that no one is perfect and therefore everyone has room for improvement,
evaluation is the means by which we try to identify which aspects of our teaching are
good and which need to be changed. The question then arises as to who should take
responsibility for doing this evaluation. My belief is that evaluation is an inherent
part of good teaching. Therefore it is the teacher himself or herself who should take
primary responsibility for doing the evaluation.

In this chapter, I will offer a basic definition of evaluation, state a few reasons why
one should invest time and effort into evaluation, describe five techniques for
evaluation, and identify resources for helping us evaluate and improve our teaching.

A Definition of "Evaluation"

Doing good evaluation is like doing good research. In both cases, you are trying to
answer some important questions about an important topic. The key to doing both
activities well is (a) identifying the right questions to ask and (b) figuring out how to
answer them.

What are the key questions in the evaluation of teaching? Basically they are: "How
well am I teaching? Which aspects of my teaching are good and which need to be
improved?" The first question attempts to provide a global assessment, while the
second is analytical and diagnostic in character.

Before moving to the task of figuring out how to answer these questions, we should
look at the reasons for taking time to evaluate.
Why Evaluate?

It takes a certain amount of time and effort to effectively evaluate our own teaching.
Is this a wise use of time? I would argue that it is, for three reasons.

1. First, consider the following diagram:

Figure 1

The Effect of Evaluation on Our Teaching

45
 Regardless of how good or how poor we are as teachers, we all have the
potential to get better over time (see the arrow in Figure 1). Yet some teachers
continually improve and approach their potential (see arrow) while others
experience a modest improvement early in their career and then seem to level
off in quality or sometimes even decline (see arrow). Why? I would argue that
the primary difference between those who do and those who do not improve,
is that only the former gather information about their teaching and make an
effort to improve some aspect of it -- every time they teach.

2. A second reason to evaluate is to document the quality of one's teaching for

others. All career professionals have other people who need to know about the
quality of their teaching. It may be the person's current department or
institution head, or it may be a potential employer. But once people teach,
they have a track record, and others need and want to know how well they
taught. The only way a teacher can provide them with that information is to
gather it, and that means evaluation. Teaching portfolios are becoming a
common way of communicating this information to others. As it turns out,
putting a portfolio together also helps the teacher understand his or her own
teaching better. (See Zubizarreta, this volume.)
3. Third, there is a very personal and human need to evaluate. This is for our
own mental and psychological satisfaction. It is one thing to do a good job
and think that it went well; it is quite another, and a far more enjoyable
experience, to have solid information and thereby know we did a good job.
That knowledge, that certainty, is possible only if we do a thorough job of
evaluation.

If evaluation is worth doing then, how do we do it?

Five Sources of Information

There are five basic sources of information that teachers can use to evaluate their
teaching. All evaluation efforts use one or more of these basic sources. Each of these
five sources has a unique value as well as an inherent limitation.

46
In the following portion of this chapter, I will discuss the unique value, recommended
frequency, limitation, and appropriate response to that limitation, for each of the five
sources of information.

Figure 2
TECHNIQUES FOR EVALUATING YOUR OWN TEACHING

47
 Techniques
Appropriate
Unique Value and Response to
Recommended Frequency Limitations Limitations

1. Self-monitoring

2. Audio-tape/video-tape

3. Information from students

a. Questionnaires

(1) Beginning of year

(2) Mid-year

(3) End-of-year

b. Interviews

4. Students' test results

5. Outside observers
a. Fellow faculty member

b. Admin./Senior Fac. Member

c. OU Instruc. Devel. Prog.

Dee Fink & Arlene Knight
Phone: 5-2323

1. Self-
monitoring

Self-monitoring is what people do semi-automatically and semi-consciously

whenever they teach. Most of their mental activity is concerned with making
the presentation or leading the discussion. But one portion of their mental
attention is concerned with "How is it going?" "Are they with me?" "Am I

48
 losing them?" "Are they interested or bored?"

Unique Value. The first value of this is that it is immediate and constant. You
do not have to wait a week or a day or even an hour to get the results. It
happens right away. Hence adjustments are possible right away.

The second value is that this information is automatically created in terms that
are meaningful to the teacher because it is the teacher who creates the
information. It is the teacher, not someone else, who looks at the situation and
says "This is what is happening." This does not mean that we always know
why it is happening, or what to do about it if it is something we do not like.
But we do have our own sense of what is happening.

Frequency. This does and should happen all the time. We may only take a
mental pause every few minutes to size up the situation. But by comparison
with the other sources of information discussed below, this takes place
continuously.

Limitation. The very strength of this source is also its weakness. Because this
information is created by us for us, it is also subject to our own biases and
misinterpretations. I thought they were understanding the material. I thought
they looked interested --when in fact they weren't. We all have our own blind
spots and lack complete objectivity. This means that, at times, we are going to
misread the responses of students to our teaching.

Appropriate Response. What can be done about the subjectivity of self-

monitoring? Turn to an objective source of information, one without
subjective bias.

2. Audiotape and Videotape Recordings

Modern technology has given us relatively inexpensive and easy access to

audio and video recordings of what we do as teachers. We can put a small
audio recorder on the teachers desk or put a video recorder on the side of the
classroom and let it run during a class session. Then later we can listen to or
view it.

Special value. The value of this kind of information is that it gives us totally
objective information. It tells us exactly what we really said, what we really
did, not what we thought we said or did. How much time did I spend on this
topic? How many times did I ask questions? How often did I move around?
These are questions the audio and video recordings can answer with complete
accuracy and objectivity.

Frequency. I had the experience of giving a workshop once that was recorded.

49
 Listening to the recording later, I discovered to my surprise that I had some
disruptive speech patterns of which I was completely unaware. And I am an
experienced observer of teachers! The lesson from this was that, no matter
how good we are at monitoring others, we can only devote a certain amount
of our mental attention to monitoring our own teaching; hence we miss things.

As a result of that experience, I now try to do an audio recording at least once

or preferably twice in each full-semester course I teach. This gives me a
chance to see if any speech problems are still there or if new ones have
cropped up. If they have, the second recording tells me if I have gotten them
under control.

Video recordings are probably useful once every year or two. What do we
look like to others? As we grow older, we change, and we need to know what
the continuously anew me looks like to others.

Limitation. What could be more valuable than the objective truth of audio and
video recordings? Unfortunately the unavoidable problem with this
information is that it is true but meaningless -- by itself. The recordings can
tell me if I spoke at the rate of 20 words per minute, or 60 words, but they
can't tell me whether that was too slow or too fast for the students. They can
tell me whether I moved and gestured and smiled, but it can't tell me if those
movements and facial expressions helped or hindered student learning.

Appropriate response. To determine the effect of my teaching behavior, rather

than the behavior itself, I need to find another source of information. (Are you
starting to see the pattern here?)

3. Information from Students

As the intended beneficiaries of all teaching, students are in a unique position

to help their teachers in the evaluation process.

Special value. If we want to know whether students find our explanations of a

topic clear, or whether students find our teaching exciting or dull, who else
could possibly answer these kinds of questions better than the students
themselves? Of the five sources of information described here, students are
the best source for understanding the immediate effects of our teaching, i.e.,
the process of teaching and learning.

This information can be obtained in two distinct ways: questionnaires and

interviews, each with its own relative values.

a. Questionnaires. The most common method of obtaining student

reactions to our teaching is to use a questionnaire. Lots of different

50
 questionnaires exist but most in fact ask similar kinds of questions:
student characteristics (e.g., major, GPA, reasons for taking the
course), the students characterization of the teaching (e.g., clear,
organized, interesting), amount learned, overall assessment of the
course and/or the teacher (e.g., compared to other courses or other
teachers, this one is ...), and sometimes, anticipated grade.

The special value of questionnaires, compared to interviews, is that

they obtain responses from the whole class and they allow for an
anonymous (and therefore probably more candid) response. The
limitation of questionnaires is that they can only ask a question once,
i.e., that cannot probe for further clarification, and they can only ask
questions that the writer anticipates as possibly important.

Questionnaires can be given at three different times: the beginning,

middle and end of a course. Some teachers use questionnaires at the
beginning of a course to get information about the students, e.g., prior
course work or experience with the subject, preferred modes of
teaching and learning, and special problems a student might have (e.g.,
dyslexia). Many use mid-term questionnaires to get an early warning
of any existing problems so that changes can be made in time to
benefit this set of students. The advantage of end-of-term
questionnaires is that all the learning activities have been completed.
Consequently, students can respond meaningfully to questions about
the overall effectiveness of the course.

b. Interviews. The other well-established way of finding out about

student reactions is to talk to them. Either the teacher(if sufficient trust
and rapport exist) or an outside person (if more anonymity and
objectivity are desired) can talk with students for 15-30 minutes about
the course and the teacher. As an instructional consultant, I have often
done this for other teachers, but I have also done it in some of my own
courses. I try to get 6-8 students, preferably a random sample, and
visit with them in a focused interview format immediately after class. I
have some general topics I want to discuss, such as the quality of the
learning thus far, reactions to the lectures, labs, tests, and so forth. But
within these topics, I will probe for clarification and examples of
perceived strength and weakness. I also note when there is divergence
of reactions and when most students seem to agree.

The special value of interviews is that students often identify

unanticipated strengths and weaknesses, and the interviewer can probe
and follow-up on topics that need clarification. The limitation of
course is that a professor can usually only interview a sub-set of the
class, not the whole class. This leaves some uncertainty as to whether

51
 their reactions represent the whole class or not.

As for the frequency of interviews, I would probably only use a formal

interview once or at most twice during a term. Of course, a teacher can
informally visit with students about the course many times, and
directly or indirectly obtain a sense of their reaction to the course.

General limitation. Returning to the general issue of information from

students, regardless of how such information is collected, one needs to
remember that this is information from students. Although they know better
than anyone what their own reactions are, they can also be biased and limited
in their own perspectives. They occasionally have negative feelings, often
unconsciously, about women, people who are ethnically different from
themselves, and international teachers. Perhaps more significantly, students
usually do not have a full understanding of how a course might be taught,
either in terms of pedagogy or content. Hence they can effectively address
what is, but not what might be.

Appropriate response. As with the other limitations, the appropriate response

here is to seek another kind of information. In this case, we need information
from someone with a professional understanding of the possibilities of good
teaching.

4. Students' test results.

Teachers almost always give students some form of graded exercise, whether
it is an in-class test or an out-of-class project. Usually, though, the intent of
the test is to assess the quality of student learning. We can also use this same
information to assess the quality of our teaching.

Special value. The whole reason for teaching is to help someone else learn.
Assuming we can devise a test or graded exercise that effectively measures
whether or not students are learning what we want them to learn, the test
results basically tell us whether or not we are succeeding in our whole
teaching effort. This is critical information for all teachers. Although the other
sources of information identified here can partially address this question (I
think they are learning, The students think they are learning.), none address it
so directly as test results: I know they are learning because they responded
with a high level of sophisticated knowledge and thinking to a challenging
test.

Frequency. How often should we give tests? Many teachers follow the
tradition of two mid-terms and a final. In my view this is inadequate feedback,
both for the students and for the teacher. Weekly or even daily feedback is
much more effective in letting students and the teacher know whether they are

52
 learning what they need to learn as the course goes along. If the teacher's goal
is to help the students learn, this is important information for both parties.
And remember, not all tests need to be graded and recorded!

Limitation. It might be hard to imagine that this information has a limitation.

After all, this is what it's all about, right? Did they learn it or not?

The problem with this information is its lack of a causal connection: we don't
know why they did or did not learn. Did they learn because of, or in spite of,
our teaching? Some students work very hard in a course, not because the
teacher inspires or motivates them but because their major requires a good
grade in the course and the teacher is NOT effective. Therefore they work
hard to learn it on their own.

Appropriate response. If we need to know whether one's actions as a teacher

are helpful or useless in promoting student learning, we need a different
source of information, such as the students themselves.

5. Outside observer

In addition to the two parties directly involved in a course, the teacher and the
students, valuable information can be obtained from the observations of a
third party, someone who brings both an outsider's perspective and
professional expertise to the task.

Special value. Part of the value of an outside observer is that they do not have
a personal stake in the particular course, hence they are free to reach positive
and negative conclusions without any cost to themselves. Also, as a
professional, they can bring an expertise either in content and/or in pedagogy
that is likely to supplement that of both the teacher and the students.

A variety of kinds of observers exist: a peer colleague, a senior colleague, or

an instructional specialist.

a. Peer colleagues, e.g., two TA's or two junior professors, can visit each
others classes and share observations. Here the political risk is low and
each one can empathize with the situation and challenges facing the
other. Interestingly, the person doing the observing in these exchanges
often finds that they learn as much as the person who gets the
feedback.
b. Senior colleagues can be of value because of their accumulated
experience. Although one has to be selective and choose someone who
is respected and with whom the political risk is low, experienced
colleagues can offer ideas on alternative ways of dealing with
particular topics, additional examples to illustrate the material, etc.

53
 c. A third kind of outside observer, an instructional consultant, is
available on many campuses. They may or may not be able to give
feedback on the clarity and significance of the content material, but
their expertise in teaching allows them to comment on presentation
techniques, discussion procedures, and ideas for more active learning.

Frequency. Beginning TA's and beginning faculty members should consider

inviting one or more outside observers to their classes at least once a semester
for two or three years. They need to get as many new perspectives on teaching
as soon as possible. After that, more experienced teachers would probably
benefit from such feedback at least once every year or two. We change as
teachers; as we do, we need all the feedback and fresh ideas we can find.

Limitations. Again, the strength of being an outsider is also its weakness.

Outside observers can usually only visit one or two class sessions and
therefore do not know what happens in the rest of the course.

Apart from this general problem, each kind of observer has its own limitation.
The peer colleague may also have limited experience and perspectives; the
senior colleague may be someone who makes departmental decisions about
annual evaluations and tenure; and the instructional consultant may have
limited knowledge of the subject matter.

Appropriate response. As with the other sources, the response to these

limitations is to use a different source, either a different kind of outside
observer or one of the other sources described above.
A Comprehensive Evaluation Scenario

The thesis of this chapter is that a comprehensive plan of evaluation for improvement
requires all five sources of information. Each one offers a special kind of information
that none of the others do. How would this work out in action?

To answer this question, I will describe a hypothetical professor who is not a perfect
teacher and therefore has some yet-to-be identified weaknesses in his teaching, but he
also wants to improve his teaching. What steps should he take to evaluate his
teaching as a way of identifying those aspects that need changing?
The Case of Professor X

Professor X is a relatively young person, only two years into his tenure track position
at University Would Be Good. This fall he will be teaching a junior level course on
International Trade. He once attended a workshop on Evaluating Your Own Teaching,
so he knows what he should do.

On the first day of class, he keeps his eyes and ears open (self-monitoring) to see

54
what sort of personality this year's class has. In addition, he asks students to fill out a
short questionnaire about business or international experience they have had, prior
course work in related areas, and what they hope to get out of the course. From this
he discovers a wide range of backgrounds. Some students have extensive
international experience and others have none at all. Perhaps he can use the former as
a resource for the latter.

A few weeks into the course, he brings a small cassette recorder into class and makes
an audio recording. After listening to it, he feels reasonably good about his
presentation but notes there is little student participation. Class time consists mainly
of "teacher-talk."

The weekly quizzes are turning out okay, but he had hoped that, since they were
upper division students, the class would be getting into it a bit more.

After thinking about this awhile and talking to one of his departmental colleagues, he
decides to call the university instructional development program and request a class
review. His colleague said these people actually make some good suggestions once in
awhile.

The consultant, who was recently hired into the program because of her doctorate in
instructional communication, meets with the professor, visits his class twice, and then
shares her observations with him. Her reaction is that the lectures seem good enough,
but there is just too much of the same thing day after day: lecture, lecture, lecture.
She suggests using some active learning strategies.

After hearing the reaction of the consultant, Professor X decides to use a mid-term
questionnaire available from the instructional development program to see if the
students feel the same way. The consultant helps him interpret the results, which
indicate a degree of boredom with the steady diet of lectures. The consultant gives
him a handout on "enhanced lectures" that shows how to intersperse some active
learning activities in between shorter lecture segments. They also discuss some
possible larger modifications for next semester.

On the end-of-semester course evaluation, Professor X adds some special questions

about the changes he has made. The responses indicate that students like the changes,
and the overall results, while not yet outstanding, are appreciably higher than in
previous terms.

The point of this scenario is to illustrate that a thorough evaluation of teaching can be
effective in identifying important changes that can be made, and that such evaluation
is much more extensive than simply looking at one comparative statistic on an end-
of-semester questionnaire.

But how costly is a comprehensive evaluation plan in terms of the time required? The

55
case study above is a composite of actual cases. Based on these cases, I would make
the following estimate of the time required beyond what happens anyway in normal
teaching:

Task Additional Time (hrs)

Self-monitoring 0 (did automatically anyway)

Initial questionnaire 1 (writing, interpreting)

Audio-recording 1 (reviewing afterwards)

Weekly quizzes 0 (did this anyway)

Visit with consultant 3 (three times)

Mid-term questionnaire 1 (constructing, interpreting)

End-of-term questionnaire 1 (for added questions)

Total 7 hours
The seven hours required for
a comprehensive evaluation is an addition of about 5% to the total time required for
teaching one three-credit hour course in one semester. This amounts to less than 1/2
hour per week for the whole term. This is a small but wise investment that informed
Professor X of an important area of his teaching that needed improving. This
investment will pay big dividends in effectiveness and satisfaction in a major area of
his professional life for many years.
Sources of Assistance

Professors should not think that they have to do it alone when it comes to evaluating
their teaching. I will describe some sources of assistance that are available for two
important activities: constructing or selecting a questionnaire and figuring out how to
make needed improvements.

Student questionnaires.
The first option for getting a questionnaire to use in class is to write it yourself. At
institutions with instructional development programs, consultants can help in this
process. Custom-made questionnaires can focus on specific questions the professor
has about his or her teaching. Or they can be open-ended, asking questions like: How
satisfied are you with what you are learning? What do you like most about the
course? If you could change one thing about the course, what would it be?

A second source is often the institution itself. Many institutions have questionnaires
that are available, or required, for end-of-term use. These have the advantage of being
ready-made, but they also frequently allow the professor to add his own questions.

The third option is to use a nationally available questionnaire. The two I recommend

56
on our campus are the TABS for mid-term use and the IDEA system for end-of-term
use. The TABS questionnaire was developed at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst and is based on 20 common problems in teaching. The recommended use is
for the professor to assess the course in terms of these characteristics, and then to
compare his/her assessment with student reactions. The IDEA system is available
from the Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development at Kansas State University.
Its central criterion for assessing effectiveness is whether or not students learned what
the professor was trying to teach. It also includes a diagnostic section and national
norms that incorporate class size and initial student interest.

Ideas for improving.

The primary thrust of this chapter is on how to find out what one's strengths and
weaknesses are as a teacher. But having identified them, a professor still needs ideas
and assistance on how to make needed improvements. Four resources can be helpful
with this: selected colleagues, books and journals, institutionally-based instructional
development programs, and off-campus workshops.

The handiest resource is undoubtedly colleagues who are creative and effective in
their own teaching. They are usually flattered by requests to visit their classes, review
their course materials, and discuss their teaching strategies and philosophy. (See the
chapters by (a) Sorcinelli, (b) Millis and Kaplan, and (c) Gmelch, this volume).

A wide variety of reading material is available on teaching and ways to improve it.
Several disciplines have journals with articles on teaching a specific subject matter.
Some are focused specifically on college-level teaching. One journal, College
Teaching, is not subject-specific but contains high quality articles that are relevant to
essentially all subjects. As for books, three that I often recommend to teachers are
Teaching Tips by Wilbert McKeachie, Mastering the Techniques of Teaching by
Joseph Lowman, and Active Learning by Eison and Bonwell.

A third resource, which is available on many campuses, is an instructional

development program. During the last two decades more and more institutions have
seen fit to sponsor such a program as an appropriate investment in the single most
costly and important factor in a university's quality: the faculty. The professional staff
in these programs can offer selected reading material, share their own ideas, and
provide classroom observations and feedback to faculty members. (See the chapters
by (a) Simpson and Jackson and (b) Wadsworth, this volume.)

Finally, a number of disciplinary associations, regional consortia, and entrepreneurial

persons at various universities now offer workshops, often in the summer, for
regional and national audiences of faculty members wanting to learn how to become
better teachers. These range from a few days to a few weeks in length. They give
participants a chance to hear new ideas, systematically study a wide range of issues
and topics, and practice new possibilities in a low-risk setting with feedback from
understanding and sympathetic peers.

57
 Conclusions

People who have chosen careers as teachers in higher education owe it to themselves,
to their students, and to their institutions to fulfill their responsibilities as effectively
as possible. The thesis of this chapter is that the only way to improve one's teaching
over time is to continuously monitor and evaluate that teaching, and then to use the
information obtained to make needed changes. The various techniques described in
this chapter, especially when used together, can give us the deep personal and
professional satisfaction of being able to say, after a single course or after a career of
teaching, "I did my best, and it was good!"

58
 DAILY LESSON PLAN

DATE LESSON NO. UNIT

COURSE TOPIC

INSTRUCTOR

SUBJECT OF LESSON

INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS, MATERIALS, OR TOOLS NEEDED

REFERENCES

LESSON OUTLINE

ASSIGNMENT

NOTES

Nine Types of Adaptations

59
 Size Time Level of Support

Adapt the number of
items that the learner is
expected to learn or
complete.
For example:
Reduce the number of
social studies terms a
learner must learn at any
one times.
Adapt the time allotted Increase the amount of personal
and allowed for learning, assistance with a specific learner.
task completion, or
testing. For example:
Assign peer buddies, teaching
For example: assistants, peer tutors, or cross-
Individualize a timeline age tutors.
for completing a task;
pace learning differently
(increase or decrease) for
some learners.

Input Difficulty Output

Adapt the skill level,

Adapt the way instruction
is delivered to the learner.
For example:
Use different visual aids,
plan more concrete
examples, provide hands-
on activities, place
students in cooperative
groups.
problem type, or the rules
on how the learner may
approach the work.
For example:
Allow the use of a
calculator to figure math
problem; simplify task
directions; change rules to
accommodate learner
needs.
Adapt how the student can
respond to instruction.
For example:
Instead of answering questions in
writing, allow a verbal response,
use a communication book for
some students, allow students to
show knowledge with hands-on
materials

Participation Alternate Substitute Curriculum

Adapt the goals or

Adapt the extent to which
a learner is actively
involved in the task.
For example:
In geography, have a
student hold the globe,
while others point out
locations.
outcome expectations
Provide different instruction and
while using the same
materials to meet a student's
materials.
individual goals.
For example:
For example:
In social studies, expect a
During a language test, one
student to be able to
student is learning computer
locate just the states while
skills in the computer lab
others learn to locate
capitals as well.

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 Proper Teaching
We have been reading the Catechism at night to my children. My eldest at least
recognizes the Ten Commandments in order and can recite most of the
Apostle's Creed. This has shown me the necessity of proper teaching of our
children. It isn't the Pastor's responsibility. It isn't something that will just pop
into their head. Parents must teach it consistently. This is a failing point of
many Christians, not limited to just LC-MS, Roman Catholics or some "other
denomination." If you aren't teaching your children, the best you can hope for
is a mediocre appreciation and very little to fall back on in times of temptation
and testing. For anyone who ends up reading this (if there is anyone at all),
please teach your children the basics of Christian faith. It is imperative that
they understand and learn these things early. It is the basis that allows a
deeper understanding of what the Bible is really about.
P O S T E D B Y V I R G I N I A L U T H E R A N S AT 1 0 : 3 7 P M

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About Me
J. HANSEN

F R E D E R I C K S B U R G , V I R G I N I A , U N I T E D S TAT E S
I started this blog to discuss the things that popular Christianity doesn't want to
discuss. They are stuck on the "make love not war" Jesus, which misses the
Jesus who threw out the merchants in the temple and will come again with
Judgment. It is my hope to reflect Biblical teaching, with a Lutheran twist. My
family and I go to a confessional Lutheran church.

VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE

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• Happy New Year

61
 Some Notes on Team Teaching
Sharon A. Maroney
Western Illinois University-Quad Cities
SA-Maroney1@wiu.edu

With the increased emphasis on inclusive programming for all students, many of us are
being asked to team teach. Team teaching partnerships have developed with special
education colleagues or with colleagues in regular education and/or support services.
Frequently when teachers are interested in team teaching or when they are asked to
develop team teaching partnerships, questions arise regarding the basics of team teaching:
the what's, the how's, the why's, and the what for's. As a starting point, I'd like to share
with you two sets of information. The first introduces five different models of team
teaching. For me, this information helps generate the many possibilities available when two
educators work together. The second set of information identifies what I see to be the
prerequisites for successful team teaching.

Five Types of Team Teaching

The first type of team teaching is Traditional Team Teaching in which both teachers
actively share the instruction of content and skills to all students. A frequent application of
this approach is when one teacher presents the new information to the class while the other
teacher takes notes or completes the math problem on the blackboard or constructs a
semantic map on the overhead projector as the students listen and observe. In Traditional
Team Teaching both teachers accept equal responsibility for the education of all students
and are actively involved throughout the class period.
The second type of team teaching, referred to as Complimentary or Supportive
Instruction, occurs when one teacher assumes the responsibility for teaching the content to
the students while the other teacher provides follow-up instructional activities on related
topics or study skills. In this approach one teacher introduces the chapter content to the
class and gives the reading assignment. The second teacher then instructs the students to
use the SQ3R reading strategy as they complete their reading assignment. Another example
of Complimentary or Supplementary team teaching is when one teacher assumes the
responsibility for curriculum instruction while the second teacher designs and implements a
self-monitoring strategy, such as the Time Game, to increase student attention to task.
Parallel Instruction is a third type of team teaching in which the class is divided into two
groups and each teacher provides instruction on the same content or skills to a smaller
group of students. This type can work well for activities such as solving math problems,
completing research projects, or creative writing activities as it enables teachers to work
more closely with students. A variation of Parallel Instruction, which might be used weekly,
is when both teachers individually review student notebooks or progress on individual
science projects. In this variation the class is not divided but both teachers are performing
the same tasks in a parallel fashion.
In Differentiated Split Class Team Teaching the class is divided into two groups
according to a specified learning need. Each group is provided with instruction to meet that
specified need. This type is frequently applied when the class is divided in a higher-lower

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split and one teacher provides an enrichment activity to the higher functioning students
while the second teacher provides reteaching of the newly taught content or skill to those
students who require additional instruction. Using the Differentiated Split Class Team
Teaching approach in various subject areas will required different groups of students as
many students have strengths in some areas while not in others.
The fifth type of team teaching involves the Monitoring Teacher. In this approach as one
teacher assumes the responsibility for class wide instruction, the other teacher circulates
the room and monitors student achievement and behavior. This approach can be applied
when one teacher delivers instruction and models the steps of a lab experiment, while the
other teacher moves around the room to observe and assist individual students as they
work. During a lecture, the lecturing teacher might be using a strategy in which he/she
stops frequently during the lecture to ask students to quickly answer a question on their
individual Response Cards. The Monitoring Teacher can then determine whether or not
students have responded correctly and can provide immediate feedback to the lecturing
teacher.
Often teachers may choose to use more than one type of team teaching in the same class
period, as in this example. During the first 20 minutes of the class, one teacher presents a
history lecture while the other teacher completes a time line on the blackboard (Traditional
Team Teaching). Then the students are divided in two groups. One group is given instruction
on writing a composition related to and expanding on the time line, while the other group is
instructed on making an outline of time line information (Differentiated Split Class).

As with any form of classroom instruction, a cycle of planning for instruction,

implementation of the instructional plan, evaluation of the results of instruction, and
problem solving to improve future instructional activities is required.

Prerequisites to Successful Team Teaching

The basic prerequisites for successful team teaching emphasize the personal qualities
needed for team teachers and the attitudes needed for success. Successful team teachers
are those who are united, not divided, and have a true partnership in the classroom. These
teachers maintain the focus on the students. They have an agreed upon purpose for team
teaching, agreed upon class rules and procedures, and agreed upon expectations for
students and their teaching partner.

Successful Team Teachers are:

Willing and Want To Try Team Teaching
Positive Thinkers
Respectful
Honest
Trusting and Trustworthy
Open to Another's Point of View
Able to Communicate
Flexible
Resourceful

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"I'll try anything once!" People
Individuals who Don't Take Things Personally

In team teaching no "Yeah Butters" are allowed!

We've all met these individuals. The ones who are always the first to say, "Yeah but that
won't work . . .Yeah but I tried that before . . . Yeah but this class . . . Yeah but . . . Yeah
but . . . Yeah but . . .
And as with any additional task, planning time and debriefing time is prerequisite for
successful team teaching.
Good Luck!

64
TIPES FOR INTERWIE

Timing is everything: Don't cause yourself undue stress before a big interview.

Arrive about 10 minutes before the interview is scheduled to begin.

If you arrive too early, you'll sit and wait and worry. And if you arrive too late, you may find yourself racing in
the door, your heart already pounding from a last-minute dash.

A ten-minute, pre-interview break will give you an opportunity to catch your breath and acclimate to your
surroundings. It's enough time, but not too much time.

Picture This

You can make your dream a reality. Use your imagination to stay calm during a job interview.

Visualization is a relaxation technique in which you create a mental image of a stressful or challenging
situation. Then you imagine yourself succeeding in the situation. By doing so, you're mentally preparing to
handle the event in real life.

You can practice visualization in the days, hours or even minutes before an interview. Simply close your
eyes and breathe deeply. Picture yourself greeting the interviewer confidently and answering tough
questions with ease.

Practice succeeding in your imagination, and soon you'll be doing it in reality.

Relax

A relaxed job candidate is a confident job candidate.

Show the interviewer that you're calm, composed and in command during an interview. He's likely to assume
that you'll be rock-solid on the job too.

Use these tips to stay relaxed during an interview:

• Breathing deeply and slowly (and quietly, of course).

• Sit up straight and don't cross your legs or arms.

• Speak slowly and pause for breath often.

• Keeps your hands and jaw relaxed; no clenching.

• Smile -- it really is contagious!

Pause, Don't Panic

In every interview, there comes a moment that doesn't go according to plan. There's an awkward silence.
You stumble over your words. You flub a tough question.

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Don't panic. Now's the time to put your relaxation skills into overdrive.

It's much easier to control fear and panic as it starts to build than to calm yourself down once they've begun
to spiral out of control.

When you feel yourself starting to panic and lose focus, pause. Tell yourself silently that you can do this.
Take a deep breath. Refocus. And then resume interviewing.

A quick ten-second pause can be all you need to regain your composure and get back in control. And the
interviewer likely won't even notice.

Discuss with other job seekers: HotJobs Message Boards

Don't get too detailed about your specific career plan. Instead, discuss things that are important to you
professionally and how you plan to achieve them. If growth is a goal, mention that. You can also talk about
challenge, another value that employers prize in their employees.

The 'Salary' Question

Most people will tell you that whoever answers this question first loses. But that's not necessarily true.

When an interviewer asks your salary requirement, try first to gently deflect the question by inquiring about
the salary for the position.

If the interviewer presses you for a number, give a range. To decide on a range, think about the salary you
want, your salary at your most recent position and the industry-standard salary for the job.

The bottom line: The salary question is one of the most important, so you should prepare for it in advance
and plan what to say.

The 'Why' Question

There's a fine line between boastful and confident. And you need to learn it.

When an interviewer asks you why they should hire you, you're going to have speak confidently and
honestly about your abilities. But you should avoid sounding overly boastful.

Aim for earnest and prepare by practicing. That's right: Stand in front of the mirror and acknowledge your
abilities and accomplishments to your reflection. Tell yourself: I have a very strong work ethic. I have
integrity. I have excellent industry contacts. I aggressively pursue my goals.

It's sometimes hard to praise yourself, but after a few sessions you'll sound sincere.

The Seemingly Silly Question

If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? What if you were a car? Or an animal?

These type of questions can bring your interview to a screeching halt.

First, don't panic. Pause and take a deep breath. Then remind yourself that there's no "right" answer to
these questions. The job isn't hinging on whether you choose to be a spruce versus an oak.

66
Interviewers usually ask these questions to see how you react under pressure and how well you handle the
unexpected. It's not so important what type of tree (or car, or animal) you choose as that you explain your
choice in a way that makes you look favorable.

So, be a spruce -- because you want to reach new heights in your career. Or be an oak -- because you plan
to put down roots at the company. Either way, you'll get it right.

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