5/12/13 Classroom Management Primer for College Teachers

This post is meant as a management primer for newer college teachers, or a refresher for veteran faculty who wish to re-tool their approach to building trusting classroom relationships.

It was first delivered as a 40-minute workshop at the June 2010 Lilly Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, with the title Taming the Unruly Elephant:  Tools and Attitudes for Successful Classroom Management,  and later that summer in a 2-hour interactive format, featuring group activities, in July 2010 at San Diego University.  Please contact me at coach.faculty@gmail.com about doing workshops elsewhere.

Mano Singham, Director of the case Western Reserve Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education, has suggested there are two ways to deal with behavior challenges:  

(1) when possible, prevent problems from happening and (2) resolve or manage problems that do happen.   Five principles, briefly elaborated below but each worthy of detailed examination, form the foundation of effective classroom management.

The best strategies are proactive:  things you can do easily to nurture your relationships with students, connect them to each other, and thereby prevent behavior problems from arising at all.  The key:  create a calm, orderly classroom climate right at the beginning and establish a friendly, trusting personal relationship with students.   The perception of trouble forms through the intersection of two personalities; what appears a minor irritation to one faculty member may make teaching very difficult for another.  So, while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, five principles help guide us.

Prevention:  Principle 1   Develop Positive Relationships and Trust

Build trust and empathy, in every possible way; in doing so you will make problems far less likely to happen.  The majority of small conflicts evaporate when you are trusted.  How to do this?Here are a few ideas:

A --  Learn names; meet students outside class early; find out more about them. A vast array of suggestions for how to do these things can be found in an internet search, or developed in a workshop exchange.  (This applies for all suggestions below.)

B -- Make coming for office-hours help a routine and expectation; maybe even make an initial visit a formal assignment.

C --  Know your non-negotiable bottom lines, but:  Discuss expectations with students.  Be clear, but don’t just list in the syllabus.  When they talk about it, they own it.  Thus:

---- What can I reasonably expect of you?

---- What can you reasonably expect of me?

---- What is reasonable to expect of classmates?

Prevention: Principle 2   Get Regular Feedback about Your Teaching   

Self-assessment of teaching is the single most important source of trust and practice-improving feedback; it defuses anger about issues you can’t control, and it brings those you can control to your attention.  Too few faculty do it; be an exception.  Getting feedback builds trust, provides a roadmap for improvement of practice, and ends end-of-term-evaluation bombs.  How to do it?

A --   Collect feedback data regularly, so that it becomes an expected routine.  Never wait until the last week of class.  COnsult print and web resources, or write me for specific suggestions (for which I do not have space here.)  Ask colleagues and faculty developers how they do this, expect some puzzled looks from colleagues, and forge ahead.  

B --   Feed the data, good and bad, back to students.  Acknowledge all feedback, whether you can act on it or not.  Some folks do this in writing as a handout; some do it verbally.  Don’t omit the negatives.

C  --  Act to change what you can, consistent with the overall best interests of the class.  This demonstrates your learner-centered intention.  

Respond or Resolve:  Principle 1  React to a challenge only if you face a real emergency.  When non-emergency:  think, plan and respond later.  

Reactive behavior from an instructor often feeds more objectionable behavior, inviting conflict escalation and negativity.  Instead:

A --   Document, think and plan first.  Move to action only when you are ready.

B --   Don’t refuse, but defuse.  Defer talk with an angry student.   buy time to cool your head, cool an upset student, listen, think, plan, ask for counsel or bring in a third party.  Avoid public confrontation, which can escalate to public humiliation.

Example Language:  I can see how upset you are.  I agree we need to have this discussion, but not here on class time.  Would you like to talk after class, in office hours, or before tomorrow’s class?

Respond and Resolve: Principle 2:  Don’t Ignore, Do Respond Thoughtfully to Boundary Violations   

Recurring anger or irritation usually signals that a boundary has been crossed.  Don’t react, but don’t ignore.  Don’t try to make rules that cover everything. Consider, plan and respond.  Ignoring inappropriate behavior (in hope it will go away) gives tacit consent for that same behavior to continue or to escalate.  Guidelines:

A -- Know what you want to achieve.  A good action plan can develop only when your end-point outcomes are very clear.  If you’re not clear, defer all action until you are.

B -- State, re-state or re-set the boundary;   plan wording carefully.  Choose a best time for approach, one that will least distract and upset others.  Do this in private when possible.   Public confrontation humiliates people and damages relationships.

C -- Consult with peers as part of your planning, if their experience might help.  What happened to you has probably happened to others.  Silence is your enemy.

D -- Script and rehearse if necessary.

E -- Plan and explain boundary-cross consequences—what you will do next.  

F-- Avoid threatening language, posture, tone or gestures.  You don’t need to sound angry to make a point.

Example Language This was used, just as written, with an adult student who was verbally harassing a teacher, and delivered quietly when students were working independently.  The second part was delivered out of view or hearing of others. - Jim, please follow me to the hallway (do not pause for an answer; get up and go; Jim will follow; this makes the intervention as private as possible) - When you complain publicly about the work I’m giving you or about my behavior, you affect the learning of others and negatively affect the class culture.  Say anything you wish in private, but please (or I expect you to) keep the negativity out of class. - Can you agree to this?  (If s/he says “no,” explain what steps you’ll take:  I’m going to assume I’ll get your cooperation.  But if this behavior reappears, I’ll ask the (dean, department chair or counseling staff) to discuss this with us together.

Respond or Resolve:  Principle 3  Develop an Emergency Toolbox    

Consider what might go wrong if all preventive measures fail.  What are worst-case scenarios?  Think through what you might do if one of them happened.

What’s In a Toolbox?  Here are some ideas.

Know what to do and have a plan for when you are threatened or may be in real danger.

This varies by campus and should align with your university’s student handbook or discipline protocols.  Know and keep handy emergency numbers; carry your cell phone with those numbers programmed in; get to know the responders.   

Document, to keep facts straight and to avoid blind-siding a supervisor.  In advance, plan a supervisor backup with whom you can file reports as needed.  (This person might be a department chair, or a colleague.)  Recording significant incidents in writing helps keep memory intact, should back-reference ever be made.

Develop peer relationships for counsel with more experienced faculty you trust.  Silence is your enemy.  Asking for help is a strength.

Develop consulting and referral relationships with student support personnel.  This includes counselors, advisors, or other staff to whom students can be referred.

Crisis in the Air?  There are times that the mood or buzz in a class tells you something is wrong.  When you read this signal, whether the background crisis is real or imagined, there’s something more important than teaching content.  Stop to ask students:  What’s happening?  Then, listen to them.

This post is a simple guide.  

Detailed discussion in small groups, such as interaction planned for a workshop, commonly result in important insights.  In turn, those insights can become the foundation of a personal plan.

My permanent residence is in Shelburne, Vermont.  

I travel often to the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas,

and to the west coast:  Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego.

To inquire about the possibility of a live workshop in your area

please write me

Michael W. Dabney

702 Wake Robin Drive

Shelburne, VT  05482

or call 802-985-0088

coach.faculty@gmail.com

Tips for Starting a New Teaching Term

STARTING A NEW TERM

First Impressions matter. The first two days of class – even the first 15 minutes of the quarter – will make or break it.   The first class is your opportunity for culture-building.  It’s crucial that you get students talking – that you not just hand out a syllabus and send students off to do their homework, already numbed to the prospect of another quarter of the teacher talking at them.

~ Luke Reinsma, Seattle Pacific University

Today, it is recommended that instructors use that [first] class to set the tone (anticipate challenge, but expect my support), actively engage students with the syllabus, and use activities to exemplify what students can expect.  Many instructors now create a mutual dialogue with students about what instructors expect of students and what students expect from instructors.

~ from Hawaii Pacific University’s website:   First Day Tips

To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.

~  Bell Hooks, from Teaching to Transgress. Education as the practice of freedom, London: Routledge (1994)   Bell Hooks is the pen name of American author and social activitist Gloria Watkins (b 1952).

Executive Summary    A new term offers opportunity for new results.  This message focuses on three kinds of changes:  (1) helping students understand that feedback about teaching is least helpful (and least able to prompt change) when offered at term’s end, pushing them to think more deeply about their own investment in education; (2) simple strategies that add warmth to your relationships with learners; and (3) building student skill in civil dialogues with you and with each other.  In the classroom, relationships are key and you can begin building them and building trust when (or perhaps before) your students walk into the first class.  The question of managing early classes started some sharing on the POD Network (faculty development) listserv, and I have exerpted--at the close--some of the suggestions put forth in that exchange.

Links are tested and live except as noted.  If you find otherwise, please tell me:  coach.faculty@gmail.com

1--Explain to students that feedback helps you; ask them for it; and use it to reinvigorate your practice and deepen trust  In the essay “Evaluation Anticipation,” in the January 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education, John Lemuel notes the challenge of sorting useful from simply ego-bruising feedback.   A teaser:   I've started introducing the topic of student evaluations early in the semester, mainly to point out the folly of saving up grievances to unload anonymously after grades are in. I can't deal with problems I don't know about, and finding out about them sometime next semester won't help the students currently afflicted. So I tell students, try talking to me, and see if we can't resolve the problem. If I help some learn how to be a self-advocate in the process, that's a plus.  But I know I won't appeal to every student, so I ask them to write only comments they could sign their names to, and some actually do. I point out that anonymous denunciations have all of the courage and none of the effectiveness of a drive-by shooting. Some of the denunciations I keep for my own amusement in a folder labeled "Student Hall of Shame." The rest get pitched. I am as free to ignore them as they are to write them.   The article linked below will tickle your funny bone and highlights the many advantages of asking students for within-term feedback on teaching.  Find it at:   John Lemuel's "Evaluation Anticipation"  Self-assessment of teaching need not involve others and is the simplest and most powerful of means to improve your teaching practice and to augment student trust: http://cait.hpu.edu/kb/?p=192 

2--Try a new strategy to build trust, add warmth and safety   One joy of academic life is the fresh start offered by semester, quarter or term organization.  Even after 45 years, I still have “butterflies” before a new class or workshop, but I thrive in the opportunity and excitement of trying new things, seeing new responses, making improvements.  As you polish plans for the first days of class, consider some possibilities:

• proactive welcoming contact   Make contact before classes begin.  Ask students to respond reflectively to some short reading(s) or to specify supportive behaviors they would value from peers or from you. See Marc Gilbert's lead article here:

http://cait.hpu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Issue-411.pdf 

• community-building activities Incorporate activities to help learn student names and help students to learn each other’s names.  A wonderful resource for name-learning strategies is an article by Joan Middendorf:  Learning Student Names (Indiana University) .  That article begins thus:  In his 1993 book, What Matters in College, Alexander Austin reviewed the literature on college teaching, finding two things that made the biggest difference in getting students involved in the undergraduate experience: greater faculty-student interaction and greater student-student interaction. Though learning student names may seem a trivial matter in the entire university enterprise, it is a powerful means to foster both of these interactions.

• process your syllabus  Have students read (and in groups, derive questions/concerns from) selected parts of your syllabus; then answer the questions.  By using groups you preserve anonymity. By compelling students to process parts of the syllabus in class, you assure it will be reviewed even if not read in its entirety.

• make a strong start   Introduce rich, engaging content immediately (but provide with care the means for students who enroll later—a near certainty at many institutions—to catch up)

• help students understand and build on their learning strengths   This link
Hawaii Pacific University: Learning Styles  includes some easy-to-use quick online assessments which provide students with immediate feedback on strengths and preferences, prompt goal-setting.  You could demonstrate online in class, ask students to triangulate three different assessments as an early assignment, then discuss the results in class groups.

3--Make expectations clear in discussion-style exchange, and ask students what they expect of you.   All faculty include course expectations in a syllabus.  A few go further, to engage students in discussion of the syllabus, and still fewer ask what students expect of faculty.  Rarely, a faculty member engages students in co-development of expectations.  Mano Singham, head of the TLC-equivalent at Carnegie-Mellon University, did an experiment in which he ditched his “rule-infested” syllabus and asked his students to build a syllabus with him.  Look at his early-class activities in the supplement under this message.  Explore the possibility of talking openly with students about (a) what is reasonable for you to expect of them, e.g. in preparation; (b) what they expect of each other in class or online (this forestalls a lot of potentially uncivil behavior) and (c) what they expect of you.  You’ll learn a lot of very interesting things!  Drill deeper from non-specific terms, like “well-prepared,” to what those words mean in behavior.  

4--Keep Open the Department of Skill Development   We often assume that students   already know the skills they need to thrive in your classroom.  The harsh reality:  often they do not know the behavior meaning of such common words as participation, preparation or listening.  They often are unclear about the fundamentals of civility in such behaviors as punctuality, use of communication tools, and discourse with teachers and peers.  What, for example, are the boundaries of acceptable response when a peer makes a point you find offensive?  Such skills are critical keystones of success in today’s collaborative workplaces.  You can create simple activities to help forge these understandings; and you can focus on the how-to of specific skills, such as reading a textbook or listening for and understanding another’s point of view.  Use a “looks like/sounds like” T-chart to develop--in  less than five minutes with student input--to focus on any skill you need to develop.  The instructor should be able to develop such a chart but it is most powerful if the students develop it in class, with the instructor and students modeling some of the skills.  Focus on one skill at a time.  


SUPPLEMENT:  Suggestions from other faculty development professionals

A query on the POD faculty developers’ listserv January 2 kicked off an exchange of resources, among which were the following (some edited or re-formatted to save space.
Mick LaLopa, Purdue:   I am starting my graduate course on teaching and learning with, "What do you want to learn about teaching and learning?"  They will then help design the course.  That is a great way to learn teaching and learning.  I am doing the same in my undergraduate Human Resource Management class.  I will ask the kids what they want to learn about HR and how they want to learn it and we will build the syllabus and course agenda together to meet the stated description and course objectives.  I did this last spring with resounding success.  Then there is no selling them on why they need to learn what I am teaching leading to learning, given the research on teaching and learning.

Mano SIngham, Case Western Reserve:   Here is what I do on the first day:   (1) I go early and place name tents with student names at each seat.  (2) I distribute a half-sheet with the following questions: 1. Name 2.  Original hometown 3. Favorite book/author 4. Favorite film 5. Little known but interesting fact about you. I ask them to fill them in. We then go around the room and read from them (myself included).  (3)  I pass a sign-up sheet with 15 minute time slots for the first week for them to meet privately with me.  (4) On index cards, I ask them to write (anonymously) any questions they would like addressed during the course.  I collect, shuffle them and redistribute so that each student reads aloud the questions written on a card by a different (and unknown) student.  (5) I do not start the course with a prepared syllabus that lays out course policies or grading schemes. The only thing I hand out on the first day of class is a list of readings and a tentative schedule of when we will do the readings, and a tentative list of due dates for the papers to be handed in. I point out them that the course website already has a lot of resource material and routine information. I show the website and discuss posting questions and journals for discussions.  (6)  On the first day of class, I ask students why they registered for the course and what they hope to learn, and use this information to structure a general course outline. I tell them that while I am open and flexible to any and all suggestions, I also tell them that I have an ethical responsibility to my field of study and the university to ensure that the course content has academic integrity and conforms generally to the published course description.

I ask the students to list all the things that they expect from an instructor who is giving 100% to the course. One year the students came up with this list, which is actually quite revealing about their prior experiences with teachers:

1.     Give students their papers back in a timely way
2.     Give students lots of criticism and feedback on work
3.     Have passion for the material
4.     Listen and respond to student concerns
5.     Care not only about academics but also about students as people
6.     Realize that students have a life outside of class and not make unreasonable demands on them
7.     Not stick only to the class readings for discussions
8.     Take all questions seriously and not fake it if you don't know the answer to something
9.     Provide inspiration to students so that they will want to change their minds

I then ask them to list what they would expect to see in their peers if they were giving 100% to the course. On their own, they came up with the first eight items, and I added the last three.

1.     Doing the readings
2.     Listening to others and appreciating diverse opinions
3.     Students learning from each other's ideas
4.     Keeping things light-hearted
5.     Not putting others down if you disagree
6.     Showing up for every class and being on time
7.     Showing respect for everyone's ideas
8.     Going beyond just academic conversation and bringing personal elements into the discussions too
9.     Responding thoughtfully to weekly journal prompts
10.  Being conscientious about sending weekly private emails to instructor
11.  Checking the website regularly so that you know what is going on and can carry out your responsibilities

Emma Bourassa, Thompson Rivers Univ:   When I contact students in advance I ask them a question that I can use in a 'find someone who...' mixer. It starts to build community right away.

Alan Bender, Indiana University:  Courses can start prior to the first class meeting.  For example, you could email to students a writing assignment to be done prior to the first meeting, and students could then discuss in class what they wrote.   (That's what I do.)

Brian Greenwood, Cal Poly:  http://elixr.merlot.org/case-stories/course-preparation--design/first-day-of-class/goals-for-first-day-of-class7    I believe the key is effectively framing for your students your philosophy, goals and expectations.

Curt Naser, Fairfield University:  This routine may be more specific to my subject matter (ethics) but I always start the first day with a simple question, right off the bat:  "Why are you here?"  After the initial looks of disbelief and nervous laughter I cox and cajole them to answer the question.  This ultimately leads to a reflection on their goals, most of whom want to get credits to satisfy a distribution requirement, so that they can graduate so that they can get a job so that they can make money so that they can have a family so that they can, etc....  A great object lesson in deferred gratification and general consequentialist thinking.  This gives them a taste of what class will be like (constant questioning and probing) and has the virtue of laying out for them a very common form of thinking about action.

This post is part of a series published monthly and intended for college and community-college level educators.  Readers should feel free to use parts of any post in their own newsletters, with appropriate attribution, and to contact me with questions or suggestions at coach.faculty@gmail.com

An immensely rewarding part of my retirement life is helping individuals or groups, playing a part in their growth.   Often the issues are simple, involving classroom irritants.  Sometimes it’s about locating a resource, suggesting a fresh approach to a classroom challenge.  It’s sometimes about thinking ahead to a challenge, such as a re-appointment portfolio.  Sometimes it involves a broader or more complex matter, such as ways to improve end-of-term evaluations (and to eliminate the “bombs” that often come attached), or dealing with challenging dynamics in a class or in a faculty group.   In such conversations, I learn and  thrive.  You can engage full and confidential attention from me by using email:  coach.faculty@gmail.com   Telephone or Skype conversations can be arranged.   I travel often to west and east coast cities.

Michael W. Dabney
702 Wake Robin Drive
Shelburne, VT  05482

12/31: Discussion Facilitation Skills Support Learning

Our focus should be not just on seeing possibilities, but creating opportunity; and not just on creating opportunities, but on creating an environment that leads at least the most malleable people on our campus--the students--to seize opportunities.

~ Louis Schmier, in email 12.11.12 on the Professional and Organizational Development listserv

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved

~ George MacDonald (Scottish author/poet d 1905)

The business of life is not to succeed, but to fail in good spirits.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

We are privileged to learn something of value in . . . every interaction. Our teachers are all around us.

~ Karen Casey, A Life of My Own

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

~Spoken by the Countess of Rousillon in All’s Well that Ends Well, (Act I, Scene 1) William Shakespeare

Happy New Year!  (image borrowed from newsletter of Dunn Gardens, Seattle, WA)

Executive Summary:  At 19 and a college junior, I helped in a freshman biology lab.  My supervisor, Betty Gilbert, offered me an opportunity to speak about cell division in a pre-lab talk.  I “prepared” a week ahead for the 5-minute task:  a snap, I thought. Two minutes in, a stumper question and an important lesson:   knowing-to-teach is getting it at a very different, deeper level that knowing-to-test.  Test questions about mitosis were simple for me—understanding was different.  Betty trusted me and walked away.  I never forgot.  (That was in 1963: now Professor Gilbert is in her 80s, lives in a family homestead in Vermont, drives on long bird-watching trips from time to time, and regularly commutes to Dartmouth’s library in Hanover, NH. ) Although the focus here is on skills for discussion, we build trust through all our behavior with students and with each other.   This post offers resources to expand your repertoire of skills for leading rich discussions.

What is discussion?  In an early part of my career, I might have described discussion as a loosely-structured  question-and-answer session.  It is far from that:  healthy discussion requires careful advance thought about outcomes and skillful management of direction and student responses.  Like any skill, competence with facilitating discussion expands with practice and mistakes.  In return, it offers (1) students a rich window into their own thinking, and (2) teachers an unparalleled assessment opportunity.  It also gives students a chance to utilize concepts and to deepen their thinking through articulation and exchanges with you and with fellow learners, and provides an opportunity to build confidence and trust:  trust of your students in themselves, trust of your students in you and trust of students in classmates.  Some issues:   How can I get a discussion started?  How can I keep it going?  What can I do if it falls apart?  How can I avoid lapsing into lecture?  How can I encourage involvement from quiet students, prevent a few from dominating exchanges?  How can I deal with inappropriate responses?  Should I grade discussions or participation?

Here are five bottom-line keys:  (1) Enter a discussion, as you would any activity in any class, with a clear view of academic and skill outcomes: What do you want to happen?   (2) Have a clear picture of your role as a facilitator.  (3) Pack a toolkit of skills for what-to-do-when unexpected things happen or the discussion or tone takes an unwanted direction.  (4) Have central questions ready, and plan to encourage student preparation as needed.   (5) Plan or script responses that you can use when students answer badly, incompletely, incorrectly; or when incivility springs forth.  There are many discussion-planning resources available, in print and online.  A few of the best and most complete are listed below; it’s worth looking at several, because-- though many sources mention similar issues--counsel about challenge management differs in interesting ways and you’ll learn a lot from comparing them and deciding what fits for you.  Each includes a wide variety of additional links, including some how-to video.

Princeton:  This is a wonderfully organized piece that covers planning, structuring questions, and dealing with problems.  A roadmap opens the show, making it easy to navigate rich content: Tips for Discussion Facilitation

Bok Center, Harvard:   This is a compact, printable document with brief tips and a bibliography leading to other resources: Harvard Bok Center Discussion Tips and Resources

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching:   This user-friendly web page neatly capsules basic principles, then moves to specific tools, strategies and models, leading the reader to expanded resources by using additional annotated links:  Vanderbilt University Teaching Resources:  Discussion Tips   

Indiana University:  This nicely-organized page that includes counsel about the usual variables but also a significant component on whether to and how to grade discussions:  Indiana University:  DIscussion Tips    Also see Leading Discussion of Sensitive Issues.  From any IU page, search “discussion” for more resources.

University of Washington:  While constructed for teaching assistants, advice here will support all faculty: http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/TAHandbook/LeadingDiscussions.html

MIT:  We can manage student responses, even poor ones, in gentle ways that encourage everyone, build trust and model civility.  This is a neat page about how to respond to students in a discussion:  MIT:  Responding Efffectively to Student Questions .  Another counsels question-building:  “What Makes a Good Question?” at  MIT:  What Makes a Good Question?  

Yale:  A three-page bullet-point, neatly-organized list of hints for discussion leaders:  http://www.yale.edu/graduateschool/teaching/forms/papers/discussion_leading.pdf

University of North Carolina:  This is a big, useful document that explores many aspects of guided discussions, dating back to 1992.  Likely intended for graduate teaching assistants, it nevertheless contains much useful advice for faculty: University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill:  Guiding Discussion

Warm wishes always,


Mike Dabney

Write me: coach.faculty@gmail.com
702 Wake Robin Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482
CONSULTATION - TEACHER TRAINING - COACHING - WORKSHOPS

Call me: 802-985-0088 (Vermont) 808-781-3294 (nationwide cell, does not work well at home)

Travel schedule includes New York (January), Seattle (February, March, April, June), San Diego (June), Los Angeles (early February and late June), San Francisco (March and April).

TEACHER TRAINING has been much in the news, much under scrutiny.  Highlights:   What makes a Great Teacher?  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-makes-a-great-teacher/7841/   Building a Better Teacher, from the New York Times (March 2, 2010): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html