What is I-O?

The All-Around Academic:
Improving Teaching and Maintaining Research Productivity

When Neil and Laura invited me to contribute to their column I was hesitant at first. Providing advice on topics such as teaching, where there are so many paths to success, is daunting and ripe with the potential to appear overly simplistic. With this caveat, I wrote this column based on a talk I gave at the 2001 SIOP Doctoral Consortium. In my talk, I presented and discussed three case studies. The first was about an assistant professor struggling with teaching; the second was about an assistant professor struggling with research; and the third was about an assistant professor able to achieve success in both domains. Given that the editorial vision of this column is teaching, I will focus on the first case study. I will briefly present the case of Jane the Teacher and provide some analysis and recommendations. Given that there is at least a little Jane in all of us, hopefully you will glean some useful insights into common pitfalls and simple ways to improve teaching effectiveness.

The Teaching Jane Case

Jane has been in academics for 5 years. She is an excellent researcher. Her publication record is impressive. She has 14 publications, a number of which are in top-tier journals. As good as her publication record is, her teaching is poor. She consistently gets poor student evaluations and mediocre peer evaluations. She gets no enjoyment out of teaching. There always appears to be friction between her and her students. Attendance in her classes is quite low compared to her colleagues classes.

Janes lack of teaching success can be explained by many factors. Here is a brief sampling of five potentially important determinants of Janes poor performance. In each case, I will provide Jane with some advice and counsel I have found to be useful. 

Reason One

Jane never challenged herself to improve as a teacher. Teaching is an acquired skill. As such, reading and workshops will promote skill attainment. More simply though, she should seek feedback and learn from colleagues (e.g., exchange ideas). Jane may also be viewing her student teaching evaluations cynically. She may rationalize that teaching evaluations are merely popularity contests, entertainment ratings, and class difficulty indices. These are self-defeating perceptions. While the students evaluations are far from perfect indices of teaching, they do convey useful information (this is the same advice we would give a manager who was discounting employee attitude survey results). By examining themes imbedded in the evaluations, Jane can improve. Furthermore, Jane should consider using mid-semester evaluations of her course. 

Reason Two

Jane may possess a low opinion of students in general. If Jane is a Theory X teacher (e.g., believes students are lazy, unmotivated, minimalists), odds are her behavior will reflect those beliefs in some manner. In turn, the students may react in a way to confirm the belief (e.g., act dispassionately, act immaturely, come unprepared). This is not an argument for pollyanna type beliefs about students. Instead, Jane should approach students with high, but reasonable expectations.

Reason Three

Jane views teaching as an impediment to research. She believes that good teaching comes at the expense of research productivity. She views teaching and research as orthogonal concepts where time spent in one domain is time lost in the other domain. This belief prevents her from being a reflective practitioner in the classroom; it prevents her from devoting energies to self-improvement in the classroom; it prevents her from showing any type of passion in the classroom; and it prevents her from exploring creative ways to actually foster additional research productivity via teaching practices.

The contention that teaching and research involves an either/or bifurcation implicitly establishes what I believe to be a false dichotomy. Success can be achieved in both domains. Let me just touch upon a series of stimulating classroom activities Jane can do to further promote her research productivity. In all cases, high ethical standards must prevail. In all cases, the activity must promote learning and fit with the objectives of the course.

1. Jane should look for opportunities to share and discuss her research data in the classroom. Jane can then gather student opinions and questions. She can generate a discussion concerning her findings. Jane will be pleased at what she can learn from her students (just presenting your study to a novice audience is a good exercise) and what her students can learn from a research discussion. After all, students rarely get firsthand exposure to the principal investigator on a research project.

2. Students can conduct research (collect pilot data) on a topic of interest to Jane. Students can administer surveys (they can even have a say on the survey content) and conduct interviews. Students can seek out friends and family to serve as participants. The students can analyze the data or Jane can analyze the data with the students providing interpretations. Students can share results with one another (e.g., conduct a class poster session). Jane should consult her Institutional Research Review Board to assure her classroom research practices comply with university policies.

3. Jane can have her students engage in service learning. By doing research assignments using local organizations and projects for local organizations the students gather firsthand applied experience with class content and provide a source of outreach. Service learning also provides the instructor with inroads into potential data collection sites for future research efforts. One service learning assignment that I have found useful in the past concerns benchmarking certain organizational practices (e.g., performance appraisal). The benchmarking results can then be shared with all participating organizations.

In the aggregate, the above activities can promote research productivity while stimulating student development. By being creative and unconventional, additional ideas to promote research and learning are not difficult to generate. Jane just needs to keep reminding herself that the barrier between teaching and research should be permeable. Teaching and research efforts do not have to represent a zero-sum game. 

Reason Four

Jane may be overpreparing for class. This counterintuitive explanation for Janes lack of teaching success is a common pitfall for instructors. Over-preparing often leads to over-structuring and over-scripting the classroom experience. When this happens, flexibility and responsiveness to student needs may be compromised. Jane may be putting pressure on herself to execute the classroom plan at all costs. She may feel as if she is always playing catch-up. In response, her body language and verbal language may suggest a hang-on we must get through this material approach. She will then rely inordinately on lecture formatsafter all, she reasons, nonlecture formats are too time-consuming. Her students may resent the quantity over quality learning experience that is thrust upon them. From a student perspective, Jane may even seem slightly out of control, robotic, stiff, and insensitive. Ironically, Janes desire to prepare extensively for class was an attempt to prevent her students from seeing her in this light. So what does Jane need to do? She needs to prepare for class, but not overprepare. She should think in terms of learning objectives and student needs. The learning experience should ebb and flow between these objectives and needs. This creates a natural learning process. Jane must constantly remind herself that student learning, and not the completion of her class notes, is the goal. She also must remind herself that students can read and learn material not addressed in class on their own (the teacher can allocate class time for questions on the undiscussed content at a later time). 

Reason Five

Jane has not created a diverse and contemporary learning experience. Lecture is one of many pedagogical tools at Janes disposal. While lecture is a good tool for disseminating large quantities of information in short periods of time, it is fraught with problems. It is generally not interactive, not stimulating, and from what we know from training research, does not appear to promote genuine learning. Lets face it, it is not uncommon for faculty members ourselves to doze and lose focus during colloquium and job talks. Students for the most part have been socialized in a multimedia, highly stimulating world. Do we fight this reality or do we try to make adjustments in our classroom style? In my opinion, we must make adjustments. A diverse learning experience (i.e., the use of many pedagogical tools) promotes learning. 

A Diverse Classroom Experience

Creating a diverse classroom experience can be accomplished in a number of ways. A diverse classroom experience will, along with the previously mentioned recommendations, help address a number of the aforementioned critiques of Janes teaching attitudes and performance. Let me elaborate on this point by describing some techniques that I have found useful. Most of these techniques have been used within the context of small to midsize I-O psychology and statistics courses. However, from my experience, a number of the techniques are transportable to other content domains and larger class sizes. These techniques are used in combination with, and not instead of, lecture.

1. Debates. Almost any content topic can be debated. I have had students debate topics as varied as What is most seriousa type 1 or type 2 error? to Should workplace salaries be made known within an organizational setting? Debates foster learning of the content. Debates are stimulating for both student and teacher alike. Debates provide a context for the teacher to plug in essential content notes.

2. Small group discussions. Create small groups (e.g., 24 people sitting next to each other). Have these groups discuss the content in question either before you present it (e.g., to generate interest, to set the stage for learning) or after you present it (e.g., to generate questions, to promote understanding). This technique can be used in any size course. I would typically have at least two small group discussions in any one-hour class period. They can range from 2 to 10 minutes. I even create small group discussions spontaneously if it appears that student energy level toward the course content is low. Given the learning objectives (X) in question, here are some discussion stems that may lead to meaningful discourses: what are the implications of X; why would X be the case; how can X be prevented; what are the causes of X; how to improve the situation created by X; and what is the future of X?

3. Get students asking questions. Teachers must push students to ask questions. Without questions, the students will not learn. Without questions, the teacher may become disassociated (and bored) from the student learning process. To promote question asking I have tried the following. I will bring index cards in to the classroom and have students contribute questions anonymously. Then, I will respond to a subset (or all) of the questions. A second technique I have used is a question quota approach. A question quota is a requirement that I will not move on or end class unless I have 5 questions from students (I change the number of questions needed depending on the circumstances). Basically, asking questions becomes the way to advance class (question askers are informally lauded by their classmates). Another approach is to have students talk with the person next to him or her to generate questions. Additionally, during a class break (yes, pretty much every class should have a short break lasting 2 to 5 minutes), I speak to students about the course content. Then, I take what I learn informally and begin asking questions for the students to get the ball rolling. A last technique is that I have students try to explain the course content in question to someone else or the class in general. This type of activity compels students to ask questions so that they can carry out the task effectively. Note, to state the obvious, to make the above strategies work, the teacher must be kind and respectful in how he or she responds to the questions asked (even if they are inane).

4. Instant polling. To get a feel for students initial beliefs about the content, to assess where people are at with the content from a knowledge perspective, and to generate interest, I have students participate in planned and spontaneous polls. The results of the poll are tabulated on the spot (e.g., a show of hands, count index card responses) and shared with the students. Now the stage has been set for the instructor to share the facts/models concerning the polling topic. Given a particular learning objective (X), here are some general polling questions: what percentage of people are affected by X; what percentage of students feel X is true; how long do the effects of X last; how many of you have experienced or worked with X? A subcategory of instant polling is having students provide definitions, on index cards, of issues you are about to discuss. Then, the definitions can be read aloud anonymously to set the stage for you presenting and discussing the content in question.

5. Speakers. Bringing in speakers to the classroom provides a terrific opportunity to break monotony during the semester. Universities are filled with potential guest speakers. Speakers can be another faculty member and/or staff members working in departments such as HR, affirmative action, and athletics. For example, I have had the football coach come into class to discuss the science and practice of motivation. I have even had a guest speaker in my statistics course (someone from institutional research to talk about how student satisfaction data are analyzed). Speakers provide an opportunity to diversify the classroom experience.

6. Take a field trip. Yes, as strange as it seems field trip opportunities abound in a university setting. Field trips can cement learning and generate tremendous interest. The travel logistics are simple if you stay on campus. I have had I-O students tour the university heating plant, food operations, and general office spaces. Assignments on the field trips vary from evaluating human factors issues, examining workplace design, to assessing organizational culture.

7. Hands-on discovery type exercises. Students want to learn by doing. Look for opportunities to get students to try out and use their knowledge. Hands-on exercises create stimulating classroom environments (for you, too). Here are a few examples of hands-on exercises I have done in the classroomI have had students create a statistic to assess data variability (this was done prior to my lecture on the topic); formally appraise my classroom performance; create selection systems for on-campus jobs; analyze and interpret employee attitude data; create plans for evaluating training effectiveness; and conduct training sessions. These types of exercises allow you to teach on the move within a learning context. This type of teaching is dynamic. From my experience, students are most receptive to knowledge to the extent that it is imbedded within a context they find compelling.

Overall, the aforementioned techniques can work to promote student learning. Interestingly, I have found that the use of these techniques gives me the gift of time. In comparison to scripting a lecture for an entire class period, active learning techniques often require less time to construct (especially with practice). In addition, by using these techniques, students will share in the learning process. The instructor is not acting like a knowledge-providing faucet. These types of activities put responsibility on the student to participate in the learning process. Shared responsibility of learning takes the pressure off the instructor to design, alone, the perfect class experience. Instead, success and failure is everyones responsibility.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge a concern often expressed about the use of diverse classroom techniques, they take up too much class time (e.g., I will not be able to complete or get through enough of the course textbook in the allotted semester time). These classroom activities are indeed time consuming. But, it is time well spent. It is quality time spent learning rather than quantity time spent covering class content. It is my belief that this critique often stems from instructors being subservient to their textbooks. The book is to help instructors in their teaching mission. Remember, students can and should be held accountable for book content that is not explicitly discussed in class. From day one I tell students that topics covered in class may or may not overlap with the book. I further tell students that their learning must take place both within and outside the classroom. However, questions about uncovered book content can always be asked in office hours or during class time. 

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, there are many paths to teaching success. The above represents some advice and counsel that may be effective in certain circumstances. Obviously the teacher needs to evaluate what works for him/herself given his/her teaching style. However, just as we would advise others, sometimes you just need to try something new and stick with it for a period of time. If it does not work out, so be it. I believe that experimentation is a mark of an excellent teacher. Good luck in your teaching and research endeavors. I welcome your comments and ideas. Please e-mail me at rogelbe@bgnet.bgsu.edu.

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