No Pain, No Gain

“No pain, no gain” strikes me as a masochistic philosophy; sadistic if we impose it upon others. Yet it appears to be the philosophy behind some common educational practices. An example is what I wrote in my last entry about the tortures of reading boring textbooks. There is also the ordeal of sitting through interminable lectures. Then there are the “dim and dose” PowerPoint presentations (the instructor dims the lights and the students dose). Burdensome homework assignments that lack relevance or learning value are another form of torture. Pointless and embarrassing class activities are also a way to harass students. There are many more ways to make students’ lives miserable. I find it necessary to regularly examine the impact on students of my own teaching methods. Are there course requirements and practices that I impose that have no educational value to the students and may even hinder learning?

I do believe in challenging students. My experience is that students want to be challenged. To challenge is to engage students in the subject matter. It is to encourage the students to stretch beyond what they may initially think themselves capable of doing. To challenge is to promote growth. Students not only come to know more, they become more. Moving students beyond their current limits can generate enthusiasm and energy for learning. I don’t believe education was meant to be an endurance test.

Soliciting feedback is critical in determining if we are teaching or torturing our students. There are many ways to do this. Written evaluations are an option. These are usually completed at the end of a course. Unfortunately, the resulting feedback does not benefit the students who just completed that course. Distributing questionnaires at mid-term, or even more frequently, can alert faculty of any problems and identify what students find helpful. I will ask during a class if an explanation or exercise was helpful and useful. I have found meeting with students individually several times throughout a semester an effective means for soliciting and receiving valuable student feedback. This requires much time when there are forty students in a course, yet I find it well worth the effort.

Students will balk at doing work that is tedious. When challenged, though, I have had students do more than what I asked for. They took the initiative for their own learning. They have proven to me that there can be gain without pain.

Why Use Textbooks?

I love to read. I dread reading textbooks. I find them informative but boring. I can read only a few pages at a time before I must go do something else to relieve my boredom. Like now. I am reading a textbook as I prepare to teach a course. Fifteen minutes after I sat down to read I am at my computer writing this blog entry.

At the end of last semester I had the students in the three sections of the introductory management course I was teaching do a self-assessment. One of the questions I asked was how thoroughly they read the textbook. Keep in mind that I started each class with a quiz on the assigned textbook chapter for that day. I was surprised by the students’ honesty. I was not surprised by the answers I received. Even my best students admitted that by mid-term they did nothing more than skim the chapters. That was doing well. Most students gave up on the text. They might turn to it to cram before an exam. Some students didn’t even own the textbook. Two or more students might share a copy. Those who did buy the textbook were likely to try and keep it in pristine condition so they could get more money when they resold it at the end of the semester. No one mentioned that they planned to keep the text as a reference after the course.

So why use textbooks if students don’t read them? My experience is that textbook use is more for the convenience of the teacher than for the benefit of the students. First, the textbook chapters provide the outline of the course. As the teacher, I don’t have to develop a course outline from scratch. All I need do is open to the text’s table of contents. The chapter titles give me the topics to be covered in the course. Then textbook publishers provide me with lecture notes, discussion questions, case studies, homework assignments, exam questions, PowerPoint slides. They may even have video segments I can show in class. Additional web resources are provided. Professionally prepared resources can save me an enormous amount of preparation time and effort. All of this I get for free! The students, by purchasing the assigned textbook, are paying to ease my workload.

As I said at the start of this piece, I find textbooks informative. I learn something from every textbook I read. And I keep my copies for future reference. But students are not going to receive value from the exorbitant expenditures they make for textbook purchases if they don’t read the books. We complain that students don’t read. We develop all kinds of strategies to force or entice them to read. How about we give them something interesting to read? I find students read when the book is relevant and engaging. Students will even recommend or pass on a copy of such books to their friends and even their parents. I suspect that textbooks are the primary culprit in killing students’ love for reading.

So what to do? I long ago eliminated the use of textbooks in my advanced courses. I provide handouts, internet resources, learning instruments, PowerPoint slides, and other materials. I have continued to use textbooks in my introductory courses. I am now questioning that decision after reviewing last semester’s student self-assessments. Developing alternatives will require more effort on my part. I will need to develop or identify alternative resources. I will need to search for more engaging books. I might make more use of periodicals. This will require some redesign of my curriculum. The extra work is worth it if it will result in more learning for the students. Why torture myself and my students with boring textbooks when there are so many engaging resources available? Today we can easily access exciting materials in text, audio, and video formats. Why use textbooks? It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to come up with a good reason. I am sure my students would agree.

New Literacies

I mentioned in an earlier entry that Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms made me more aware of how changes in technology are creating a shift in how we think and learn. Richardson makes the point that the literate person of the 21st century must be able to do more than simply read and write. These two skills alone are not enough to ensure understanding and the ability to communicate in a web-based world.

A key shift is that individuals are no longer simply consumers of information but now have the opportunity to produce information for a wider audience. Anyone with access to the internet can publish. This means that information is no longer filtered through editors and publishers before getting to the public. Writers can communicate directly with readers. This requires that web readers serve as their own editors and be able to critique the veracity of what is written. And writers need to be versed in publishing on the web. But communication on the web is not limited to text. Internet communications also come in the form of audio, video, music, and digital photographs. The effective internet communicator needs to be familiar with how to convey a message visually and orally as well as in writing. All of these technological developments have created an explosion of information available to the individual. This requires the ability to manage information. Individuals must be educated in how to collect, store, and retrieve relevant information.

So how do we educate for these new literacies? One change I have made in my courses is to have students publish their papers on Blackboard for the entire class to read. Why should I be the only one who benefits from what each student has learned? Students also get to practice writing for an audience of more than one. I have students post their papers on the discussion board. This allows other students to comment online. I also have the students assess their classmates’ papers. This requires that they read critically.

The internet has become a multimedia medium. Today’s effective communicator needs to be able to think in multiple modes. I incorporate art and music in many of my courses to move students out of a sole reliance on analytical thinking. I want them thinking in sights and sounds. I want them to feel as well as think. I will have students draw and create music individually and collaboratively.

Reading Richardson’s book has made me more aware of the world our students inhabit. This awareness allows me to be intentional in providing my students with the literacies required to operate in that world. I have only scratched the surface in finding ways to better prepare students for the new world we are in. Of course, if I am to help my students, I first must learn how to inhabit this new world in which we find ourselves. That is an entire learning curve of its own.

Educating The Whole Person

Point to yourself. Where is your finger? It is likely not pointed at your big toe, or even your head. You are likely pointing at your heart. We identify ourselves with our heart while education focuses on the head. It should be no surprise then that students are often bored with their educational experience. Teaching concentrates on training our minds while neglecting those parts of ourselves with which we identify. If we want students engaged in learning, then we need to speak to the whole person—head, heart, and hands. We need to continue exposing students to the knowledge base in their fields of study. We are not to neglect the head. However, we also need to speak to the heart. We need to tap students’ passions and channel that energy into the learning process. We also are to train students’ hands to have the skills to implement the knowledge they obtain. We are to address the science, spirit, and skills of whatever discipline we are teaching. In this way we engage the whole person in the learning process. Learning will then become the exciting endeavor it is meant to be for teachers and students alike.