Is your energy level
dropping? Do you feel burdened with too much work and too little time to do it?
Do you sense that your students are becoming lethargic? Then you and your
students may be experiencing midcourse droop--an insidious yet common syndrome.
Why? When enthusiasm wanes, the ability to cope with stress decreases and the
joy of teaching is sometimes lost. Thoreau reminds us that "None are so old as
those who have outlived enthusiasm." "Nothing great was ever achieved without
enthusiasm," says Emerson.
At
registration time, energy levels were high as you and your students envisioned
the mountaintop of growth and possibilities inherent in the learning experience
to come. Now at or near midterm the storm clouds of academic and personal
problems may have obscured the summits of success.
Midcourse letdown strikes students when they have underestimated the time
required to learn the content of your course. Or when poor time management
skills cause them to delay the completion of major assignments until the
deadline approaches and panic sets in. Disappointments occur when students fail
to achieve the level of success they envisioned. Lower than expected test
scores, poorly received contributions to class discussions, rejection by
teammates assigned to a group project and the frustration experienced from
working with lazy lab partners have taken their toll. What was first perceived
as an enjoyable learning adventure may have by midterm become a code-3 struggle
for survival.
On the
other hand, you may be feeling discouraged because text scores reveal that the
class exam averages are much below what you expected. Assignments may have been
turned in late or poorly done. You feel that some students seem unable to write
clearly and concisely and are exhibiting punctuation and spelling skills.
Participation in discussion groups seems to be lackluster, and dozing has become
more and more common during your lectures. Furthermore, this group of students
seems to be taking twice as long to complete the required lab projects than
usual, and in general you feel a bit panicky about how you will ever cover all
the required material before finals. If this description fits you, you may have
slipped into the quicksand of a mid-semester slump.
Survival
experts tell people caught in a bottomless quagmire in the woods to stop
struggling -- uncoordinated effort only causes the victim to skin ever deeper.
Only by calm, purposeful and coordinated actions can the victims save themselves
by swimming through the muck or sand to the safety of a solid shore.
How can
you extricate yourself from the ooze of a midcourse sinkhole? Try a REFOCUS
strategy. REFOCUS means:
Recognize
Empower
Focus
Objectify
Commit
Unburden
Surprise
First,
consider that a likely cause of midcourse letdown is a slow change of the
thought focus from achievement to deficiency. Each time reality doesn't measure
up to an envisioned ideal, emotional energy is drained, self-esteem is lowered
and feelings of being in control are diminished. The result is instructor
burnout. Here is a prescription that can help you rebuild your enthusiasm:
Recognize
Recognize your
achievements thus far. Remind yourself of the lectures that were well organized,
delivered and received; the visuals that enhanced understanding of a complex
issue; the assignments that sparked critical thinking and the innovative ways in
which you activated and involved your students in the learning process. Give
yourself a pat on the back for learning all your students' names, staying after
class to answer questions, meeting with your students even though you don't have
an office and taking the time to develop the individualized feedback designed to
help each student improve his or her performance. Recall the work that your
students have completed despite the demands of other classes, a job and perhaps
a family. Acknowledge the progress your students have made.
Empower
Create a list of
your strengths as a teacher. Are you an excellent communicator, manager,
instructional designer or leader? When are you at your best -- leading a
discussion, planning a collaborative learning activity, delivering a lecture, or
going one-on-one with a student who needs help? Maybe you're an outstanding
motivator. List your five greatest personal achievements in the past year. Can
you remember how you felt during these moments? Reliving these peak experiences
can really empower you to teach with greater enthusiasm and sense of purpose.
At the
beginning of the second half of your course, perhaps after spring break, ask
your students to begin a class by sharing in a small group setting a personally
significant learning experience. Encouraging them to remember and publicly
affirm their academic achievements helps motivate and energize learners. Also,
many students don't appreciate what they have learned while engaged in the
process of reaching an academic goal. Therefore, help your students identify the
skills, attitudes and knowledge they have acquired in only a few short weeks or
study. For example, many aviation maintenance technology students were
gratifyingly surprised when asked to list all the pieces of equipment and tools
they could now use as well as the repair and troubleshooting procedures with
which they were now familiar. It was then recommended that they update and keep
these lists in a folder as data to help them prepare a resume upon graduation.
Don't assume that students realize all they have learned or will learn in your
course of the value of this education to bettering their lives.
Focus
Concentrate your
attention on the material to be learned in the second half of your course and
the selection of the most effective teaching style possible. Take a few moments
to visualize the students' increased skills and changed behaviors or improved
performances that you hope to see at course's end. Take a quick look at your
syllabus. Are you on track? Will there be enough time? No? Then you have a
management problem. Use a triage system to gain control of the situation. Triage
is a strategy used in medicine under emergency conditions to son patients into
treatment categories. The number one priority is to treat those who will benefit
the most and who require the easiest treatment. Then move to those who require
more difficult treatment but will benefit greatly. Last, attend to those who
require difficult treatments and probably won't benefit from it. In other words,
in difficult situations work to achieve the highest benefit with the least
amount of time and effort.
When
course time is short and learning is proceeding slowly, work on the material
that will bring the greatest reward with the least effort. Plan to accomplish
first the learning tasks that will bring the highest reward for your students.
When you assign the easy, important tasks first, you often motivate them to
continue working until even more difficult responsibilities are completed.
Triage thinking can help you more effectively manage the second half of your
course.
Objectify
In the intervening
weeks since you formulated your learning targets or objectives, the stresses and
strains of teaching and daily living may have caused you to veer from your
original instructional plan. If you have refocused your teaching priorities,
it's important to create learning targets to guide your post-midterm efforts.
Learning targets are a series of statements that describe levels of performance
increases that are required for your students to advance. Some faculty think
that only teachers in occupational, technical or professional curricula need to
develop performance targets. With today's accent on critical thinking, learning
to learn, collaborative processes, total quality management, etc., faculty in
humanities, business, fine arts and developmental education could significantly
improve learning by teaching for doing rather than just knowing. For example,
compare two statistics course sections:
Section
A is built with knowledge objectives. The objectives are that "at the end of
this course students will know the concepts of central tendency, variability,
normal distributions, hypothesis testing and analysis of variance." How does the
instructor know that these objectives have been achieved? By grading homework
problems, unit tests and a comprehensive final test. Students achieving above
60% pass; those scoring below fail.
Section
B is constructed using performance targets. The target statement says that "at
the end of this course students will have chosen a random population, created an
hypothesis, developed a questionnaire, completed an analysis of variance and
presented a final report using a PC and recommended statistical software
packages." In this course the instructor not only teaches statistical knowledge,
but also ensures that each student can put this knowledge to practical use in a
holistic manner. With this design, learning evaluation can be performance based
rather than strictly knowledge based. Which course would you rather take or
teach? Which would be of more value to your students? To energize your teaching,
apply performance targets.
Commit
After you
visualize your goal and create specific, measurable learning targets for your
students, commit to achieving them. To reach your goal you'll need a strong
commitment; one that will not waver as you encounter difficulties. In teaching
nothing goes completely as planned or as expected. The number of variables in
the learning process is too great to permit total control. A staunch resolve
enables you to persevere through tough times, and it builds self-esteem. Ask
your students to recommit to success in learning. Their initial commitment may
have weakened and they need to re energize for the second half of the course.
Remind them of the benefits of making short-term sacrifices to obtain long=term
rewards.
To
illustrate the point, remind them of the value of priming the pump. An old story
illustrates the principle. As the tale goes; old Desert Dan traveled the deserts
of the southwest digging wells an installing pumps to aid those traversing the
parched sands of this region. Buried beneath each pump he left a full jar of
water with instructions on how to use it to prime the pump and thereby obtain
all the water a thirsty traveler could want. Each dehydrated passerby who
reached one of these watering holes was faced with a difficult decision. Drink
the water in the jar and hope that it was enough to sustain life until the next
water source was reached or commit this precious resource to pump priming and
the promise of greater reward.
Unburden
You don't have to
be perfect; you just have to be yourself. You may hold the expectation that as a
college teacher you should know all the answers. Once you accept the fact that
successful teachers emphasize the roles of learner, presenter, guide, coach,
facilitator, designer, evaluator, manager and leader and minimize the role of
expert, you unburden yourself from unrealistic expectations. Then teaching
becomes much easier and more enjoyable. Your students will appreciate knowing
that you and they are on the same learning path. You have just proceeded farther
than your students.
Unburden
your students by applying good management techniques to your course. Look for
barriers to learning that hold your students back or cause them to devote time
to unnecessary work. Question your assignments and tests and align them to your
learning targets.
Surprise
During the second
half of your course variety is often desperately needed to keep your students
motivated. Two surprise teaching techniques are discussed:
1. Tell
a story.It is
said, "A good story can touch something familiar in each of us and yet show us
something new about our lives, our world, and ourselves. Stories can also be
powerful tools for growth and learning." However, there are several things you
should consider before choosing to tell stories as a teaching strategy. Before
telling a tale experienced storytellers consider these aspects -- purpose,
practice and priority.
Purpose.
Stories should be used to fulfill a definite instructional purpose. They help
students visualize and internalize complex issues or concepts. Anecdotes draw
students into the learning process by activating their imaginations.
Practice.
Storytelling takes practice to master. Effective communicators practice by
developing narratives in three parts: context, challenge and climax. Begin the
account by setting the stage; describe when and where it happens and introduce
the characters. Next, add the dilemma and explain how each of the characters is
affected. Resolve the problem in words that convey the kernel of learning
contained in the story.
Priority.
There are times when excessive storytelling in classes get in the way of
learning. To prevent this situation, prioritize your strategies according to
their effectiveness and time-benefit. Brief stories can serve as introductions
to units of learning or as mental rest spots during a long lecture. Stories
spaced about every 20 minutes work well for many faculty who lecture
extensively. Narratives can help you summarize material in a memorable way and
enable your students to understand how your course material relates to the "real
world."
2. Simulate
a crisis. Crisis situations occur in
most occupations and students should be prepared to think under pressure. "The
Crisis Game" provides an excellent way to explore crisis thinking and introduce
the element of surprise into your class.
To play, announce to your
class that the red phone has just rung and the president or other authority
appropriate to your subject area has requested that a student advisory panel be
immediately created to deal with a sudden crisis. (You have previously prepared
a handout describing a crisis situation applicable to your course's study
material.) Then divide your class into groups of five to eight students.
Explain to them that they
will have a limited time (say 30 minutes) to discuss the emergency and prepare a
contingency plan to meet it. You may wish to assign roles to group members to
facilitate this learning activity.
After ten minutes interrupt
the groups and verbally add some additional information that simulates the
dynamic environment of crisis situations. About ten minutes before the end of
the game declare that because of mounting pressures from the press, the group
must complete their plans and participate in a press conference in five minutes.
This new time frame increases the pressure on the groups to work quickly.
When the time limit is
reached the recorder of each group presents the details of their plan to the
entire class. After all plans are shared. It is recommended that students be
debriefed about how they reacted to the crisis situation and the added pressures
of changing information and compressed time schedules.
Through
this game, you can accomplish two goals: (1) help students learn how to better
function in emergency situations; and (2) review in an intriguing manner
critical course materials.
This
seven-step REFOCUS strategy will help you to re energize and renew, and it will
help you to continue to teach for success!
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