Graduate school in physics is not known as a bastion of great developments in pedagogy. Sure, there is some fantastic work being done in physics education research, especially at the college introductory course level. But for the most part, my graduate courses were not especially noteworthy for their pedagogy. Except one.
One course in particular has really stuck in my mind as an example of how the simplest approaches can make for good teaching. The professor of this course didn’t use any fancy bells and whistles – no blogging, no tech in the classroom at all, nothing. Just well-organized, straightforward lectures that would often leave me in amazement of the beauty of analytical mechanics. But what stood out to me the most in this class was his choice of grammatical person for course language. In every piece of communication related to our course, such as via email or in-class discussion, he used the first-person plural grammatical person. Everything he discussed was about us. There was no “professor versus students” language. No “I am assigning this to you, the student.” We were working together to go through the course material and learn.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a tough instructor with very high expectations (even to the point where I was expected to fax my homework in from a conference trip to Belgium, instead of turning it in when I returned!) But I learned an important lesson from him, pedagogically: sometimes the most important hacks are the simplest and don’t necessarily involve technology. In my own teaching, I’ve tried to implement the first-person plural as much as possible. Its effects are not something I can quantitatively assess and measure, but it is a small thing I can do to reinforce to my students that it’s not me versus them: the classroom is a collaborative space.
What are some simple, non-techie hacks you’ve used in your classroom?
[Image by Flickr user Einsenvater / Creative Commons licensed]
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7 Responses to Choosing the Right ‘Person’ in Classroom Communication
kaitlinwalsh - June 24, 2010 at 10:23 am
One of the most impressive things I’ve seen was a professor who did all her handouts, photocopies and quizzes on a different color paper for each exam. That is, all quizzes, handouts and study guides leading up to the first exam were blue, then pink for the second, green for the third, etc. So when it came time to study for each exam, she could just tell us which color handouts to study.The course was a chemistry course designed for non-science majors, so the professor had to deal with a lot of people who were “afraid” of science and didn’t think they would do well. I think that making the organization of the class as straightforward as possible was a good way to make the course seem less intimidating.
billiehara - June 24, 2010 at 1:05 pm
@Kaitlinwalsh That’s a clever idea! I do something similar– sort of. I assign a graphic image to each assignment. Everything within that assignment will have that graphic image on it. So, the assignment sheets, rubrics, evaluations, etc….all have the same image. (And the image has something to do with the assignment…there is a visual connection to the work.)
debtaub - June 24, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I color-code my handouts in one of my classes. Different color handout for each theorist we cover in a survey of theories class.I also print my syllabi on colored (rather than white paper), since students have so much white paper. The colored paper stands out. (And, I color-code it to the color of the cover of the major text for each course.)
rswolff - June 24, 2010 at 6:50 pm
A graduate school professor teaching US economic and business history used a nifty pedagogical trick to foster a sense of community in a fashion that still inspires me. On day one, he presented us with a syllabus that covered only 60% of the course, announcing that the weekly topics already reflected in the syllabus covered what he saw as the ‘must know’ material. He then asked the class to identify topics for the remaining 40% of the classes. He provided us with lists of what previous seminars had chosen, but encouraged us to consider how focused topics in his course might support our larger degree plans. Working together, we identified the remaining themes for the course. This won’t work in every class, but in a history seminar, it worked very well indeed.
sandler - June 25, 2010 at 11:47 am
Thanks!
csgirl - June 26, 2010 at 7:29 am
I love the colored paper idea. Alas, our campus is “paperless”, so the students just look at the handouts online (or print them at home, more likely). I could try a graphic image though.
lindelltyann - June 30, 2010 at 6:08 pm
All I provide on the first day of class is a single page with basic syllabus info and the formal goals of the class. We then construct the course over the first three classes deciding due dates, type of assignments, attendance policy, late work policy, etc. It is time consuming, but it builds a learning community which is a time saver in the long run.