1. Engaging Students: What the Best College Teachers Do
Presented by
Bill Stahlin

3. How the Best Teachers Engage Students
4: Seek Commitments
How the Best Teachers Engage Students
Six Principles for Engaging Students
1: Create a Positive, Supportive Learning
Environment
2: Get Students’ Attention and Keep It
3: Start with the Students Rather than
with the Discipline
4: Seek Commitments
5: Engage Students in Thinking
6: Create Diverse Learning Experiences

4. 1: Create a Positive, Supportive Learning Environment
Devote early classes to creating a positive environment
Find out what interests students
Provide encouragement
Know students names- call on them by name (seating charts are helpful)

5. 1: Create a Positive, Supportive Learning Environment
Be positive
Make connections using anecdotes, analogies and humor
Discover personal situations that could interfere with student learning

6. 1: Create a Positive, Supportive Learning Environment
Connect the known with the unknown
Build bridges

9. 1: Create a Positive, Supportive Learning Environment
Self-disclosure
Empathize with students
Accounting is challenging
‘A cruel’ method of accounting
It is not easy to internalize these concepts

11. 2: Get Students’ Attention and Keep It
Consciously try to get attention with some provocative act, question, or statement

12. 2: Get Students’ Attention and Keep It
Approach each class expecting students to listen, think, and respond.
Use two way conversation- requires instructor to listen – can be a poorly developed skill
Use eye contact and enthusiasm
Be willing to call on students and ask them questions

13. 2: Get Students’ Attention and Keep It
Ask provocative questions:
When rebuilding the Exxon Valdez should the cost of a new hull be capitalized?
Do we recognize revenue when Boeing gets an order for 10 jumbo jets?
Stand in contrast to professors who do not :
Change course with student reactions
Expect students to listen and respond

14. “Teaching is above all, about commanding attention and holding it - not just motivating students’ interest in the subject.”
Michael Sandel
Harvard political theorist

15. 3: Start with the Students Rather than with the Discipline
To gain attention they start with something that:
students care about
know, or think they know
Don’t just lay out a blueprint or an outline or theory
Know the value that intellectual challenges can play in stimulating interest

16. Who are our Students?
Understanding who our students are is important in determining how to reach or engage them

17. Do You Recognize These Students?
In surface learning, students (Bulimic
Learners)remember something long
enough to help them pass the exam
Jello learner – on the outside looks like
the student has a firm grasp of material.
When shaken (exams) their knowledge is
quite wobbly
Do You Recognize These Students?
Bulimic Learners –
Surface learners who remember long
enough to help them pass the exam
Jell-O Learners
On the outside, looks like the student has a
firm grasp of material. When shaken
(exams) their knowledge is quite wobbly

18. 3: Start with the Students Rather than with the Discipline
Provide context:
“With hocked gems financing him, he defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme.
‘Your eyes deceive’ he said. ‘It is like an egg, not a table.’ Now three sturdy sisters sought truth. As they forged along, sometimes through calm vastness, yet more often over turbulent peaks and valleys, their days become weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge.
At last from nowhere, winged creatures appeared, signifying the journey’s end.”

19. 3: Start with the Students Rather than with the Discipline
Review what was covered in last class
Have students leave each class feeling they learned something
Raise questions rather than give answers - get students involved

20. “Too often we give students answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” - Roger Lewin, Science Author

21. 4: Seek Commitments
Ask your students for a commitment to the class and the learning
“The decision to take this class is the decision
to attend the class every time it meets”
“My decision to teach includes the
commitment to offer sessions worth attending”
This is different from professors who try to rule like a drill sergeant

22. 5: Engage Students in Thinking, Not Just Memorizing or Learning to “Plug and Chug”
Think about teaching students to understand, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate
Let them learn by doing, by thinking through problems
Don’t just perform problems in front of the students
Ask questions that will help students grapple with concepts and invent ways to solve the problems

23. 6: Create Diverse Learning Experiences
The brain loves diversity - conduct class in a multitude of ways.
Sometimes offer visual information other times, auditory input
Organize some material inductively; others, deductively
Include surprises. The brain loves novelty
Offer a balance of the systematic and the messy

24. “Material should be uncovered rather than covered.”
“Materials should be uncovered rather than covered.”
MIT’s ‘The torch or the fire hose’
“Material should be uncovered
rather than covered.”
MIT’s ‘The torch or the fire hose’

25. Summary Six Principles for Engaging Students
4: Seek Commitments
Summary
Six Principles for Engaging Students
1: Create A Critical, Supportive Learning
Environment
2: Get Students’ Attention and Keep It
3: Start with the Students Rather than
with the Discipline
4: Seek Commitments
5: Engage Students in Thinking
6: Create Diverse Learning Experiences

26. The mediocre teachers tells. The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
William Arthur Ward

27. Tips on Changing the Way You Teach
Performance may decrease initially - don’t be discouraged
It may be uncomfortable
Students may react negatively initially
You may not be pleased with the feedback

28. References WSJ educator subscription
10 stock certificates for $12
Ken Bain lecture GWU video