“A young boy with dyslexia once told his teacher that he had a learning disability. The wise teacher replied to the boy, ‘Perhaps the teacher who said this to you has a teaching disability.’ From that point, the teacher began to guide the child in the way of true learning.”
Shared by Satinder K. Dhiman, Ed. D., Associate Dean, School of Business, Woodbury University, at the 2012 Academy of Management Conference
My teaching evaluations reflect a variety of experience, and a lack of the same, for me as well as that of my students. Over the years, I have analyzed evaluation results and identified strengths and weaknesses in my teaching and in student learning. Using this information, I have focused on developing solutions to overcome areas of weakness and to take advantage of suggested areas of strength in the teacher-student relationship, which has provided an ongoing process of improvement in the teaching/learning processes.
I have categorized these areas and refer to them as the “Five Ps of Teaching and Learning”. I address each as they relate to me as a teacher and to my students as candidates for true learning.
Professionalism
In teaching, professionalism has to do with how I manage the class and present myself before students. Professionalism involves the manner in which I interact with students, i.e., do I show them respect and demand the same from them in dealing with others in their learning community, do I command and manage the instruction environment, using time in a way that maximizes the learning opportunity for each student. Professionalism involves how I present course content to the class, both physically and, in the online environment, virtually as well. Upon receiving tenure, my ratings in this area averaged 4.4 with a high of 5.0 and a low of 3.8. Ratings for IS courses averaged 4.54 vs. 4.11 for general management courses. Highest ratings were received in the categories of Interest Displayed in the Course, Class Preparation, and in Christ-likeness. Lowest ratings were received in the categories of Feedback Provided to the class and in the Ability to Make Content Understood. Based on these results, the following improvements were made:
1) I requested an evaluation of my speech at the speech center at ACU to identify areas of concern and to recommend changes that would help improve instruction. The center did not report any of the expected issues of concern in the areas of volume, articulation, perceived interest in instruction, or regional diction. However, after discussing the evaluations with communication experts, the center determined that I could develop a stronger voice that would command the attention of the hearer. Suggestions made by the center (e.g., use of hand motions to emphasize points, added voice inflection, restate points and summarize) were executed in class and positive results were seen from the students.
Surprisingly, these changes were unintentionally carried over into my home and created problems in how I communicate with my family as a wife and mother. In retrospect, I experienced the same result as a manager and internal consultant in industry. After seeing many failed marriages during that time, I purposely decided to develop a more gentle voice and softer relationship with my family. Although the change was well received at home, this demeanor does not translate well in the professional environment. In accordance with ACU assumptions that balance is understood as necessary in work, family and church environments, I continue to work to create a balance between both worlds as flexibility is a necessary component of communications and in teaching.
2) I sat in on the classes of more seasoned instructors. This helped to understand how to interact with students in a way that draws their attention and encourages respect.
3) I had seasoned instructors sit in on my classes and make recommendations for improvement. Two suggestions that were most helpful were to move through certain topics more quickly and to call upon students who did not volunteer responses in class. Both helped produce a more effective and engaging learning environment.
4) I learned classroom management techniques to prevent common problems that would occur with contentious or unengaged students and with those with repeated learning difficulties. This has become an increasing challenge in recent years as the level of student stress continues to grow.
5) I developed a “Professional Excellence” assessment and used the same to evaluate student performance over the semester. The intent was to develop a level of respect, inclusivity, and professionalism in the classroom. The initial assessment covered the areas such as classroom etiquette, participation, preparedness, personal interaction, use of technology and communications. This evaluation became part of the grading criteria for students along with the traditional measures of academic performance through exams, daily work, and projects. An example of a recent Professionalism Assessment can be found here – Professionalism Grading Rubric
Purpose & Process
Through analyzing evaluation results and questioning students, I realized that most students did not understand how to evaluate job performance and saw the teacher evaluation as a time to find fault with the teacher and the university vs. recommend opportunities for course improvement. I therefore began conducting “job” performance evaluations with my students. For this process, students received three face-to-face job performance reviews during the semester, where they were explained the purpose of assessing job performance, i.e., to objectively evaluate and clearly/positively communicate strengths and weaknesses to build a stronger (work) community, and taught a more appropriate business process of evaluation. Students were allowed to practice the process through team peer evaluations and were encouraged to follow a similar process when completing teacher evaluations. Students were especially supportive of the evaluation change when informed that such evaluations impact pay decisions in a real business environment (see modified Professional Performance Rubric with 8 qualities of exceptional people (employees) added), and would likewise impact their final grade in our class.
Popularity
Popularity is an interesting outcome of the student-teacher relationship. Popularity results when students can see or identify themselves and their interests in the teacher. Unlike the uniquely aligned interests of customer and seller, the interests between teachers and students – like parents and their children – are often miles apart.
I have often gained immediate popularity with students who “see” themselves and their interests in me, although they are often not based on anything I have done. This seems to occur when students see a “likeness” in outward appearance and/or a real/perceived commonality of interests. Over the years, I realize that I am almost always popular at first sight with African American students. However, with many of these students, I become less popular once they come to know me and realize that our interests do not always align. With other student populations, I am almost never popular at first sight with Anglo and Hispanic students; however, I become very popular with several students in these groups once they identify that we have common or shared interests. I seem to be immediately popular with foreign students, and this popularity seems to grow over time as we interact and work towards common goals.
With these outcomes, I decided that popularity is a subjective measure that could not be impacted except through an intensive personal marketing effort. I am neither academically nor professionally qualified to practice marketing and therefore have decided at this point to accept the randomness of outcomes in popularity as observed.
Preparation
Preparation for teaching is important in any discipline. I have made a conscious effort to improve the skills needed to teach classes by attending annual training sessions in business process management and information systems and by participating in research symposia at top-tier conferences in management and information systems. Over the past five years, I have participated in the following sessions, most of which were offered free of tuition charge or through academic scholarships:
- TERP10 training and certification for the SAP Business Consultant (certification received May 2012, Level 2 Certification achieved in May 2017)
- Applied for the Project Management Professional certification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Application approved; exam pending.
- Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing course
- ERP Energy Management curriculum development
- Enterprise Architecture curriculum development
- ERPsim training (certification received 2010)
- Business Process Management training
- SAP Cloud based ERP training, SAP HANA Databases, S/4 HANA Platform, ERP Simulations
- SAP Netweaver development platform training
- Acton Institute conference (2011, 2012)
- Free Market Forum through Hillsdale College (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018)
- Business Objects and Data Analysis training
- ERP systems using SAP’s Global Bike and Fitter Snacker clients
- Academy of Management annual conferences (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
- Association of Information Systems annual conferences (2007, 2009, 2010, 2018)
- Christian Business Faculty Association (CBFA) conferences (2007, 2009, 2010)
- Society for Case Study Research workshop (2011)
I have also participated in many training opportunities offered by the Adams center. Along with the weekly luncheon training sessions, I have attended the following:
1) Summer Writing Institutes
2) Curriculum Development workshop
3) Grant writing workshops
4) Blogs, Canvas, mobile applications, and more
5) Master Teacher Training
Through training, research and maintenance of professional IS/IT skills, I remain prepared to teach a variety of classes in management, information systems, data management, analytics and economics.
I also stay current in the innovations that support energy data management by using my own personal funding to attend the following annual conferences:
Rice University High Performance Computing Conference – Houston TX (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). For two of these years, I invited and funded students to attend along with me.
PNEC – Pennwell’s petroleum data integration, information and data management conference. (2018)
ASUG – Americas SAP Users Group regional meetings, Dallas TX (2010, 2015, 2017, 2018).
Personal Development
“Leader, Teacher, Cultivator – people learn from those who are deeply involved in their own realization of what it means to become human.”
Peter Senge, noted author and management consultant,
Academy of Management Conferences
Personal development presents the opportunity to move back into the academic environment as a student of learning. As listed under Preparation, I attend work sessions annually and have acquired many approaches that have become part of solutions incorporated to improve the teaching-learning process. The following serve as examples of outcomes realized:
1) Relevant study approaches vs. amount of study lead to different assessment outcomes.
2) Design of the spatial and temporal class environment creates significant differences in learning outcomes
3) Pre-teaching in learning (e.g., communications, ethics, and assessment) make all the difference in a true learning environment
4) Teams teach better than individuals in all courses
5) Emphasis on the learner is more effective and important than emphasis on what is taught
6) Everyone learns better when they are happy
7) Students learn when they know the teacher cares
Through these five areas, I have realized the blessing of being both teacher and student in the learning processes of life.