Back to the classroom:

Award-winning professors focus on the quality of teaching

They may have taught for a number of years. They're proficient in their fields. When they want new ideas about the teaching process, where do they turn?

To fellow faculty members. Whether a professor is just starting out or is a veteran, teaching seminars at Mississippi State provide classroom pointers from colleagues who have insights and suggestions to share.

Twice-monthly brown-bag lunches sponsored by the Division of Academic Affairs let some of the university's master teachers raise issues and ideas for informal discussion. Among topics have been learning styles, preparing a syllabus, and approaches to teaching.

"We usually have about 50-60 faculty members who attend," said Dr. Miriam Shillingsburg, associate vice president for student affairs. "It's been a productive way to talk about strategies for teaching."

A number of peer-reviewed awards recognize excellence in classroom instruction, she said. These include the Grisham Faculty Excellence Awards and the Grisham Master Teacher Awards, initiated in 1993.

The Alumni Association also recognizes outstanding teaching with its annual Faculty Recognition Program.

While definitions of good teaching may vary, Shillingsburg believes there are a few common characteristics. "Good teachers challenge the student and get them to stretch. They don't teach easy courses. They have a command of their subject and an enthusiasm for what they teach. And they're accessible."

Good professors also take into account that all students are not alike, says Joe Ray Underwood, professor of counselor education. He and colleagues Nancy McCarley of psychology and Jimmy Richardson of the Cooperative Extension Service have presented faculty workshops on learning styles.

One workshop, titled "Why Don't They Learn the Way I Teach?", examined ways that professors can accommodate differences in their students.

"There's no definitive style to learning," he points out. "Personalities vary widely, and students' needs, skills, attitudes, and preferred learning styles vary accordingly."

A single teaching approach doesn't work for all students, he points out. In a series of campus workshops, he and fellow faculty members discussed specific characteristics of learning types and ways to accommodate each.

One type, for instance, prefers teachers who encourage creativity. The student responds to original projects and open-ended questions. Another learner prefers practical assignments and tasks with right or wrong answers. And another prefers team projects and personal feedback.

By understanding learning styles and their own teaching styles, professors can help every student make the most of his or her potential. "We try to talk about ways to accommodate different learning styles, such as variations in the way material is presented," Underwood explained. You can't be all things to all people, but you can provide variety."

Three Mississippi State faculty members who won teaching awards in 1995 agree that the hallmark of an effective teacher is an unrelenting focus on students and their needs.

"You have to put students at the center of their own education," said Hank Flick, communication professor. In 1995 he was named Mississippi Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. More than 500 professors around the nation were nominated for awards.

He also received the upper level teaching award from the Alumni Association in 1995 and received a Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award in 1993.

Flick, who teaches courses in interviewing, small group communication, and media relations, says that his approach to teaching is reflected in an old proverb: "Tell me and I may forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me, and I'll understand."

"Students speak a lot in my classes," he said. "I don't believe in busy work, but students know that they'll be expected to work."

For small group communication, that may mean 20 to 30 exercises a semester and several larger projects. "The exercises grow out of topics such as consensus, evaluation, and conflict management," he explained.

His role is to facilitate, Flick believes. "The challenge is to put the theories into terms that students can understand, to talk to them in terms that they live everyday. An effective teacher can translate theory into terms students can recognize easily. Effective teaching is translating the unknown into the known."

A good teacher also must establish standards and measure students accordingly, Flick believes. "Years ago, a colleague said that grading is the one thing that made her want to leave the profession. An effective teacher must be able to explain the criteria and must measure according to that criteria. You also must help students learn how to improve."

Flick critiques at the time of the student presentation and is available for further after-class discussions. Work may fall into five categories: excellent, good, satisfactory, poor, and "oops."

"I always ask a student, 'How did you do?' 'Why did you get better?' I encourage them to become the critiquer," Flick explained.

Self-evaluation is an important post-graduation skill, he believes. "I take responsibility for my students' future," he stated. "They'll blame me if they aren't successful. I'm here to make sure they get the knowledge, information, and skills they need to be successful and build a career."

Like Flick, Giles Distinguished Professor Nancy Hargrove believes students can rise to the level of expectation.

Named a Grisham Master Teacher in 1995, Hargrove, who teaches 20th century American and British literature, also has been recognized with an Alumni Association teaching award. In 1988 she received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the South Atlantic Association of Departments of English and earlier received the first Outstanding Honors Faculty Award at the university.

Since 1995, she has served as faculty adviser to the university's Schillig Scholars. The scholarships recognize exceptionally high grades and leadership ability and are the largest given at Mississippi State.

"I expect a lot from my students," she says. "I expect them to write well and correctly. I expect them to do the assigned work. I expect them to participate." Students often surprise themselves that they can meet the demands of her classes, she notes.

"Most students can live up to expectations," she says. And therein lies the mission of a good teacher, Hargrove believes. "We should show students that they can attain a higher level than they thought. My goal is to get my students to participate in the process. I want to help them understand on their own."

For Hargrove, literature is an important part of learning. "Everything everyone ever experienced is in literature," she points out. "I think literature is an important way to help us keep our human perspective. It's not just for a class; it's for a lifetime."

Hargrove says she tries to make the study of literature relevant to students' lives. "I tell them, 'This is an experience you may have had, or may one day have.' Sometimes, when we study a poem such as Emily Dickinson's 'After great pain, a formal feeling comes' there's a recognition of the feeling the poem describes. I love the excitement of seeing students realize what's in the literature."

Author of two books, about 20th century poets T.S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath, Hargrove also believes that research and travel enrich the classes she teaches. "I'm a much better teacher because of the research I've done," she says. "I bring many visual aids to class, primarily from research. My students say that I know things about places and authors I'd never know without the kind of travel and research I've done."

Hargrove has served as a Fulbright lecturer in France, Belgium, and Sweden.

She so firmly believes in the value of travel that she often takes her classes with her to nearby locations. After reading a play, they may travel to the State Theater of Alabama to watch a performance. Or, after reading William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, they may visit the author's home in Oxford. "Seeing a play or watching a movie of the author's life or visiting his home gives students a perspective they don't get from reading alone," she explains.

She sets high goals for her classes and for her students, Hargrove admits, but she believes the rewards are great. "I think there's a value in work. There's a payoff in confidence and in knowledge. That's what a teacher lives for."

Grisham Master Teacher Larry Branch, who teaches engineering graphics, shares with other award-winning Mississippi State professors a belief in the importance of hard work.

The field he teaches is constantly changing, reflecting the effects of technology. "Engineering graphics involves both traditional drawing and computer-assisted drawing," he explained. "We're teaching graphics involved in drawing everything from mechanical objects such as a mechanism in an ice maker to bridges." Students in engineering, landscape architecture, landscape contracting, and home economics may take his classes.

To cover the material and give students the foundation they need, Branch has clearly defined expectations. "I want students in class, on time. I expect them to do the assignments, and I want them to be prompt in getting the work done. If they have problems with the material, I expect them to come see me."

Branch also has expectations for students once they complete his class. "I expect them to learn from the classroom experience, to retain it, and to be able to use that knowledge later in life. I view graphics as a tool they can use forever."

While his convictions are firm, his heart is somewhat softer, Branch admits. "I deal with freshmen and lower level students who are very vulnerable," he says. "They don't know what to expect from us."

To set a relaxed tone in his classes, he often tells stories about his own educational experiences. He attended Holmes Community College and Mississippi State. "I'll tell them 'I was in the same place you are; I'll help you if I can.'"

Branch believes that he can expect no more from his students than he expects of himself. "I put the student No. 1," he says. "My philosophy is that I'm paid to do a job for the student.

"That means they can expect me to be in class on time, and they can expect me to be prepared to teach them. They deserve someone who's prepared and who will enhance their knowledge of the subject."

Branch says that students also can expect him to be available to talk. "I want students to feel free to talk to me in class, after class, in the halls, and after they leave the university," he says.

To be effective in his field requires working with drawings much more complicated than those he teaches students, Branch explains. "Computer technology is an ever-expanding world. No one knows it all. Staying current requires self-motivation, keeping current in professional organizations, trying to stay in touch with industry."

By continuing to learn, he is better prepared to help his students learn. And, Branch believes, that's an important commitment. "If you can relate to and help students and pass on the knowledge you have, then that's what you're called to do," he concludes. "Teaching is a calling."