How can a college instructor improve students’ attitudes and make them eager to attend class? One tactic is to use humor. More importantly, research indicates that humor helps people learn.

Research on Humor and Teaching

Much has been written about humor and learning. Kher, Molstad and Donahue (1999) referenced some of the literature in their article entitled “Using humor in the college classroom to enhance teaching effectiveness in ‘dread courses”. With reference to an earlier work by Wandersee (1982), they indicated that cartoons are one form of humor that promotes facilitates learning.

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics

I learned about “Cartoon Guides” more than 10 years ago. I was teaching Managerial Statistics and Quality at Keller Graduate School of Management. Their “lead” statistics teacher whose name I have long forgotten, mentioned that he used The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. But why would a graduate school instructor want such a reference?

Keller, which has since merged with DeVry University, ran new instructors through their Educator in Training (EIT) program. No matter how much prior teaching experience you had, you were required to complete this multi-class training program. There were two things that I carried away from my training. (Note:  I expect they wanted me to carry away a lot more.) First, Keller expected that you prepared lesson plans that “chunked” your lecturing into no more than 20-minute segments. The second, was encouragement to use cartoons. From that day forward, every class I taught at Keller or anywhere else began with a cartoon. When students arrived at my classroom they would always find a cartoon that I had projected.

Humorous Books for College Teachers and Their Students

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

How do you know you are grading your students fairly? Do your students grades reflect your performance as a teacher? What can you learn about your students’ learning from the class grade distribution?

College Student Grade Distributions

You say you are not a mathematics teacher. The word “statistics” strikes fear in your heart. I will try to simplify this subject for you.

We all know a little bit about statistics, right? Average? Okay, that is a good place to start. What is the average grade your students earned on the last test? What is the average grade your students are earning for the course? Does it seem reasonable? If the average works out to a B or C, things may be in order. Or, they may not be. This is where grade distribution comes into play.

If ¼ of your students are averaging 98 percent (high A’s) and ¾ of them are averaging 66 percent (mid D range), the average grade is (trust me on this) 74 percent (mid C range). The fact that a significant number of students get very good grades does not necessarily mean that the other students deserve the poor grades they are earning. It is all too easy to rationalize that if some students do well, you are doing well as an instructor. However, more likely than not, you have a problem you need to address.

Why Would the Majority of Students Fail?

If you graph your students’ grades on a simple bar chart, some interesting information may emerge. Look at Grade Distribution 1 on the right.  What conclusions would you draw?

Perhaps you have had classes like this.  If so, did you conclude that 25 percent A’s was a good thing?  Did you question why so many students failed?  Why might that be?

Some of the reasons why a large number of students got A’s while twice that number failed are:

• There were two different groups of students – those who worked hard and studied and those who did not apply themselves.
• One fourth of your students could teach themselves.  You only needed to tell them what they needed to learn, and they did the rest.
• Half of the students could not learn in your class.  You may not have appealed to their diverse learning styles.  You may not have answered their questions in a way they could understand.  You may not assessed their learning “on the run.”  We call that formative assessment.

My point is this.  You may have missed the opportunity to help many of your students.  If you care about your students, this is definitly an aspect of teaching that you want to focus on.

Grades – The Normal Distribution

Those of you who have taken a statistics course remember the normal distribution.  If not, you probably remember the term “bell shaped curve.”  Those of you who went on to major in statistics may remember that “technically” this is a Gaussian distribution.  Okay, far too technical.  Let’s move on!

The “perfect” normal distribution is a symmetrical bell shaped curve.  Grade Distribution 2 is not perfectly symmetrical, but it is close.  Here is another statistics term – “mode.”  The mode is the value that occurs most frequently.  So, the mode for Grade Distribution 2 is …?  Sure, it is a grade of “C.”  If the number of A’s equaled the number of F’s and the number of B’s equally the number of D’s this would have been the symmetrical bell shaped curve that is indicative of a normal distribution.

Are you an instructor who grades on the curve?  Then you shift all the grades to make sure that the mode (a.k.a. the majority of students) earn C’s.  I am not saying this is a bad practice, but it can be in some situations.  If you realize that your grading criteria exceeded the requirements for assessing the learning objective a curve is in order.

What did I just say?  If you students actually acheived the learning objectives but your grading policy was “too tough” you should, by all means, curve the final grades.  In other words, were your tests too tough?

There is nothing necessarily wrong with Grade Distribution 2.  But wouldn’t you want more of your students to succeed?  Or, do you fear that you will be judged as an easier grader?

A Good Grade Distribution

Grade distribution 3 is more desireable that Grade Distribution 2.  The reason should be obvious.

The grades depicted in the graph at the right show that 83 percent of the student passed this course (or this test or assignment).  Isn’t that your goal – to guide students to passing?

If this were the distribution for your students, only 18 percent would have earned D’s and F’s.  That means fewer students are likely to lodge grade appeals than in the previous two situations.  (Keep in mind, your primary goal is not to avoid grade appeals, but it is relatively high on the list.)

If your students’ grades are distributed like this, you are almost certainly doing a decent job.  The majority of your students are passing.  In fact 82 percent of your students are getting the C or above that they need to graduate.  This does’t mean there is not room for improvement, but there this distribution provides no indication that you are doing something.

Okay.  So why am I continuing with this article?  The answer is because there is a better grade distribution to strive for.

Why Should Any Students Fail?

In the grade distribution at the right you can see that every student passed with a grade of C or better.  Wait!  Shouldn’t grades be normally distributed?  Shouldn’t some students be expected to fail in a well run, challenging, high quality college course?  Isn’t something wrong if everyone passes?

Statistically, the answer is NO.  The normal probability distribution is representative of random chance.  If the grades your students get are random and not representative of what they learning, you have a problem.

There is no reason that any student should fail other than the student himself or herself.  Some students don’t put in the effort.  Some don’t know how to study.  Some have test anxiety.  Some have personal life issues that do not allow them to do their best.  Some have learning disabilities.  The list goes on!

There are only some many things you can do as a college teacher.  You cannot intervene in a student’s personal life.  You cannot erase a learning disability.  You cannot force students to put in the time and effort necessary to do well.  However, there are several things you can do.  For example, in no particular order you can:

• present material in a variety of ways that appeal to diverse learning styles;
• demonstrate enthusiasm for your subject;
• display confidence in your students;
• make sure your students take advantage of college resources such as tutoring;
• give your students study tips;
• review before tests;
• institute competency based grading;
• help students relax before tests;
• show students that you care;

This book may be helpful to you:

© 2011 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

November 30, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

How does a college instructor develop and maintain rapport with students? This has challenged even the most experienced instructors.

Successful Beginnings

The author of Successful Beginnings, Angela Provitera McGlynn, has provided some wonderful advice.

Note: I highly recommend McGlynn’s book !

Engaging Your Students From the First Day

This is the subtitle of McGlynn’s book; and, in my opinion, the most critical skill required of college teachers. Someone once asked me what I look for when I conduct a classroom observation. Without hesitation my answer was, “Engagement, student engagement.”

McGlynn has given her readers many effective techniques for developing and nurturing a positive relationship with students. The advice in Chapter 2, A Positive Start: First-Day Classroom Activities and Icebreakers, will help you set the stage for the entire semester. I could not agree more strongly with McGlynn when she wrote, “The first class meeting of the semester is the most important one of the term! It sets the tone for the entire course – for better or worse,” (pg. 35).

In my article, Do Boy Scouts Make the Best Instructors?, I provided strategies for preparing for your first class. You know that the Boy Scout motto, right? Be Prepared. In my article, An Instructor’s Guide to the First Day of Class, I borrowed from Barbara Gross Davis’s book, Tools for Teaching. I recommend Davis’s book, although parts are geared more toward university professors.

What I really like about McGlynn’s book is the emphasis on developing relationships with students that will create, as she puts it, a “Welcoming Classroom Environment.” McGlynn explains that simple little techniques like greeting you class as a whole and greeting students individually will help you develop rapport.

I cannot begin to do justice to the entire book in this article. Of course, if I did that would be plagiarism. However, let me just whet your appetite for this book by saying this. The chapters on Promoting Student Participation and Motivation and Dealing with Civility in the College Classroom cover make-or-break teaching and classroom management techniques. The college instructors whom I have seen struggle quite often lacked in these areas.

© 2011 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Revised September 16, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Learn what instructors say scares them the most.

What Scares You About Teaching College Courses?

I want to address what instructors fear. What about teaching scares you, maybe just a little or maybe a lot? Leave me a comment. I will publish the good ones, and I will respond regardless whether your comment makes this website or not. Rest assured, I will do my best to be of assistance.

If, on the other hand you are an experienced instructor who fears nothing, let me know how you got to that point.  You must have lessons learned to share with others.  So, please share you advice.

And finally, maybe you are a new college instructor, someone who is just embarking on their first teaching assignment, and you are not scared. What you are is (sorry, this is a term I apply to that small percentage of our students who cause their own problems) CLUELESS.  Either stop reading my articles because you are a lost cause, or open up.  If you do not want your comment published, I will respect that.

© 2011 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

August 19, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

FERPA Defined

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) – What college teachers need to know is that FERPA prohibits them from sharing information about students’ educational records with anyone inside and outside the college who does not have the right to know. There are a couple exceptions.  Students may pr0vide written consent, but my advice is to consult with a college administrator before complying with requests.

Dealing with Parents Who Want to Know

When a belligerent father demands to know if his son is attending class, explain that you cannot answer. If an angry mother wants to know why her daughter failed the last exam, request that the daughter talk to you directly. If someone wants to know if a particular person is attending your class, you cannot comment on that. For all you know it could be an ex-boyfriend with less than honorable intentions. My wife is a counselor, and she tells me that former boyfriends and husbands with restraining orders use this questioning tactic to track down their ex’s.

Also, be careful when leaving telephone message for students. You cannot be sure that only your student will hear your message. Give nothing more than your name, the name of your college, and the number you wish your student to call. Law suits have arisen when FERPA statutes has been violated.

Maintaining Student Confidentiality

In some ways FERPA regulations are nothing more than common sense courtesy. High achieving students may not mind it if you tell the class about their most recent academic accomplishment. Those who are doing less well may be angered. Occasionally I hear from students who claim their instructor made their grades known to others. Not only does public humiliation not work, it is against the law!

Be careful that you are not “accidentally” sharing information with others. Just because you put papers face down on your desk does not mean that students will not turn over an assignment from someone else. A well intending science teacher I know put student grades in a spreadsheet. Then he hid the columns that included students’ names leaving only the private student identification numbers viewable. Next he posted the spreadsheet on his website. OOPS!!! He did not realize that the imbedded spreadsheet code for hiding columns was stripped away when he transferred a spreadsheet. Every student knew every other student’s grades.

Rights to Privacy and You

College differs from high school in many ways. One of those ways is that there are far fewer parents’ rights. Teachers do not meet with parents to discuss their children’s performance. Teachers do not send grade reports to parents. Granted, a parent who can prove that he/she is financially responsible for a student may be entitled to otherwise confidential information. However, the wise college instructor errs on the conservative side. No matter how demanding a parent, a college instructor should not give in. It is always wise to be courteous and refer a demanding parent to an administrator.

As a college faculty member, you might want to think about it this way. Would you want your students and their parents to know the details of your student evaluations? Many of you receive excellent evaluations, but few of you receive perfect evaluations. What about that totally off-base student who cut half the classes and who wrote that you did not teach him anything? And what if you did let your students down by not returning graded assignments in timely fashion because you were in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy? Would you want everyone to know the truth without the justification?

I only told the truth!

Or think of it this way. If you are on the FBI’s most wanted list, would you want one of your students to tell the Feds that someone apparently using an alias and having dyed her hair was teaching your ethics class every Tuesday evening at 6:30? I am sure that none of you dedicated instructors who read my articles fall into this category. But if you are a brand new follower who has not passed the test of time, get with it. Don’t be stupid. Hide the truth from your students and me.

On the other hand, there was that Environmental Ecology professor who refused to put his Mountain Dew bottles in the glass recycling container. You have to agree that he deserved to be turned in by those failing students who ratted on him. Of course, the fact that he needed that much caffeine to stay awake during his own lectures is a hint that he was not a professor-of-the-year finalist.

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

July 6, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

It is no secret. More women graduate from college than men. The failures of male students may stem from our American culture and early childhood learning experiences. So says Ali Carr-Chellman. Every college instructor needs to understand his or her students, and this video will help you understand some of the lower achieving men you may have in your class.

Make Learning a Game

It is far beyond the scope of this article, and this website for that matter, to teach you how to design instructional games. However, games are one way to engage students and make learning fun. And games tend to appeal more to men than women. The point is this. If you are frustrated because the men in your class are not paying attention and are not learning, it may because you are not appealing to what amounts to a new learning modality – GAMING.

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

June 11, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

For some time now I have pondered how can I succinctly share best practices for writing test questions. Some day I will figure this out. Perhaps yet this year. For now, I want to refer you to an article posted by Indiana University – How to Write Better Tests: A Handbook for Improving Test Construction Skills which was authored by Lucy C. Jacobs, Ph.D.

Click on the icon to the far right to open this document in a new window.

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

April 24, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Recently, a reader asked me how to prepare for weekly lectures. What a great question, surely one all new adjuncts have asked themselves and others. I responded by suggesting he consider a broader question, how to prepare a lesson plan.

Lesson Plans Start with the Course Syllabus

As a college instructor, when was the last time you asked yourself, “What shall I teach next class period?” Quite honestly, if you ever asked yourself that there was a serious problem. Instructors should know what they plan to teach each class period before the first session meets. That is all part of creating a good syllabus.

I have run across a great reference for those who want a simple, practical guide for creating syllabi. I encourage you to check it out.

What is a Lesson Plan?

A lesson plan is a description of what a teacher intends to do in a lesson, a class section, or a full day of instruction. Most guides to constructing lesson plans involve considerable detail, require much time to create, and therefore are of questionable value for the college adjunct. Truth be known, few full time college instructors create detailed lesson plans.

If you are looking for information related to a specific aspect of college teaching, lesson plans for example, a website I recommend is the Teaching Tips Index published by Honolulu Community College (HCC), an affiliate of the University of Hawaii. At first I judged this website to be a competitor to mine. Upon further examination I realized that there is far too much information for busy instructors to assimilate. Furthermore, the information on this site, as good as it generally is, sometimes assumes background knowledge that many adjunct and new full-time faculty members lack. To the credit of HCC, however, they have provided a link to Adjunct Assistance. Thanks, guys!

By referring to Lesson Planning Procedures, an article by an unknown author in the HCC Teaching Tips Index, you can begin to see how involved lesson plans can be. This article identifies three stages for creating a lesson plan with 12 individual steps.

Stage 1: Pre-Lesson Preparation

1. Goals
2. Content
3. Student entry level

Stage 2: Lesson Planning and Implementation

1. Unit title
2. Instructional goals
3. Objectives
4. Rationale
5. Content
6. Instructional procedures
7. Evaluation procedures
8. Materials

Stage 3: Post-Lesson Activities

1. Lesson evaluation and revision

The HCC model for lesson plans is typical of many models I have seen. Some are even more involved. My goal is to help busy adjuncts and all new college instructors effectively create lesson plans and have enough time left over to sleep at night.

Simple and Easy College Lesson Plans

My model for lesson plans is more user-friendly and therefore, in my opinion, more useful for college instructors. It assumes that instructors have well-constructed syllabi, ones that clearly identifiy student learning objectives; materials (e.g. textbook); course content; grading policy; and course schedule. Normally, adjuncts teach courses that have been taught by others and have access to the syllabi of more experienced instructors and other helpful information.

My lesson plan model also assumes that the instructor has distributed the course content reasonably well across the individual class sessions. Many models ignore the course schedule. They consider it to a separate, independent entity. I do not. I believe it is a vital element of a well-written syllabus. Well distributed or not, this is the starting point for creating lesson plans.

Step 1 – Identify What You Should Cover in Your Lesson Plan

Lesson plans for college faculty should address one class period, neither more nor less. The first step in constructing the lesson plan is to list the individual topics that will be covered during that class period. You should try to be specific and create what I will call instructional units.

The second step is to prioritize those instructional units. The tendency for many is to identify more material than can be effectively covered in one class period. Consider an AB C scale. A is for topics you absolutely need to cover in some level of detail. B is for topics that your students better know, but for which you will not devote significant class time. C is for material that is not tied directly to the course learning objectives. It may be interesting, but you should not waste class time unless, you find extra time available at the end of a class period.

What material is absolutely necessary to cover in class? That is for you decide, but here are some considerations. Plan adequate time for topics which:

• are difficult for many students to understand;
• will be accessed via tests, homework, assignments, projects, performance, etc.;
• must be mastered for students to achieve course learning objectives; or
• involve performance base learning objectives, whether difficult or not.

What exactly is “B” material, the things your student better know? Again, this is for you to decide. Plan time to make sure your students know they will be held responsible for “B” material, and leave contingency time in class to address question that may arise. “B” material is that which students will be held accountable for and which:

• is verbal knowledge that requires rote memorization;
• is easily assimilated by most students on their own;
• is so interesting that it will motivate students; or
• will not significantly factor into students’ final grades.

What exactly is “C” material? It is the material which:

• does not relate to course learning objectives;
• is beyond the scope of the course; or
• involves some of your favorite anecdotes or jokes which do not help students learn.

There is an exception to the anecdotes and jokes criteria. A few of these, well placed, will help you bond with your students. Humor, when it doesn’t compromise learning and instructor professionalism, is a good thing?

Step 2 – Take Important Factors into Account

There are a variety of issues to consider when creating your lesson plan. Here are my top ten:

1. Course Learning Objectives;
2. Difficult Material that must be Covered;
3. Available Time;
4. How to organize the class;
5. Student Learning Styles;
6. Student Engagement Techniques;
7. How to Teach versus Tell;
8. Formative Assessment Strategies;
9. Summative Assessment Strategies; and
10. Your Relationship with Students.

Step 3 – Review and Revise the Plan

[More to follow on this topic. Guess you will have to check back later. Sorry. ]

Are Lesson Plans Important?

Lesson plans are such an important, and often overlooked, part of being and effective college instructor. And what is an effective college instructor? He or she is one who helps students achieve the course learning objectives.

I will expand on the factors to consider and more in a future article. I promise.

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Revised November 14, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

I have worked for not-for-profit community colleges for more than 14 years. Over the last 5 years, my college has hired several employees who “jumped ship” from local for-profit institutions. Personally, I have hired two intelligent, talented staff members who left their jobs in for-profit institutions and took a cut in pay to come to work at my college. What does that tell you?

Check out the link below. You will find an interesting online discussion, much of which condemns for-profit institutions.

Frontline College Inc. Discussion

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

April 3, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Science courses can be difficult subject to teach, but instructors can make it a bet easier for college students to learn by using teaching aids.  I stumbled across one for you chemistry teachers to share with your students. You don’t teach chemistry? Do you have a child who is taking chemistry? Then share this site with your future chemist.  No chemistry connection, but you like Mahjong?  Then there is something for you too.

Mahjong Chem

A Stetson University chemistry professor partnered with a game developer to come up a free online learning game called Mahjong Chem.  As of this day, there are eleven games, but it would appear that more may be added:

1. Oxidation
2. Polyatomic Ions
3. Valence Electrons
4. Acids & Bases #1
5. Acids & Bases #2
6. Metric Prefixes
7. Solubility
8. Van’t Hoff
9. Isoelectronic
10. Elemental Symbols – Intro
11. Elemental Symbols – Advanced

There is also two versions of classical Mahjong for you non-chemistry gamers.

How to Play Mahjong Chem

If I can do it, your students can do it.  Chemistry was not my favorite science.  (I wonder who got the name changed from chemistry to alchemy.  )

The following video will give you a brief introduction.  Look for my near miss.  I made a mistake near the beginning of the game in terms of properly identifying a symbol.

By the way, did you hear me call Au Silver. I was lucky I couldn’t find a Silver tile. Any way, that was one of the things I didn’t like about chemistry, the symbols. They created them to try to fool you. Silver, as you know is Ag not Au. But why couldn’t it have been Sv or something? And where do you get gold out of Au? Frustrating, isn’t it.

Other Ways to Make Learning Fun

Cartoons may seem childish, but aren’t we all children inside. And don’t college students deserve a laugh or two? So why not incorporate cartoons into your teaching. Cartoon humor can help students learn, and there is an inexpensive book of chemistry cartoons that you may find just the right “formula” for fun learning.

More Learning Games

In my last article, Student Engagement Techniques, I showed you have you can play Jeopardy in your classroom.

By the way, take note of the comment below written by the author of the Mahjong Chemistry game. It is available for smart phones.

Have any favorite online learning games you would like to share? Send them my way, and I will share them with them with everyone. Thanks!

© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.

Updated December 22, 2011

Adjunct Assistance - College Teaching Tips for Adjuncts & Others from Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.