My Teaching Philosophy

The act of teaching is kinetic – setting in motion a shared experience in knowledge – a catalyst to an intellectual journey.  A journey in which the explorers – both the student and the professor – serve dually as the protagonists and the destination. But a journey needs clear intent, purpose and direction.  Otherwise it’s just a jaunt, a sojourn. It is within perspective that I approach the classroom.

As such four AtoNs (Aids to Navigation) guide my teaching.  They provide the intent, purpose and direction that transform my classes from jaunts and sojourns to intellectual journeys.  They form my teaching compass that guide my teaching:

1) Students

2) Andragogy

3) Performance

4) Expectations.

Students. The entire exercise of teaching is not about me. It’s about the students. It’s about the students becoming themselves, transformed versions of themselves, better versions of themselves.  That marks my role as a facilitator of self-revelation through our shared journey. As a facilitator to help them realize another version of who they can become. As Sam Pickering (2004) points out in his Letters to a Teacher, “although the teacher’s “self” affects classrooms, students matter more than we do”.

What connects us, students and professor, is our shared desire to unite and converse about and through the course material. It’s an intellectual “communion”. I select material that is pertinent for the students, but, also program in my courses material that I really love. Why? Because if I like it, chances are they’ll like it too. I acknowledge that students will have likely forgotten most, if not all, of what I said about how industry structure might affect long-term profitability a few weeks after the last days of class. But I’d like to think they’ll remember the value of strategic thinking as a source of knowledge and wisdom: they’ll remember that they left class a transformed version of themselves.

Andragogy. A course requirement of my Ph.D. program was a seminar in teaching (SOCI 980).  In this seminar we examined the teacher’s role and teaching process in a college context.   As a student I was introduced to the work of Malcolm Knowles (1970) and learned that pedagogy (teaching children to learn) and andragogy (teaching adults to learn) are not the same thing.  So as college professors are we teaching children or adults?  How you answer this question has implication on how you approach your classroom.

I see my students as adults, this means they have a proven capacity and willingness to learn; and that there are many pressures placed upon them and their time. The result is that the students have to be treated as mature, active learners, and teachers have to recognize their roles as facilitators of an adult’s desire to learn beyond the mere content of a course and into the realities of their everyday life, thus helping to develop the whole person.

Performance. I prepare, plan and script everything.  I see my time in the classroom as a curated “performance” to facilitate learning.  I also acknowledge that performance is no substitute for depth and meaning, but the perfect material poorly performed achieves nothing.  Because of this, my teaching follows two important rules, preparation and more preparation.  I come to my classroom first thing in the morning and check the layout.  I examine the technology.  I visualize my teaching for the day.  I wear a suit class, its part of my performance.  It signals to the students my intentions.  Bottom line is that in order to let my enthusiasm for the material carry into my teaching I need to be prepared which means a concise class plan with a scripted path.

I avoid the lure of improvisation – each minute of class time matters and because one must respect the contractual and staged relationship that at a certain place and time binds a group of learners to your course.  A solid preparation will make sure that I don’t strictly plan lectures for everything, my go-to reflex for content delivery. Good preparation will allow me to diversify my delivery methods including small group discussion, think/pair/share, and mini presentations. Each session I teach has at least one terminal learning objective (TLO) which I share at the beginning of each class, i.e. “what we’re up to today”, “by the end of this class” etc.  Within each TLO, I have at least one enabling learning objective (ELO) that I leverage in teaching my material.

While I avoid improvisation, I see spontaneity as a powerful learning tool which ironically can be scripted into the performance.  I often ask students at the beginning of classes if they saw anything in the news they want to share (that was pertinent to class) or something related to the class readings or assignment.  I find that many times these spontaneous learning opportunities provide the perfect platform to reinforce previous learnings, or provide the perfect springboard to the day’s learning objectives.

Expectations. From the very first minute of the first class, I clearly establish what my expectations are for the course, my expectations of the students and the expectations I have of myself. It’s a contract, a two-way deal. I tell my students that I promise to bring my “A” game every single class, but I also expect them to do the same. As evident from my preparation (see above) I take that promise seriously.  I also find that the key to making sure expectations are always reinforced is with transparency.    On the first day of classes, I detail my expectation about class attendance, late arrivals, early departures, in-class behavior, out of class behavior (e.g. email etiquette).  I also administer a quiz during the second class session.  A class and syllabus quiz.  It is open book and open note, I expect everyone to get 100%.  It goes over the deliverable of the class, the expectation for behavior and key dates.  It then becomes the contract we both adhere to.

Part of expectations are also set in the feedback that I give, which is direct, and some might say tough.  I have found that with feedback, if it is not direct, students hear/read what they want to read.  Early and direct feedback is also a strong signal to the student that the expectation that I outlined in the beginning of the course are more than just words.

My courses at Skidmore are built on the foundation of Students, Andragogy, Preparation, and Expectation. These AtoNs determine the roads I take when I build, prepare and deliver my courses.

My approach to an introductory course – MB 107

When I first started teaching MB 107 – Introduction to Management and Organizations, I saw it as a catch-all – a bunch of single lectures that taught an introduction to various topics needed.  It worked, but I felt as there was a more holistic way to deliver the material to the students, the whole adage that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  So over time I have continued to develop the course into an integrated series of modules that map onto each other.  I first teach the basics (weeks 1-4), I then introduce analytical frameworks that are built on the learnings from the basics.  This is followed by a transition from analysis to implementation tactics which are all leading to the executive presentation, their large group final.

I also see the course as an opportunity to socialize students into higher education.  How to start becoming college students.  How to transition from the ever-present helicopter parent at home, the semi-autonomous young adult.  The semi-autonomous adult that has responsibilities and consequences for their actions.  As mentioned in my teaching philosophy I explicitly outline the expectations that I have for them as students in the class, expectation that I have as team members in their group projects, and the consequences if they don’t meet the expectations.  For example, if they send me an email that resembles a text message I ask them to resend the email using proper grammar.  If they turn in their paper 2 minutes late they are subject to the late penalty.  Some think its harsh (my wife included!) but I believe it is better that they receive the feedback and learn the consequences from me, within the safe environment of Skidmore, than once they enter the workforce.

Teaching a senior capstone class – MB 349

If teaching MB 107 is the Yin then teaching MB 349 is the Yang.  The students have taken all the required business courses, they have virtually finished their college careers, and are preparing to transition into the next phase of their life.  My first-time teaching MB 349 I didn’t fully appreciate this, and I approached it very similar to how I approach MB 107.  While my evaluations were fine, the course didn’t feel right to me.  It is hard to explain, but the course felt to me that it was out of sync with the student.  Where they were in life, what they needed in a capstone course.  Since that first course, I have integrated several real-world simulations in the course.  The first, is a very complex, group simulation in which they are required to decide on which products to develop and to which markets to enter the products.  It happens in conjunction with the first half of the class.  Within that first half of the class I am teaching cases that cover the main topics that they have covered as Management and Business majors.

The latter half of the class I devote to two different types of cases.  The first type are cases that they choose, that they’re interested in.  At the beginning of the course I present them with choices of companies and cases we can discuss in the latter half of the class.  I have pre-vetted the cases, and we as a class democratically choose the cases that we discuss.  I usually reserve the final few days in class to discuss emerging sectors in the business environment.    Lastly, in the back end of the course, they are required to participate in an individual “operations” simulation in which they are required to run a large-scale rental car outfit at multiple airports with multiple locations.  The real-world orientation, the simulations, and the agency of choosing cases solved the “out of sync” problem I had felt with the class.

Curating a freshman seminar – The American Immigrant Experience

When putting together a freshman seminar my goal was to make an immersive experience in which students were able to see, hear, feel, smell and taste the topic in a multi-disciplinary way.  Because the American immigrant experience is different based on the immigrant’s status (e.g. refugee vs undocumented etc.) we explored four different statuses in different ways.  We took a field trip to Ellis Island and had a private tour of the tenement housing.  I had the dining hall prepare two different meals for us corresponding to two different readings that we had done, and students were required to present immigration policies.  We also did an entire semester long podcast project.  Students worked on creating podcast episodes for a podcast series in which they touched on something that we discussed in class.  The only other requirement for the podcast was that it includes an interview or discussion with an immigrant.  The podcast episodes were incredibly powerful and the students loved making them.  Two of my students won the Candace Carlucci Backus Prize for exceptional scholarly or artistic work by a first-year student.  Their amazing podcast can be listened to here: https://skidmore.app.box.com/s/bnwlf821v9xd7e43qy0goi1nk23k7j2u .

The seminar style, small class format was different than the traditional MB courses that I am accustom to teaching, so I also adjusted my teaching style.  I arranged the classroom in a square format to facilitate large group conversation.  I required reading notes and responses to reading prompts to be turned in the day prior to each class (so I could prepare discussion points), and I also required students (in their assignment) to share specific questions and interesting observations they had so that they could be worked into the course.

Technology as a force multiplier in the classroom

Technology is certainly a double-edge sword.  When executed correctly is can be a force multiplier in the classroom, when it fails it can be extremely disruptive.  Despite the risk, I leverage technology in many different ways in my classrooms.  For MB 107, I heavily utilize video as a teaching tool.  I have created a series of 10 minute videos for each of the basic concepts and basic frameworks that I teach in MB 107.  As many faculty members we were challenged to reexamine how our classes were taught because of the pandemic.  For me, I wanted to return to the classroom as soon as possible (I only taught online the Spring 2021 when we pivoted to online mid semester).  I also found that teaching and talking in a mask was taxing.  I decided the solution was to flip my classroom and create videos for each class in which students watched before we met for class.  Then during class time, we did small group activities, in class writing and presentations, and other activities.  It served two purposes, I didn’t have to lecture in a mask, and it also provided students, many whom were locked up in their rooms isolated, the opportunity to interact with colleagues in the classroom again.  It worked so well that post-pandemic I use modified flip classroom format currently.

I have also started using videos as a feedback tool.  For papers and assignments besides just grading the assignment I create personalized videos for teach student with direct feedback.  I tested it out with one paper in MB 107 and solicited feedback from students.  The initial feedback was very positive so I have since implemented this practice going forward with rave results from the students.

I also always use my laptop for teaching.  I have a hybrid laptop which allows me to annotate directly on my screen.  This allows me to write on slides directly on PowerPoint, mark up webpages, and other documents while being shown directly on the overhead.  It also allows me to save the annotations directly on the documents and upload them to brightspace.  Using my laptop is also part of my preparation.  It allows me to practice at home if I need to, it ensure continuity of the experience for the students.  It doesn’t matter the classroom, it doesn’t matter the projector, it doesn’t matter the podium – I know what the classroom materials will look like and where to find them.

I use simulations in several of my classes.  To be successful they require extensive and meticulous planning and careful implementation.  They’re high risk, but, high reward.  In my MB 240 coaching class, I play an Everest simulation.  It is a hands-on way to that I use to reinforce concepts we’ve learned about asymmetric information and team goals of individual members.  As the professor not only do you set up the team, you assign each student a role, and you manipulate the simulation to match what you want to teach. Student are then presented with their team, their individual roles on the team, and they have to decide how their climbing team will proceed as they try to attempt to summit Mt. Everest.  In my Strategy class I use two different simulations, one that teaches strategy formation (within an international context), and the other that explores important operations management takeaways.  For the strategy formation,  I set up the parameters of the international markets, the 10 demand cycle, the market growth opportunities amongst other things.  They are required to make 6 decisions, and after each decision I download their decision and the market data and I prepare a class session for each decision in which we take a deep dive to understand the implication to their decisions with the framework of strategy.  For many of my students in coaching and strategy, the share that one of the most rewarding aspects of class was the simulations we completed.

I use an online “workspace” in my coaching class.  Most of the students as they enter the workforce will be immediately thrust in a job that uses an online workspace (e.g. slack).  It is the way business colleagues communicate.  So not only do I see using an online workspace as an important teaching tool, I also see it as giving students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a type of software that is common in the workplace.  In my coaching class, pairs of students are assigned a 4-5 person group of students from MB107 in which they’re required to “coach” as part of the class.  In the online workspace, I create a “channel” for each one of the teams.  On this channel coaches are able to share, collaborate and communicate.  I create weekly assignments in which my students are required to make entries in their channel.  Including weekly updates on their teams activities, any schedule they might have, and any issues or concerns they’re facing as coaches.  In turn, I use this portal as a way to quickly and effectively keep tabs on each team, their activities and progress.  It also gives me an opportunity to give personalized feedback to each pair of coaches.  In addition, I give access to all the channels to the MB 107 faculty and student coordinators so if they are approached by a team member about their team, they have a resource they can access to get an up-to-date status of the team and their activities.