This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to Episode 65 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast. In this episode, we're gonna explore five Ways College teachers can improve their teaching. I've always been really bothered by the fact that at the college level, where students are often paying far more money for their education, the people who do the teaching have little to no training in teaching methodology. When it comes to hiring faculty, colleges and universities place a high premium on a person's academic background in terms of knowing their subject area having a specialty, and this is important. But by and large they require no teaching experience and no formal preparation in pedagogy. Despite this, hundreds of thousands of people walk into college classrooms every day and teach. This is a problem because knowledge of subject area is really just half of the equation. Teachers who haven't learned some of the most basic principles of instruction are doomed to repeat the mistakes of those who came before them, delivering content with the driest, most ineffective methodology possible, then wondering why their students aren't more excited to learn my guest today,

Norman Hang is attempting to solve this problem in his book Teaching College. The Ultimate Guide Toe Lecturing. Presenting an engaging students, Dr Ang shares the specific strategies college teachers can use to build relationships with students, energized their classrooms and help students really learn the material. The book is a quick read, an enjoyable read, and it's full of ideas you're gonna want to try right away. And I don't think it's just for college teachers. If you teach high school or even middle school, you're gonna find tons of ideas you can use also. So today, Norman is gonna share five of these tips with us before I play the interview. Two things First. This episode is brought to you by the Teacher's Guide to Tech. I created this guide a few years ago after learning that one of teachers biggest struggles was keeping up with technology.

What you told me is that you want to try new tech tools. You know it could probably make learning more powerful, and you're teaching more effective, but you don't have the time to figure out which tools to use. The Teacher's Guide to Tech is like an encyclopedia of over 100 and 50 Tech chul's, organized by function. So there's a section on video creation tools, a section on assessment tools and so on, over 30 different categories. On each page, I feature a different tool with a quick, simple explanation of what the tool does. A screenshot of the tool in action, a link to the website and a link to a video that shows you how the tool works. On top of this, you also get a glossary of over 80 tech terms and tons of helpful advice for implementing tech in your classroom.

You can keep a copy on your home computer on your work computer on your iPad anywhere you might want to quickly look something up. The 2017 edition of the guide is ready for download right now at Teacher's Guide to tech dot com. And because you're a podcast listener, you'll get a 10% discount on a single user license by entering the code listener at checkout. Also, I want to thank you so much for the reviews you've left for this podcast on iTunes. This really helps bring more listeners to the show, and I'm so grateful to every person who takes the time to do it If you've been enjoying the show for a while and haven't left a review yet, I would love for you to head over to iTunes and do so. Thanks so much. Now here's my interview with Norman ing. I'm so excited to talk about this because I I taught college for four years, and, um, I sort of witnessed firsthand you and I have a very similar background and that we'd talk a 12 prior to teaching at the college level. So good, Yeah, And so you can sort of really see the difference between the training that it that a person who teaches seniors in high school gets versus somebody who teaches college

freshmen. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a big issue, because most times it's being honest. College professors aren't being trained how to teach. So capping that Kato background like you and I have really, really makes a lot of sense.

It does. It does so So let's let's start off by just telling people a little bit about who you are, what your background is on DDE. What what the work is that you're doing right

now. My name is Norman Ang, and I'm a doctor of education, and I actually teach for the City University of New York. Um, I've written a book called Teaching College, which recently actually became an Amazon bestseller and four categories. Regulations. Thanks. And so before that is, as we talked about little earlier, I did teach k 12. I actually taught in a title. One school, you know, kind of Ah, poor quote unquote kind of a poor school in New York City public school system for about six years.

And actually, even before that, I was actually a career changer before it was K 12 teacher actually worked in the business world as an advertising executive doing, you know, advertising for insurance products and retail products and things like that low end and high end. So that really kind of informed the way I've kind of looked at teaching. I would say that marketing has is probably one of the biggest things that I said kind of changed the way that I look a teaching. So that's really my background on Guy Currently work on a blogged Norman and dot org's, which is focused specifically on helping new professors and instructors, you know, just kind of constantly navigate that college classroom right now. I'm also working on turning this book into a workshop in an online course to really help Professor. So that's what I'm doing right now.

That is great news. I'm really excited that you're doing a workshop. I think that can. And that's gonna be really successful because there's a big need for it.

Yeah, I mean, I talked to a lot of professors and especially new instructor's, especially those they're getting their PhD or they're looking to do some adjunct work and they're saying they have all these questions, but they don't know where to turn to because professors don't have, You know, the kind of resource is thio, you know, in terms of pedagogy in terms of who you turn to when you talk. So most most most of new professors. When I asked them, they said, Oh, I go online. I just google it, you know, And they're a lot of resource is online, but it's kind of all over the place, so

it ISS and I think the thing that really is very, very unique about your approach and I love the book. I mean, it's funny because I got a customer service assistant who she started reading at first and she actually teaches to at the college level. And she said, I couldn't put it down. Let me let me look into this. And same for May. It's just very, very readable, very accessible. I love that you pull marketing, and I think that's the thing that is so unique to your approach is that you're not only giving pedagogic Lee and sound principles for instruction things. That case you're 12 teachers have known forever. But you're pulling in this marketing aspect, which is so interesting, and i'ma let you explain that a little bit more in a little bit.

But I just think that combination is really it. It just really makes teaching seem a lot more fun. Honestly, it's gonna be more fun for these. The students of the people that read this

stuff. Yeah, the big thing about marketing is that, you know, people have this kind of, you know, if you don't know a lot about marketing or you haven't been in the industry, there's this thing that oh, if you're marking your kind of being like a salesman, it's kind of, you know, sleazy. But The thing is like real marketing is about solving a need. That's really what is its listening to your customers. It's solving a need. Daniel Pink, who's an author,

best selling author and a psychologist. He actually says that selling is what we're all doing, especially in the 21st century. So no matter what we're doing, whether it's teaching, whether it's marketing, whether it's business, whether you know your CEO, your marketing in some way. So in our case, you know his teachers well, you know, you could say that we're marking knowledge or we're marketing inspiration, potential, whatever that is. But you're trying to get someone in this case students to kind of see things differently.

There's no question that there's some sort of marketing involved. You could call it marketing, even called communication. Whatever you wanna call it, the idea is that you're trying to get them to see something differently. That's really kind of what I took away from the marketing industry is that every single day I was focused on how do you get a customer or a client or a patron to realize what their problem is because sometimes don't even know what the problem is into the case of students. That's certainly the case. They don't always know what they want. So sometimes it's up to the marketer to really listen to what the students are saying in terms of their needs, in terms of their frustrations, what are their pain, points things like that and try to design a solution to that problem. And that's what teaching is about, whether it's a problem, whether it's some sort dilemma or some sort of concept you're trying teach, and how do you help students really understand it?

That's what marketing is. And that's why I think it's so important that, you know, coming from that background, that was the one thing I knew I had to bring into this book.

Yeah, yeah, and I just you know, I wanted to add one little comment just because sometimes I can imagine the thinking behind somebody who might be listening and thinking, Why? Why do I have to do this? I'm just there to teach and why. You know, this guy's now telling me that I've gotta, like, kind of sell my ideas and, you know, really, it's not that you have to do it. It's that it's what works. And so what we want is to be able to reach our students. And if this is gonna be more effective in teaching your content, then why not?

Jen, you're absolutely right. I think that there's this notion, especially in higher add among professors and especially among maybe even established return. You'd Professor, is that you know what? You know. I am this expert. You know, I have this content expertise. You know, I kind of feel like I have to be the gatekeeper of my industry. They set very high standards, and this is what I'm teaching. It's very kind of, you know, highfalutin.

And it's very complex kind of thing. And students, you know, because they're adults, you know, if you want to get into this industry, you have to make sure to kind of rise above and kind of get to this and understand what I'm talking about. So you're really putting that responsibility on the students, and I'm not saying that you don't have high expectations. Of course you should. But sometimes that kind of thinking is like you are not understanding where the students are coming from and sometimes they don't have enough background knowledge, maybe, and they come from all walks of life. And if you don't understand that and you're expecting rigidly to get them to where you are, then you're not understanding their needs. You do have to try to understand kind of the the theories in the principles behind marketing or at least communication understanding where they come from.

So it's not that Oh, my job is just to come in and just teach. The truth is your job is to really get them to be a different person, to be a better person. And so that takes knowing the student and because I've actually exactly what you said that they look. So now I have to be this marketer. You know, teaching is about isn't about marketing. I'm not. No, students aren't aren't customers and things like that. But that's looking at it the wrong way. It's not. I'm not trying to, you know, say that marketing or that teaching is the same thing,

that we ought to treat students like customers and that, you know, I'm trying to sell a product. No, the idea is understanding the customer's needs, understanding your target audiences needs That's the most important thing. And if you do that, then you can help them achieve what they want. And honestly, nine times out of 10 they want to get a job. They want to do well in their industry when they graduate. So you're trying to get them to that level. So it's not about selling per se. That's what I'm saying. Like sometimes marketing and selling gets kind of a bad rap.

Yeah. Is there anything else you know that we haven't kind of covered because as soon as we're done setting up what the problem is, we're gonna actually now start getting into five different things that college teachers conduce you to really, you know, improve and make a big difference in their classroom. And I would also add that this stuff that you're gonna shared with us today it applies to high school in middle school teachers. I think just a CZ much because you're dealing with some of the same problems that a college teacher deals with in a lot of ways. So anybody listening to this who teaches, you know, secondary? I keep listening because there's some stuff here that you probably haven't heard before. So what is the problem in terms of college, what college teachers need?

So one of the first things that I talk about in my book is to create a student avatar because, you know, instructors have to know who they're teaching, right? We mentioned this before, and I don't mean just, like, basic information like, Oh, I know that my students want to go into business or my students want to, you know, go into journalism. No, they you know, you know, instructors need to know what actually drives their students what matters to them, right?

And so the best way I found is to create a student profile or an avatar in marketing. We call this an ideal client profile. The i c P right. We do this all the time when we actually have a product. We think about who is our perfect target audience. And this perfect target audience isn't like talking about a group of people. No, it's actually talking about one person, this ideal client profile. So what is it? It actually describes the audiences demographics like their gender, their age, things like that, as well as their psycho graphics, which is more like their attitudes and beliefs, things like that.

And so this avatar will guide everything that you teach. And it doesn't have to be long, just one paragraph. So why don't I give you an example, right In my book, I actually give talk about one particular avatar or ideal client profile that I created for one of my education courses. So here it is. Betty is a 20 year old Latina from a working class family who commutes to college, lives with her parents and works part time. She works hard but is often overwhelmed because she takes five classes per semester to qualify for financial aid. She is one younger sibling and is concerned with passing the new, harder teacher certification and teacher performance assessments. Although she loves working with Children, she's not sure if she can handle the rigors of teaching in an urban public school classroom with its diverse student needs. So very specific. Yeah,

it's it's really specific. And, you know, once you you have this profile this avatar, you're gonna be held accountable to this particular quote unquote person, right? It's gonna influence how you plan your course and your lessons because you were asking questions like, Oh, will she understand my lesson if I plan it this way, or what examples can I use so that she can identify with it? So you know, And it reminds me of how Stephen King rights, right? When he writes his book, he's targeting one person, his wife like he doesn't write for anyone else.

And when he writes for his wife, he knows that he's accountable to her needs and the way that she reads. It's the same way with teaching. So I encourage, you know, teachers. Where's professors or secondary teachers to think about 10 You will you be able to just write a paragraph that describes your typical student. That's a great way to figure out their needs

nice and then, of course, with the idea being that if you're targeting that one student, not all of your students are gonna fit that profile. But targeting that one student is going to probably guarantee that you reach a whole lot more of the other students. Also,

absolutely. The truth is, is that you will have students that that range in terms of their socio economics in terms of where they come from in terms of their content knowledge. I mean, I have students that are all over the place, but yes, you, more than anyone else, will have a better idea about the particular students that come into your class. And it's much better to kind of target that this is a marketing principle. So, you know, understanding that one person will keep you laser focused in terms of addressing their problem. Now you bring up a good point about like you're gonna have many different students. Where you change things is by differentiating the lesson so you can target your lesson to one specific student. But you can differentiate it by having a different by doing something slightly different to one student that has this need or another student that has a different need. So that's how you do it.

Like if you have, you know, if they're going to write a story, they could write a story that's particularly about their circumstances, and the student that comes from a different background right might might be able to write a story about their particular background, and so that's how you can differentiate it by giving them choices.

That makes sense. Yes, yeah, I'm not. I'm thinking now if if I'm a professor who's been teaching for 25 years, and I don't generally hang out with 20 year olds very much, how is it? What? How would you recommend that somebody be? Because I could see somebody creating a student avatar based on their assumptions of what they think they're typical student is like How how did they actually make this avatar accurate?

Right, So that's a great question. This and then this is goes doubly true for those. Let's just see who have never taught before in college before and kind of jumping into in wondering. So there's a couple of ways you can do about it, right? If you've never taught before, I would say one good way, or you've never talked to a particular course before. One good way is to talk to your colleagues. Okay, your colleagues, especially if you've never talked before. Chances are, you know the program had or the chair will give you the syllabus of the previous person that's taught the course. Or they may get to put you in touch with a professor that is teaching the same section issue so you I would say, definitely get in touch with that professor with one of your colleagues that's teaching that same course,

or even someone teaching within the same program and talk to them. Talk about what is your typical student In terms of demographics. Chances are, if you're teaching at a college, you have some idea about the demographic makeup or at least a socio economics and stuff like that. So that's one way talking with your colleagues and even more accurate way, I would say is, if you don't know, just ask them. All right. So I literally on the first day of class, especially if it's a new course that I haven't taught before. I will ask them What is the most important thing that you want to get out of this class? What is the most important thing that you want to be able to get out of this program? Or this major? What are some of the obstacles that you face?

What one thing do you wish all professors knew about the way you work? All right, so this gives me insight into how they work. What are some things that they get frustrated by from their professors and in general, kind of their beliefs, their values, Which is kind of the, you know, what marketers called the psycho graphics. And then you take all that information and you kind of find the patterns. What are some of the things that are that they talk about in common? And then that's how you can really create that avatar.

OK, so Number one is to create a student avatar. Um, what is number two?

So another way that teachers or professors can really create this kind of environment. Thats kind of supportive environment is to get to know studentsnames K 12 teachers. They know this very well, but the truth is, is that college teachers don't always think of this or they don't. I think that they have to, because maybe they're teaching a class of, you know, 23 400 students. So it's certainly harder to do. But it honestly, it's the It's the first step in building relationships to get to know their names. You know, when you when you start to refer to each other by names and I'm not talking about just, you know, one way from teacher to student until about both ways you know I actually encourage my students to refer to each other by name. Um,

and it's a two way street. And what it does is that it starts to create this kind of environment, this kind of culture that's more accessible, environment that has subtle but far reaching impact, such as like helping increase participation and student engagement and things like that. So, like I said, even if you teach a large class just even knowing some of the names and using them once in a while will create that perception that that you care and that it's an accessible environment. So that's why I say, especially because I have to you know, professors that ask, You know what? This is all great, but can it work in a large classroom? So I'm not saying you know all 300 students, right?

Right. But so anyway, in my experience, 10 cards are probably the best way to accomplish this. So what you do is that you actually take a five by eight index card and you fold it in half, you know, so that its long right and what you do is that you put it on the table. It could actually sit on a desk just like attempt right. But you have to write the student's name on both sides of the card with a marker, and I sometimes I see just written on one side you wanna have it on both sides of the card. So that this way, when students are talking right and their tent is on their table, students behind that person can actually see their names. All right, so it's much better think about it, like when you have a sticker that says,

You know, Hello. My name is whatever. So only if you're in front of them and facing them. Do you see their names? But with a 10 card, it doesn't matter. That's why I much prefer that you use a 10 card to remember names. So I actually use it every single day, at least until I start getting to know my students and then by the middle of the semester. I don't have to use anymore because I have, you know, probably about 30 students in my class. But it's just a great way for you to use their names. I actually referred it my students by names. I encourage them every day, refer to each other by their names and with 10 cards. It just makes it a lot easier

to two things I want to highlight and what you just said. It's making sure that people understand the back of that tent card. That's really such an important difference. Yeah, and also the fact that as the person leading the classroom, you're actually pushing those students to use each other's names, because I think it's That's one of those one of those formalities that I think people, especially college age, are going to feel a little awkward doing it unless they sort of quote half do. But Senate really is. Then it's good, then you've really built your classroom culture. They probably wouldn't do it on their own. And I mean, it is so awkward. Sometimes I've taught classes were you know, we've all been together for 6 to 8 weeks and it'll be a class of I don't know,

20 students, and I'll have one of them refer to somebody else in the room, and they'll say, You know that that woman there, you know, and I'm like, really write your name and I'm thinking, Well, why would they know each other's names? They don't They don't have Thio, and that's that's a really icky feeling. So I think having those to help help the students and pushing them to do that I think that's fantastic. God, what a difference that would make.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it really starts from the very beginning. And you're right, Bye bye, Like middle of the semester. And you're saying, Oh, that person over there, Listen, just put a 10 card on your table, and this way it just makes it easier. And I literally I'm serious about this literally every class before our discussions, I say, please refer to your classmates by their name and just kind of four.

And just like you said, you have to be pushed a little bit. Yeah, it's

kind of like tell, you know, because I teach childhood Ellen childhood education. So sometimes, you know, like when you're in your fifth grade, you don't wanna use, like, manipulative, and you don't want to use like cubes. And all this because you think it's a baby. So I actually force like back When I was teaching Cape K K through 12 I actually force like the fifth graders to actually use these materials even though they think his baby. And the reason why is because you want to make sure that everyone use it so that those who do really need to use it don't have to feel bad. So it's the same way with college. You force everyone to use their names, and then all the sudden they just start using

it. You're something. Had to be adults, for goodness. Think about it. We're so tied now to social media and interacting through our phones that I've noticed with people that age in particular will you get them face to face with each other? They don't know what to do. Oh,

yeah. Oh, yeah. We have a whole cold class discussion about technology. The impact of it.

All right, let's move on to number three.

Sure. Um, okay. So the so the next one is I have to say it's it's a game changer. Like before, when I was teaching, at least in the early part, especially in K 12 I did not use this as much, and I had a lot of stupid. Basically, the problem is that you know what do you do when kids don't know howto when students aren't participating all that much? That is this such a common complaint, right? And so the technique is, is cold calling right? And another kind of related technique to that I'll talk about is called, making sure that students don't opt out even if they don't know the answer. And cold calling is now a fairly widespread technique that's been popularized, especially in charter schools. By Doug Limb off Who's like one of the founders of the Uncommon Charter school organization?

Yes, this is from teach like a champion,

right? That's right. That's exactly right. Teach like a champion. And so many of your K 12 listeners will definitely heard of him and probably uses technique. But it's not so well known at the higher end level. And so the idea isn't particularly earth shattering if you haven't heard it before, but when done right, it just really increases student engagement and focus. So basically, when you ask a question to the class, right, you you don't call on students who raise their hand, or you don't have to call in students who raise your hand, you calling them randomly right regardless of whether or not they raise a hand. But they're too important parts of this First, you can't use this technique to kind of catch students.

You know, when they're not focusing, you can't say Oh, John, what's the answer? Just because you saw that he was, you know, on his phone or whatever, right? Because the minute you do that, they'll resent you for it, right? Right for calling them out. So you can't do that. It has to be done genuinely right has to be done in good faith. It has to give everyone a chance toe quote unquote to shine,

right? So that's the first thing. The second thing is that you wanna use cold calling consistently meaning every single class. Because if you don't students, they might feel like they can still kind of get away with not raising their hands sometimes because they'll rely on those who raise their hands. So that's really that's that's really the key. But what? What? What I also wanted to say was that you know what happens, like if you call them, then they don't know the answer right, because if you're randomly calling sometimes jurors just don't know the answer. And we all know what happens when they, you know, students are trained to know that when I say I don't know, that usually means that the teacher will probably call in someone else.

And they could just keep saying I don't know and never have to participate, right? Yep. Yeah. So what do you do? Right. So the other kind of technique that's kind of part of this is called no opting out. Right? And basically what you do is if a student says, I don't know, all right, you pose that same question, toe another student, and then you go back to the first student and ask him or her to repeat it or rephrase the response. Right? So this holds that that student accountable for listening,

right? So you say, You know, John, you know what are one of the causes of ruled war one Alright or World War Two and and John says, I don't know. All right, then you go to someone else to let's say Sean and say, Shawna, can you can you help John out? You know what's the answers? And then she says, whatever her answer is, and then you go back to John, you say, John,

did that make sense? Can you repeat what Shauna said? Or can you rephrase what Shauna said? Or my favorite is? Can you add to that right Because of the very basic level? If you if you are not so confident John's abilities, you might just ask him to literally repeat what

Shauna set right? Right? He didn't answer the question. Ultimately, he does answer the

question. Even if you're right, I mean, so the point is that he right, That's exactly he knows that he has. He's he can't just opt out, right? He has to answer the question. And if he's able to kind of do it in a more critical way, not just repeating or phrasing, but maybe even just, you know, adding his own thoughts into it. That's the best way good. So that's that's this way kind of really helps them to help them. There's one other thing that I can maybe add if you don't mind. It was one other tip that I can add for Kate before your K 12 listeners,

because I know that I certainly did this, and when I was in fifth grade teacher. We used to use popsicle sticks. Remember that. You know, you use popsicle sticks to kind of randomly call out students. Um, so you draw one out with students, name on it, and he would say, Okay, Shauna, what's the answer? So So there's nothing wrong with it, per se. Like I love the fact that it's very random.

But the one issue with that is that the one reason I like cold calling better is that you can be very strategic with cold calling so you can decide toe actually call on someone if they're hand is up. Or you might decide to, um, you know, called on a student who has been having some issues not understanding the problem, and you want to call them and maybe boost their confidence a little bit. Um, you know, or maybe a student has something worthwhile to say or has been waiting a long time with her hand. Um, and the problem is that possible sticks just frustrate the heck out of the student and sometimes even de motivate them. Cold calling is not purely random, but it's much more strategic in the way that you can call

students that right? Right? Yeah. And with the Popsicle sticks, once your stick has been pulled, you can kind of just relax and check out. And I'm sure a lot of students have done that exact thing. So

absolutely there has to be that kind of randomness that Hey, just because you answer doesn't mean I won't call. You

could be right back. I wanted to say one thing to about cold calling because I have a personal story about this. Um, I just I guess the lesson that I learned is that it's really important that you have that relationship peace with your students to that you know them and that they trust you because I basically destroyed our relationship with one of my students. When my college, well, using that technique, I was teaching them about cold calling. And then I said, We're going to start using it. And she was one of the first people I chose. And this was a This is a return. A nontraditional student of returning adult student, right? So And she and she was she had a lot of insecurities, sort of about her ability together. She would kind of like had a teen pregnancy.

It left school young and was just starting to get back into college. So she was really doubting herself in terms of her abilities. So when I picked her first basically to cold call and she didn't have the answer, me, she just she just couldn't stand me. After that, she really felt like I had put around the spot, and I thought and she thought that technique was horrible. And so it it made me think about that technique a little bit more than it's still, I think awesome. It's just that it needs to be used in conjunction with a trusting relationship with your students so that they I know that you're not trying to embarrass them.

I agree. And that's why you know, you can't use this. Why it has to be. It's done strategically. The truth is, is that I'm very conscious about using it like I know that there soon certain students that have a lot of issues with being put on the spot and being very shy. I actually had a student who who wrote to me and said that she was very shy and that she just felt very uncomfortable talking class. So the truth is is that I don't call on her, okay? I don't call that. I actually had a conversation with her that, you know, if you feel like that, you could write something to me, whether it's via back and forth email about the topic were discussing in class. I'm absolutely okay,

all right, because the truth is is that participation in terms of talking out loud in class and being called on, that's just one way to participate. There are many other ways, right? You can use your blackboard or or have an online discussion forum or e mails, or talk to me during office hours or things like that. So I use cold calling in conjunction with those other things. And I'm so glad that you brought that up because you are absolutely right. Like if you don't know your student, Hey, we're going back to knowing your target audience. That's what markers having So, But if you don't know your students, then you're right. Cold calling will just seem like you're imposing something that doesn't taken a consideration there need. So that's really that's such a good point that you brought up

thank you Well, good. I'm gonna make sure we have a nice, well rounded, you know. Ah, bit of advice there for people. So Okay, let's move on to number four. Said were These last two is you're really kind of getting a little bit more into the the instruction in terms of delivering the content.

I've never heard a college instructor not complain about this, which is that students just they don't read. They don't do the readings. I mean, I read somewhere a study said that at every at any given moment, students about 20 to 30% of your students do the readings on a given day. Something like that. Wow, Esso. That's not much. So you know, and there are many issues about why they may actually not be reading. You know, sometimes the Texas not chosen correctly. You know, just maybe it's too hard or too boring, So these are all important factors.

But aside from that, there's some things that we, as instructors, conduce that can at least increase or at least help them come to class a little bit more prepared. And one of things that I use is called question quotations and comments, which sure, I just shorten it to QC, right? Q Q C. It's not a particularly great word to use a great the acronym, the use, but it is what it is. But basically, students respond to the readings in a very short way just by jotting down either a question that they want to ask in class. Or a question that they had about the reading or a quotation that they found interesting from the reading, or even a comment or reaction that they had to a particular section of their reading and the keys to keep it short.

Because, like, I've When I first started teaching college, I used to ask him, Okay, you have a text response paper that's due. And you know what? Text response paper is like, You know, at least a page or sometimes two pages, and I've found because I actually do surveys at the end of the semester, not like departmental official service, but like my own survey. Absolutely. Yeah, and I would ask them what worked and what didn't work.

And I would say a majority of the student said that they loved the readings that I chose, but the problem was that these text responses were so onerous they were just They were like an extra thing they had to do on top of the reading, and it took away from their focus on the reading. And so I changed it so that I kept it short. You know, in other words, it's one of those things that you could literally right on this side of you on the margins of your reading over your hand out or whatever. Um, but they would just write a question, a quotation or common any one of those three things or, if you want, maybe all three of those. It depends on the teacher and depends on what they're reading. Um, and then But the and the other key to this is to follow up in class like cold calling in a way, meaning that you have to be consistent.

So if you only talk, have students share these que que ces in class like once in a while, then it won't work like you have to have them shared every single class, if you could reserve, may be the last 15 minutes of class or the beginning, 15 minutes of class Thio, you know, just kind of randomly asked us to share the questions, comments and quotations. Then it will work. You have to set aside that time to make sure. And the truth is that because we have so many things that we want to get into class, you know, even I struggle to sometimes reserve that 15 minutes. So that's important. And,

you know, I heard, like there many other techniques to get students to read. Like, you know, some students. Some teachers have found success with quizzes, Um, or you can preview the readings with focusing questions and all that kind of. But I thought the Q Q C was one simple way that you know, your your listeners could use immediately and just and not have it be so burdensome, right for the students

reading that you give them points or a grade for having these. Is there some sort of accountability system for actually bring those

in? So yeah, that's a good question. You know what I found that it's just too much work. If I collect, collect this every class like I know you know One way is to like asked us to bring you know, three by five index cards and just write these little things and just bring to class and you collect it. So I used to actually do that as well, but I found it just took so much time. So I don't do that. What I do now is that I asked you is just to keep, you know, kind of a lock in their notebooks or whatever. And then so and it's not like they have to use a new piece of paper every time they do. Just keep a log so that they would just continue down in line. Okay. Week number one,

we do this ring right down a question. Week number two right underneath it. You know, it s Oh, right. And then what I do is that actually collected twice during the semester? All right, so this way, let's just say there are, You know, 25 readings during the semester or 15 readings during the semester. I would collect like the first half, like right. You know, Reading's reading responses one through eight in the first half in the middle of semester, and then ate through or nine through 15 towards the end this semester and So there is that built in accountability,

Um, so that they do right here their questions, comments, quotations. But it's not so onerous for me. And they know that it's being collected because it's in the syllabus, right? So that's one way kind

of hold them accountable. That sounds like a system nice and easy. And they you're still you're still holding accountable in class. I mean, they don't want to show up. If they know that you're gonna be oh, getting them that there's that right there. And then you've got the paper. Great. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna quickly review the four that we've already talked about so that people listening can kind of keep track. So the 1st 1 was creating a student avatar. The second was to use 10 cards as a method for remembering student names and getting them to talk to each other. Ah, the 3rd 1 is to implement cold calling and the no opt out strategy so that you can get students participating and talking more in class. And then number four was to use the Q Q C strategy,

questions, quotations or comments, a za response to reading. So yeah, the 5th 1 and you actually have a bonus. So this is actually not the last one, but the what is house?

What? You Well, so the fifth win, you know, first like I needed. I need to figure out a better acronym for Q Q C. Because it's exactly what it is. But I found something.

What about wondering about? I want a replace quotation with sight citation Now, then it would be based. You see, I don't know either.

If your listeners have a better suggestion, I'm all ears eso anyway, So this fifth technique is ah, is too. And this is something that again, you know, your listeners or just college instructors in general can implement as soon as possible and basically is to put the lecture part of the of the lesson at the end as opposed to at the front of this. All right, So much. Yeah, So I mean, so the deal is that sometimes, like we preview things for students, like we might say that Oh, like these air, the vocabulary is that you should be aware of. Or let's talk about this concept.

You know what you read last night or, you know, for this particular class. Or let's talk a little bit more about these theories to to make sure that you understand the readings kind of thing. That the problem with doing this kind of lecture thing up front is that students don't necessarily have a connection to these terms or these theories, especially in the beginning. True, they might have done some reading for it, but it doesn't relate to them. And so, um, so I'll give an example, right? So, um, on what?

What? There's Tuesday, Um, we of this past week. I had my students read about two philosophers, right? John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, right? Both them were very important figures in education, and the idea is that both of them believe that Children are shaped by their experiences, right? Um, but the difference is that Locke believed that parents and teachers are more responsible for shaping their environment. In other words, they they felt that parents played kind of a bigger role in making sure that you were you shape the environment the right way, the right structure and still inhabits and discipline.

Whereas Russo was Maur about making sure that the environment is what shape the child. Not nothing in nature is what shape the environment. So no was Let them feel things out. Let them figure it out on their own without parent intervention, without interference as much as possible. So the difference is that I didn't start my lesson talking about John Locke and Russo, right? I didn't even bring up their names. Instead, I actually asked my students, How did you guys grow up? You know, I wanted to kind of hear their experiences with discipline with schoolwork, you know how parents raised them. And I found that you know, this lead into a rich discussion about different philosophies of parenting and teaching and that in turn, just kind of lead into the lecture on Lock and Russo,

who doesn't want to talk about that? I mean that. Well, maybe some people, but it's so personal then, and it really I mean, yeah, a lot of that intro

that that isn't isn't that the idea? You know, there's so much research in education right now that talks about how students won't understand something unless they have taken place it within the context of their life. And so that's what this is. If I can get students to understand. Oh, how did you grow up all of the sudden there is this connection to Oh, I can see locks. Philosophy was much more on this, and Russo's was much more of this. And there is this. You can really kind of place them within the context of your own life. You know what? You can't just start by talking about them. If you put it in the end, then students have that context to understand these philosophers. And that's when you can talk about the terms and the vocabulary and things like that. So, for for your listeners or for college professors in general, my suggestion is to start off instead with some sort of a question or some sort of a scenario

or Delenn problem, or write some sort of a challenge because there's a lot of different. That's the thing. I love this quick little flip because it's so easy you can plug anything into that first half of class. Basically, that's gonna grab their interests and get them thinking about whatever this thing is, and then you plug in all that all the facts and the information that they need to know and their their minds are primed for

it. That I love that that's that's the word I was I think I was searching for Is that they're primed for this after they've done that, just like think of the way. Like like K 12 teachers, right? When you're teaching something as simple as like adding and subtracting, you don't go today we're gonna learn about addition. Let's you know, let's start by going over terms like some and added, No, those air abstract terms that kids have no idea what that means you. Instead, what do you do? You start by having Children like, you know, add on two different piles or give pencils to each other so they can add five pencils and eight pencils together. You actually have them like like work it out on their own,

as opposed to talking about these abstract terms. And once they've done it, then you can talk about Oh, here's how you add things like that, right? Yes, you know, you don't talk about formulas until after they played around with It doesn't make

sense. E. Again. I just keep thinking if if if 10% of the college professors out there started to do this. What a vastly different experience. It would start to make college be for people.

Students would start listening

about that. They would really like to wake up. For one thing, I know that students sleeping in class is a big problem

with. That is another reason to start, you know, with an activity or dilemma. Right? Because you want kids, you know, And I have a lot of students that are, like, you said, nontraditional. They're coming in like I teach it. Undergrad classes at 5 p.m. Five p. M have done a whole workday. So they're tired.

Yep. So what is your bonus tip?

So, yeah. I mean, you know, I have five tips over here, and I thought that I'd add one other thing for college professors, which is less of something that you can, which will take a while to do so. That's why I kind of saved this for the end. It's more of an approach, more of a shift in the mindset. And here it is. It's to think of your role less as a quote unquote a teacher, kind of in the traditional sense of that word and more as a designer of meaningful experiences or a creator or an engineer of meaningful experiences. And what I mean by that is that you no lectures and class time is not about like going over what students read last night, right? So because I actually spend,

like, 80% of my prep time designing ways to make sense of content, packaging it in readily digestible form. Um, and actually one of my students and I told you before how I ask students to write about their one big complaint about professors and once didn't actually wrote that she wished that professors knew howto better organize their material in a way that that made sense had made it interesting and easy to remember. So, you know, our job isn't just a lecture. It's to take it and make it into bite size pieces to make sense of it and toe actually create an experience that will make sense of this information. So what I'm saying is, next time you're planning planning your lesson, think about what experience can you create that allow students toe understand the content. Maybe it's, you know, group collaboration. Maybe it's a debate.

Maybe the demonstration or even a video or even a field trip, obviously. But so forget about, like, you know, trying to cover the content. We're all trying to cover the curriculum and you'll never have. Right. You'll never have enough time for that. Focus instead on creating meaningful experiences, every single class. Because that shift in mindset, I'm positive will put you kind of like in that elite status of instructors

and professors. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much for all of this. This wisdom and I can just say to the people listening This is really just a slice of what is in that book. Ah, the book is called Teaching college. I'm gonna link to it on the website. And where where can people find you again? Online.

They can find me at my own website, which is Norman eng dot or ge, Um and which is where I had maintained a blogger. That brings out some of these really issues that we talk about. Um and you can also find a link to the to the book as well. On Amazon?

Yes. And, uh, I would also recommend that people subscribe to your email list, which is something you'll be prompted to do when they go over to your site. Because you do, you're sending out. I've been getting your emails and that they've not on them also. And if no other reason, people should get your book to learn how to make better Scylla by because your stuff on writing a syllabus is just It's fantastic. It's so if I want to go make one and I don't even have a class, I

appreciate that. One other thing I just want to bring up is that also especially for your listeners who maybe prefer to read like a print version, because right now the book that I have is a Kindle for men. It's an E format. I'm actually coming out with the print version of paperback version of the book in some time, probably towards the end of March, pretty soon as well as an audio book that's actually in the works right now. It should be coming up within the next week or so, so look out for the print for audio.

Or, of course, you get the e book. Now if you go on on on Amazon and just type in teaching college Thank you so much, Norman. Thanks so much for having me here. For links to all the resource is mentioned in this episode, visit cult of pedagogy dot com slash pod and click on Episode 65 to get weekly updates on all my newest blogged posts, podcast episodes and products. Sign up for my mailing list at cult of pedagogy dot com slash subscribe. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day. This podcast is a proud member of the education podcast network. Podcasts for educators Podcast by educators Toe learn more visit e. D. U.