April 2007
Volume 20, Number 4
Preparing for a Class Session
"When the task is done beforehand, then it is easy. If you do it hurriedly and carelessly, it must be hard." (Cleary, 1989, p. 5)
There is much to be gained from preparing for a class session by meditatively contemplating what works well, previous mistakes made, the nature and needs of your students, and your goals for the session. This process is separate and different from the usual content preparation. We recognize, however, that the realities of academe often preclude this process, and we do not fault teachers who cannot prepare before each class session, ideal as that may be. Often, faculty have rushed from a meeting, were delayed getting to campus by family matters, or were engrossed in writing and looked at the clock a bit late. They now have a class to teach, and in the few minutes that remain, if any, “best” preparation is difficult. Some teachers might think about their classes only once a week, and others might think about them even less frequently.
To encourage and help such efforts, we present the types of preparation teachers might do before a class session. Interestingly, we found nothing in the teaching literature on preparation for individual class sessions.
Intellectual Content: Findings, Ideas, Theory, Methodology, People,
and the Like
Whether the class session involves a lecture, discussion, or small group work,
a teacher must be familiar with the day’s intellectual content. New teachers
often work harder at this, whereas experienced teachers may need minimal review.
Nonetheless, a close reading of the day’s lecture notes or discussion
points may illuminate nuances previously overlooked or forgotten. We recommend
this practice, regardless of the teacher’s experience level.
Equally important, we believe, are the purposes to which the content will be put. Questions such as the following should be con-sidered and prioritized, and decisions should be made.
- Why am I addressing this material at this juncture of the semester? Where
are we in the semester and in the course’s progression or mod-ule? What
“...links, umbrellas, and frameworks...” (Gleitman, 1984, p. 425)
can be emphasized? How will I provide transitions between this content and
what went before and what will follow?
- How does this day’s class help students move closer to meeting course
goals as stated in the syllabus? What course themes might be touched on or
discussed?
- Why is this day’s content important and how will I convince students?
Do I want to ask them about its importance, and how long should I spend doing
so?
- What is the single most important point I will make today? Second most important?
How can I best communicate the importance of these ideas?
- Is there an emotional component to the upcoming class? How do I expect
students to feel, and how do I want to go about entering their affective world?
- How does the class relate to students’ lives? Are there topics that
should be especially relevant to what they and their friends, family, and
peers experience?
- Is this a good class in which to have students generate examples or metaphors?
Both are powerful ways of anchoring course materials. What success have I
had in the past in asking students to do this? How much and what kinds of
preparation will they need to develop good examples?
- How will I conclude the class and prepare students for the next one?
Making Class Fresh – The “In the Moment” Teacher
You will be more focused and energized if you focus on today. “…When
you think you will be on the job forever, then trouble starts” (Cleary,
1999, p. 86). Fatigue vanishes and distractions disappear when teachers are
mindful only of the present.
There is an applicable adage from psychotherapy: “If the therapist is dead or not present psychologically, treatment does not go well.” What can teachers do to stay fresh, focus their attention on the task at hand, and communicate enthusiasm to their students? How many times can a teacher teach about Milgram, Pavlov, Asch, or Erikson before going brain dead? If you are bored, what can you expect from your students? Pretend you are a student in your own class and that this is the first time you are exposed to today’s material. What would you expect? What would “grab” you or confuse you?
- Pretend you are teaching today’s class for the first time. Keep in
touch with the “wonder” of psychology. Remember the awe, satisfaction,
hope, appreciation, and revelation you felt when you first taught. It should
not be “work” to teach the upcoming class, nor should it be a
problem or drudgery (Carroll, 2004). Such thoughts and feelings take away
teachers’ purpose and resolve.
- If you were engaging in peer review of teaching, what would you advise or
think about today’s class period if you were the reviewer? What would
be its strengths and weaknesses?
- Remind yourself that in class no one can email you and there are no phone
calls — your only obligation is to teach. It may not only be the most
important task of the day, but it may be the most focused and the least interrupted,
and, for a change, you will only be doing one thing at a time.
- Vitalize yourself. Go outside, even if just to walk around your building
for a few minutes. Aren’t you tired of your office anyway? It is amazing
how seeing things from a different physical perspective changes one’s
mood. If you have energy, you will bring it to your students. If time is short,
a few brief exercises (push-ups, deep knee bends, etc.) can get your blood
flowing before class.
- Depending on how your day has gone, you may want to compose yourself. Turn
off the lights in your office for a few minutes. Do some slow, deep breathing,
meditate, and think of nothing. Luxuriate in the stillness. Teaching asks
us to give a lot to others; we need to give something to ourselves. Try to
be still at least once a day at work.
- Exercise your voice, especially for a large class.
Learning From Experience
Recall your previous experiences teaching this topic and try to repeat the good
ones.
- If the class has gone “well,” what made that happen? If you
or the students were unhappy with the class session, what was not working?
What might have worked?
- Are you doing anything different today than in the past? If so, pay special
attention to how students respond and ask several for their opinions after
class.
- Do you need to slow down? Are you rushing? Remember that more is not necessarily
better and that rushed material may not provide the depth or foundation you
hope for.
- Have you previously experienced this classroom as depressing or ill-suited to your teaching? Can you be assigned a different room?
Beware of Habituation
Most teachers teach to their strengths. The entertainer tells stories and lectures
to an enthralled class; the cheerleader uses group discus-sion, moving from
group to group of students, supporting their work and urging them on; and the
perfectionist spends hours on brilliant, detailed (usually too much so) PowerPoint
slides. No matter how you teach, keep in mind that students will habituate to
your presentation method. Variety is the spice of good teaching. Change the
pace and your teaching style.
- If you typically use PowerPoint, do something else for a class period once
in a while.
- If you always stand in the front center of the room, move somewhere else.
- If you use an overhead projector, sit somewhere in the class and have one
of your students write important points on the overhead as you get to them.
(Students love this and a friend can take notes for them.)
- Tell a relevant story from your own life that might evoke students’
stories as well.
- If you are a lecturer, mix in some group work once in a while.
- Is it time for a demonstration, perhaps including students?
- Seize the moment. If the weather is getting nicer and students are wearing shorts, does their behavior relate in any way to course content (e.g., conformity, hopefulness)? Once, when teaching about anorexia, one of us asked a female student athlete what she weighed. She would not answer. Every man in the class volunteered to publicly state his weight. Her refusal led to a discussion of the cultural pressures women experience about the power and privacy of weight and body measurements, making it clearer how eating disorders may arise and be maintained.
Students
Classes have the tendency to blend and blur together. One class goes well, whereas
another is not as much fun to teach as usual. What often gets lost is the audience
(Gleitman, 1984): the students we are teaching, who are individuals with differing
needs, problems, and successes.
- Which students that day may need attention? Who is a member of an athletic
team, for example, who merits recognition for the team’s performance?
- What students say little or nothing at all in class? Is there someone in
particular you want to ask, “How is the semester going?” before
class?
- Is there an issue that must be dealt with directly (e.g., student performance
on an exam, class attendance, students’ lack of preparation for class
or lack of questions)?
- Have any students come to office hours to talk about their academic performance?
Do any of these students need feedback or support as you pass back exams or
papers? Are kudos called for?
- Have students approached you about personal matters — their own or
a family member’s illness, a friend who recently attempted suicide,
family problems, and so forth? Do you need to check on how they are doing
and see if they need to talk with you more?
- Have you ever gotten to class early and sat in the last row to talk with
the students who are always the furthest away during class ses-sions? Entering
their physical world is interesting and is often gratifying to them.
- Do you begin the class period with course content or other matters? Do you need to ask the students as a whole how the course is going? Are there ways you could establish a sense of common purpose and “togetherness” in the course (i.e., a sense of community)?
Teach Within the Rhythms of the Semester (Duffy & Jones,
1995)
Semesters may be likened to military campaigns. “At the beginning …morale
is high, after a while it begins to flag, and in the end it is gone” (Tzu,
2003, p. 65). Semesters also are like a musical composition. They have different
rhythms and energy throughout their course. If you can stay attuned to a semester’s
rhythms, you can conduct your teaching accordingly. For example:
• If you are tired, then your students probably are as well. Is there something you can do that day that is especially fun or requires less in-tellective work, what Duffy and Jones (1995) call “beating the doldrums” (p. 159)?
• If the weather is gorgeous, especially when that is unusual (e.g., spring semester in Wisconsin, when it sometimes snows until the last week of the semester), then respond to a beautiful day. Call class off early (remember, content after a certain point may be the biggest road block to good teaching), hold class outside, bring each student a flower, open the classroom windows wide (assuming you have them and they can be opened!), or acknowledge the day in some other way.
• Attend to how you have designed your course. Is the most important material presented when students are at their lowest ebb? Move something around or make a note that something has to be changed for the next semester.
• Is this the right day to seek the student feedback (e.g., one-minute paper) you had planned? If students are anxious about an upcoming exam, perhaps you should talk about the exam and their preparation instead, saving something you had planned for another day.
The Details Are Important
For all of the emphasis on content, presence, emotion, seizing the moment, and
the like, good teaching also lies in the details. These minu-tia are best attended
to directly before class. Consider and pay attention to the following:
• Do not forget to take fluids with you to ease a dry throat while speaking. • Remember your flash drive, extra batteries, and other technological supports.
• Always bring extra copies of the course syllabus, assignment descriptions, and other handouts. It is much easier to give one to a student than to remember to email them one later or to bring it to the next class.
• Bring a small pad of lined paper to every class. Consider it a “real-time list” on which you keep track of 1) things to bring students (e.g., journal articles, books); 2) students who came for office hours or spoke about needing a tutor, wanting to do better in the course, or missing an exam; and 3) a host of other requests and information about and from students. Reviewing this real-time list before class allows you to talk with students about their studies, week, semester, and lives. Even in a large class of hundreds of students, teachers can achieve a more personal relationship and can better care for their students.
• Get to class early to check that your technology is working and to talk with the students.
Conclusion
Preparation for class sessions is a habit worth cultivating. We hope it serves
you as well as it has served us.
References and Recommended Readings
Carroll, M. (2004). Awake at work: Facing the challenges of life on the job.
Boston: Shambhala.
Cleary, T. (Translator). (1989). Zen lessons: The art of leadership. Boston:
Shambhala.
Cleary, T. (Translator). (1999). Code of the Samurai: A modern translation of
the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke. Boston: Tuttle Publishing.
Duffy, D. K., & Jones, J. W. (1995). Teaching within the rhythms of the
semester. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Gleitman, H. (1984). Introductory psychology. American
Psychologist, 39, 429–437.
Prégent, R. (1994). Charting your course: How to prepare to
teach more effectively. Madison, WI: Magna Publications.
Tzu, S. (2003). The art of war. San Francisco: Long River Press.
Barry Perlman is a Rosebush and University Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh. He has taught for 31 years and has edited Teaching Tips for 13. He is enthralled by that which teachers do often and regularly that receives little research or narra-tive attention in the literature.
Lee I. McCann is a Rosebush and University Professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he has taught for 40 years. He is the
coauthor of Recruiting Good College Faculty: Practical Advice for a Successful
Search (1996, Anker) and coeditor of Lessons Learned: Practical Advice
for the Teaching of Psychology (1999, Association for Psychological Science),
Lessons Learned: Practical Advice for the Teaching of Psychology. Vol. 2
(2004, Association for Psychological Science), Voices of Experience: Memorable
Talks from the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (2005,
Association for Psychological Science), and the Teaching Tips column in the
APS Observer.
