Excellence in teaching

Nick Forster is a Lecturer in the Graduate School of Management. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Best Unit in 1999. This award represents a joint effort by the Guild and the University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching.

"A lecture is a process whereby information is passed from the notebook of the lecturer to the notebook of the student, without having passed through the minds of either." (Thomas Huxley)

One of the consequences of being nominated for Teaching Awards at UWA is that you are asked to articulate what it is you actually do as a ‘lecturer’. If you’ve ever tried to do this, you’ll know it’s not an easy exercise! However, I realised some years ago that one useful learning exercise is to ask students what they think differentiates ‘good’ and ‘bad’ lecturers. Their responses to this question have been remarkably consistent over the last ten years. Good lecturers are described as ‘articulate’, ‘motivational’, ‘inspiring’ and exude a real passion for, and interest in, the subjects they teach. They are also seen to care about their students, are regularly available for consultations and usually have a good sense of humour. Bad lecturers are described as being ‘aloof’, ‘remote’, ‘patronising’, ‘never available’. They seem to talk - often at great length - at their students and, significantly, are seen to have little or no sense of humour.

What does this tell us? Simply that if you want to be an excellent teacher, you must have a passion for the subject(s) you teach, you have to really care about your students, you should never take yourself too seriously, and you have to work at learning the skills and competencies that excellent teachers possess. There is no getting away from this. I also support the view that good lecturers never lose sight of the fact that they too are lifelong students and, while I’ve been teaching Organisational Behaviour and Leadership (OBL) for ten years, I continueto try to develop and improve my teaching skills.

Over the last five years I’ve also introduced as many teaching styles and aids as possible into my teaching practice. OBL (which has a large component of psychology) has to appeal to all four major senses – touch, taste, feel and smell as well as the ‘rational’ conscious mind. While I do use overheads, I rarely use PowerPoint. This is an over rated and over used technology in University teaching. Instead, extensive use is made of contemporary case studies, video materials, group exercises, self-assessment exercises, class presentations, role-plays and guest speakers. I’ve also developed a number of original exercises and case studies for the courses I teach. I regularly experiment with new exercises, not only to keep classes fresh but also to maintain my own enthusiasm for the subjects I teach! I also spend six to eight weeks each year updating course handouts and developing new class materials.

Use is also made of cartoons, funny illustrative stories, analogies, anecdotes and contemporary examples from organisations in WA and further afield. I also employ humour whenever possible. This is one of the best teaching aids any lecturer can possess, or learn, because it seems to me to be self-evident that if people are enjoying themselves they will be learning a lot more than if they are being bored by a ‘serious’ lecturer. ‘Chalk and talk’ lecturing is kept to the absolute minimum, with only vignettes or short summaries to draw out the main themes of a session. I’m also a strong advocate of experiential learning and flexible delivery. The academic content and relaxed informality of the classes reflect this approach. As a result, I now see my role very muchas that of a facilitator or guide, rather than a traditional ‘lecturer’.

This approach won’t work for everyone because teaching is such a discipline contingent exercise. However, I have found that by embracing continuous learning in teaching practice, by taking some risks and experimenting with my own teaching practice has produced many beneficial outcomes. Collectively, these things work well for me and I’m sure that some of them can also work for you.