John D. Cressler
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.
—Archimedes
Some thoughts on what it takes to be a great teacher.
So, here’s the deal. Let’s assume that you are presently a graduate student. Doesn’t matter how far along you are. Maybe you are desperately holding on by the skin of your teeth to just survive that first year of grad school, and you still proudly sport that deer-in-the-headlights look 24/7. No worries. Or perhaps you are nearing the glorious checkered flag, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, with that nice warm feeling of “I’m about to get my Ph.D., and I know a heck of a lot more than my professor ever will.” Even better. Heck, maybe you’re still thinking about whether going to grad school makes sense for you as a career path. Not a problem.
Let’s be optimistic and also assume for simplicity that you have jumped into the grad school fray for all the right reasons. You have put serious bucks on the back burner (surely, you already appreciate that there are much easier ways to make a living!). I’m thinking, instead, about how you revel in the thrill of discovery, the intense pleasure you get from being a key cog in a team of really bright folks working on exceptionally challenging problems. The passion you have for the many joys of learning to bring your creativity to bear, of inventing, innovating, thinking new thoughts, learning new things. I’m thinking about the excitement you experience when you help develop new technologies that will change our planet and humankind for the better. You want to make a difference. You are in it for the love of the game. Right? Fantastic!
Assuming all this to be true, and that your graduate experience is off to a stellar start, you will still need two essential skills before you launch that illustrious career, your life after grad school that you have been dreaming of. Wait, what? There is more to learn?! Oops, sorry to break the news. Yep, a sad fact. There is more you will need to learn regardless of whether you choose to be a professor at the end of the day to help shepherd the next generation of students. Or if you decide to practice what you have learned at an industrial or government R&D lab so that you can rub elbows with the big boys and girls. Even if you opt to just manage folks doing R&D. Or if you decide on a whim to chuck it all and start your own company with a clever idea you came up with in the dead of the night. Heck, even if you decide to punt engineering and science altogether and take up professional skydiving. Or sword fighting. Or coal walking.
However, it turns out that at the end of the day, you will still require two essential skills for long-term career success. Skills, which, sadly, they do not have classes for in grad school. Things they never tell you about. Things hidden from your view. Curious what those two essential skills are? OK, here goes: 1) you must be able to teach (this issue’s topic), and 2) you must be able to mentor (stay tuned!). And you will need to be able to do them both very well. Very, very well.
Skeptical? You shouldn’t be. Think of teaching in its broadest possible context. Teaching is far more than just a classroom experience, an “I lecture, you listen” sort of thing. I am talking about the educational enterprise in its full glory. Helping folks learn new things. Introducing folks to new worlds. Stretching minds. Changing the way people think, the way they see the world. Just who would you teach? Well, future students, obviously. But if you don’t opt for an academic career, there are plenty of others you will need to teach. Your colleagues; your partners in crime (so to speak); the gray hair, blue suits that sponsor your R&D; your underlings. Heck, even your kids, when that time comes.
Stop and consider for a moment. You will soon have a major role to play as one of the educated elite. The best and the brightest our world has to offer. As Archimedes famously said regarding his newfound lever, you have been given a place stand—now go move the Earth! This is not optional. This is a responsibility you now own, like it or not. You must teach. And you must do it very, very well.
Good, now I have your attention. Want to know how to be very, very good at teaching? Yeah you do! I’ll share with you my personal credo for effective teaching. So, what’s a “credo?” Literally, what I believe to be true. Things that I have learned over my career that work and work well. The tools of the teaching trade, if you will. The black arts of the field. The undiscovered country. The secrets no one ever seems to want to tell you. Think of this as a primer for teaching success. I am a professor, so my credo is aimed at students, but you’ll get the idea. The secret rules of the teaching game are very general, useful in many, many contexts: academic, industrial, government labs, start-ups. Families, even.
Admittedly, I am going to share my own personal beliefs on the subject. As a budding engineer or scientist, you should probably stop right now and examine my credentials, the justification for the bold claims I am about stake in your sand. Suffice it to say, you can trust me. Really! I will share what has worked well for me over my 31-year academic career. I’ll spill the beans. I’ll deliver the goods. Pay attention, this is important!
So … here goes. Drumroll please … see Figure 1: the essentials of effective teaching.
Figure 1. The essentials of effective teaching.
Go ahead, try these on for size. Read through the list slowly. Savor each one. Check their heft in your hand. Roll ‘em around in your mouth a time or two. Ponder them. Extract some meaning. Disagree as you’d like. A few supplementary comments are in order. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness riff. Well, not really! Bear with me.
It has always been my experience that being excited and passionate and animated about your material, whether semiconductor physics or turf farming, is the underlying secret to success in teaching. The granite. Be contagious in your enthusiasm, and it will spread like a brush fire among your students. And if you are not enthusiastic about your subject, you likely chose the wrong field. There are remarkable facets to be found in all subjects, of all disciplines, at all levels. Drill deep, think late into the night. Read the history of the field and especially the wacky personalities that dreamed it all up. Next is a major whiff for most teachers. You must remember that this is all about your students. Heck, they pay your salary. Sort of. Students are the be-all and end-all of the teaching game. Inspire them. Know their names, know who they are, what makes them tick. Show them that you care. Let them know you and what makes you tick, the things you value, your successes and failures, what you do in your spare time. Trust me, they are interested. Be friendly and approachable. Be nice, say hi. Smile. Be informal in all that transpires in your classroom and out. But—be very organized. Controversy alert: ditch the PowerPoint “lectures.” Students hate them. Stale as day-old toast. And there is a high risk that they will make your love of teaching wither on the vine. Go back to the whiteboard (grr—I miss my blackboards!), walk around the room. And forget virtual lectures and Zoom. Yuck! Students hate that too. Live on the edge. Worry less about how much material you cover and more about how well you cover it. Ask your students lots of questions, tons of questions. Once they see what you are all about, their questions will naturally flow, and it will become a busy two-way street. Heck, students are the most curious animals on the planet! Avoid the temptation to be “easy” as a lame attempt to garner student affection. Never works. And you do them a grave disservice by insulting their ability to work hard for something of great value. No pain, no gain. Period. Still, be fair. Always. And for goodness’ sake, be willing, ready, and able to admit it when you make a mistake. Listen to students’ candid opinions of your teaching, and take them to heart. Students don’t lie. Well, at least if they respect you, they won’t. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard professors gripe about the unfairness of their teaching evaluations. Something along the lines of “this is a tough course, so of course they trashed me.” Nope. Don’t believe it. I have consistently received the exact same evaluation marks (warning: no-time-for-modesty alert), which are mighty darn high, in a tough core course with an average grade point average (GPA) of 2.3 and in a “boutique” elective course with an average GPA of 3.5. For many, many years. It can be done. Your mantra? Believe your students’ opinions of your teaching. One final shocker. Your students need good role models in their lives. People that not only teach them technical material but also offer life lessons, give advice, show they care, share their own personal stories and beliefs and life experiences. Does it take some personal vulnerability? You bet. Will students gobble it up and ask for more? Of course they will. Assuming you are a pinnacle of personal sincerity, integrity, and character. I use a collection of quotations [2] as a segue into this classroom “sharing” process at the end of each of my lectures. But there are many creative ways to mine this untapped gold. Encourage your students to self-reflect. They will be better for it, as will you, as will our ailing world.
This column owes a debt to the author’s ancient article [1] “On the Gentle Art of Teaching and Mentoring,” IEEE Potentials, 2011.
[1] J. D. Cressler, “Reflections on the gentle art of effective teaching and mentoring,” IEEE Potentials, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 23–26, Jul./Aug. 2011, doi: 10.1109/MPOT.2011.941570.
[2] J. D. Cressler, Reinventing Teenagers: The Gentle Art of Instilling Character in Our Young People. Philadelphia, PA, USA: Xlibris, 2004.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MED.2023.3296434
Date of current version: 15 September 2023