Quality of Teachers and Motivation of Students

     Last night was the first class of the Fall 2012 semester, and it began with my Introduction to Technology for Educators course. Now aside from the obvious pitfall that the class meets for four hours straight on a Wednesday night, the class is quite entertaining, has already taught me quite a bit that I wouldn't have known, and has peaked my interest in the upcoming projects that are going to assigned. However, it is not solely the content of the course that has me under the assumption that this will be a class that is not only educational, but enjoyable. The content is coupled with the fact that I'm motivated to learn the new material, as well as the professor's own interest and enthusiasm for the course and its content. It is a sad thing to say that I cannot remember more than a handful of teachers during my high school years who would have honestly proclaimed that the content they were teaching was not only interesting to them, but that it was their passion in life. This seems to be a completely different scenario when an individual enter the classrooms of most college professors. These individuals, with few exceptions, present themselves from the first day of class as not only a professor who is eager to dispense their knowledge to those who are taking the class, but also as an individual who is still interested and learning about the subject themselves. These instructors manage to not only impart their knowledge to their students, but often times, in my experience, they are the most beneficial and enjoyable instructors.

Love what you teach!

     With the aforementioned I have set up three guidelines for what I believe to affect the classroom and saw in last night's class: enthusiasm of the instructor, quality of the course content, and motivation of the students to learn and succeed in the class. Since the quality of the course content is directly linked to the instructor's overall quality, I will couple it with the instructor's enthusiasm and rename it "quality of instructor." These two factors, quality of the instructor and the motivation of the students seem to be what directly influence the amount of learning in a classroom, the quality of learning that occurs, and how the students will feel about the course, the subject, and the teacher after the course has completed.

I've always liked "mind maps" and "flow charts..."

     As I began to touch upon in the first paragraph, it seems that the quality of the instructor is perhaps the most influential aspect in a course. Through personal experience, I can honestly say that I remember both the wonderful and horrible instructors I have had throughout most of my education. However, it is the instructors of the highest quality that I can still recall details from not only the course I took with them, but personal interactions, personality quirks, and other such intricate details. Those instructors who were not of the highest quality seem to all have faded into a single obscure classification of a "poor quality instructor." Instead of remembering what was conveyed in the course, I remember why I dislike the course, the professor, the subject, or any combination of the aforementioned. This is one of the main reasons that I found myself transferring colleges on a regular basis. My first experience in higher education was an architectural college where the instructors, in lieu of teaching appropriately, announced that "if the first three years [of the five year program] were not a review, then you have chosen the wrong major." Now, this is not something I let phase me as I have often been behind or left at a disadvantage in comparison to my classmates, but always found a way to catch up. However, after two semesters and an unreasonable amount of tuition later, I came to realize that this was not the school for me. I came to this decision, among other aspects, due to the low quality of instructors within building. For example, my Precalculus professor from the first semester became my Physics 101 professor the second semester. While he was not the greatest math instructor, I was also aware that I was not the best math student either, as I much preferred English and literature studies. However, the quality of his instruction did not improve. Instead, it appeared to deteriorate with the change in subject. The few times I attempted to approach him regarding a question to the content, I was always met with a response of "the information is all in your textbook." Combine this with English instructors who were content with calling mediocrity excellence, architectural history instructors who cared more about the quality of photos in the textbook, and drafting adjuncts who were more concerned with getting paid for their time away from their firm than educating and you have the formula for a terrible set of professors. Contrast this to the set of professors such as, but not limited to, Professor Kinsella, Professor Lenard, and Professor Hussong, and it is similar to comparing rotten meat to a steak from a five-star restaurant.

A daily exercise for the nervous Education student...

     However, it is not the sole responsibility of the instructor to ensure that learning occurs. There have been too many times to recount for each individually that I have overheard a conversation or been part of a conversation in which a student slandered an instructor who had done nothing wrong. Often times these days one can overhear conversations on a campus where students will often say: "Oh man, take X professor because you literally do nothing all semester," or "Oh you should drop that course. Professor Y isn't satisfied with anything and will just fail you on purpose." (For more comical extremes, one can simply reference Rate My Professors) Now this mindset, while absolutely unreasonable for anyone who craves education, can seemingly be justified by a student who is attending K-12. This is a scenario in which children are required to attend school with a variety of subjects. Some subjects are going to be their strengths and some are going to be obvious weaknesses. However, it would seemingly make sense to want to be well-rounded initially and, if possible, specialize by the last two years of your high school years. However, the aforementioned are most often heard on a college campus, which is seemingly odd. One would wonder why anyone would want to pay so much money to slack off through a set of classes and obtain nothing. It seems, at least to me, that the answer is that the students who enter college are often not mature enough or have the appropriate mindset to make the decisions that are required in college. The young lady who sat next to me today told me a story that relates to this topic quite well. She had mentioned during our discussion that she had taken a class with a professor early in her college career that she could not stand, but had unknowingly signed up for a class with him some years later and loved the class. She attributed this perhaps to her desire to succeed and graduate as opposed to her original attitude during her first few classes in college. This can often be seen on campus with students who either believe that they are going to be able to slack off the same way they did in high school or, in a sad but extreme case, those students who believe that they are going to attend a college, play a sport, party, and eventually get a professional athletic career.

I do sometimes wonder how to make studying less boring...

     To conclude this overwhelmingly and unintentionally long post, last night's class again proved that the appropriate combination of a high quality instructor - one who is interested in the subject, excited about the subject, and eager to share that knowledge - and motivated students - those who are motivated to succeed and obtain skills to succeed in their future - results in a class that is optimal for both the students and the instructor. I thoroughly look forward to the skills that I will develop in this class and how they will aide me in engaging students in a subject that has become classified as nothing short of "dull."