Student Guide Corner

Recently, I was invited by Dr. Shannon Orr (Bowling Green State) and Dr. Staci Zavattaro (Central Florida) to participate in an upcoming book project (to be published in 2017 by Palgrave).  They are asking 100 college professors to respond to the question:   What do you wish you had learned back in graduate school? Isn�t that a fascinating idea for a book?   I must admit that I can hardly wait to read it myself and see what the other 99 have to say.  I am always in need of advice.   The question really breaks down to the ultimate life question:   If we had it all to do over with again, how would we do it differently?   That�s a question we should ponder now and then as we consider making changes in our present day life.  You can�t change the past but you do have some control over the present.  Thinking about the past might help us improve the future. I spent several days considering what my honest answer might be....

If you have read this blog for long, you know I began using the Socratic Method in my accounting classes way back in 1991.   I often get questions about why I started and how I use the Socratic Method.   I always tell people that it is hard to explain unless you are there to watch the process.    People simply don�t believe that you can teach complex accounting theory by firing hard ball questions at the students.   I was asked last fall to discuss the Socratic Method at a faculty forum here on campus and give a demonstration.   I wasn�t sure how well that would work.   But I talked for a while and then I, along with nine of my students, did a bit of a typical class using this approach.   It normally runs more smoothly in a real class environment but it worked fairly well in this artificial setting. In the presentation, I do put a focus on the book and the movie that forever changed how I taught my classes. If yo...

I am giving a speech on teaching tomorrow evening here at the University of Richmond.   I look forward to it with great anticipation.   There is a genuine thrill in talking with teachers about teaching.   It is a wonderful way to get the new semester off to a great start.   As always, I am a big believer in preparation � both my own preparation and that of the audience.   For this program to go well, everyone needs to spend some time and be ready.   To get that process started, I sent the 105 participants a message about an email that I had recently received.   I asked them to read the question that I had been sent as well as my response.   Then, I asked them to add one additional tip to my response.   What did I leave out?   What more should I have suggested?   What other idea should have I have given this young person? Okay, I have the same question for you.   Read the qu...

As I write this entry, I am in the middle of giving my second Financial Accounting test of the semester.   The students are sweating away at this very moment.   If you would like to receive a copy of the test just to see how another teacher asks questions, drop me an email at Jhoyle@richmond.edu . ** I was asked recently to give a presentation here at the University of Richmond to explain my long-time use of the Socratic Method.   There was clearly a lot of curiosity because faculty showed up from all across campus:   biology, chemistry, computer science, English, history, law, political science, and more.   I sense that our faculty members (or maybe just faculty in general) truly want to look at alternative ways of teaching in hopes of getting away from a lecture and memorize model in order to move more toward the development of critical thinking skills by the students.  Or, maybe they all just came for the free lunch. I had a marv...

    Invitation:   If you are attending the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association this summer in Chicago, I am participating in two separate panel presentations on teaching on Monday, August 10.  I would love to have you there as several of us chat about the challenges of becoming a better classroom teacher.  To me, that seems like a topic that could produce hours of fascinating conversation.   Grab me after the panel presentations conclude and we can continue the discussion.   ----- In almost every entry written over the years for this blog, I have addressed topics that I felt were of interest to all college teachers.   Struggles with student preparation, testing, class participation, and the like probably apply to everyone who enters a classroom each day to encourage and enlighten college students.   History teachers, English teachers, science teachers, accounting teachers and all the rest face simila...