Student Guide Corner

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...

The September 16, 2015, issue of The Wall Street Journal provided a wonderful essay by Jason Stevens titled �A Professor Who Put Teaching First.�   He writes about one of his professors (Peter W. Schramm of Ashland University) who recently died.   I found almost every word to be moving.  However, here are two sentences that were really wonderful:   �His office was always full of students wanting to tear off a bit of wisdom . . .  Schramm taught his students how to think and live well, how to be prudent and judge wisely, how to seek the just and the true.�  Words like those were what made me want to become a college teacher way back when I was a young person.   For me, kings and presidents could not have a more important and interesting life than Stevens describes. Reading this essay started me thinking.   Do students today still talk about their college teachers in such glowing terms?  In some ways, the description o...

I love being a teacher.   My decision to become a teacher was certainly one of the 2 or 3 best moves I have ever made in life.  As I journey through my 45 th year at this job, I only wish I could carry on for many more decades.   Looking back from such a long distance, it is easy to become reflective.   How would I change anything if I were to do it all again?   Perhaps this is a question we should all ponder earlier in our teaching careers.   In hindsight, I would probably adjust my vision a bit as to what I really want to accomplish with my students. I teach accounting.   I really enjoy teaching accounting.   I love the complex thinking that is necessary to understand and communicate the logic of its rules.   Accounting is like a complicated game where only about half of the rules are written down and you have to figure out the other rules on your own.   (If it were just about following spec...

BE DARING Over the years, I have met a lot of good students.   I have met far fewer great students.   Over the years, I have met a lot of good teachers.   I have met far fewer great teachers. Occasionally, students swing by my office to ask how they can become great college students.   They feel that they are good, probably even very good.   But, they know they are not great.   At least, they are not yet great. Occasionally, emails arrive from teachers around the country who ask about becoming great teachers.   They feel that they are good, probably even very good.   But they know they are not great.   At least, they are not yet great.   Of course, many people are interested in how to move from good to great.   Jim Collins has managed to earn a fortune by writing fascinating books about companies that make the transition.   I am more interested in people who succeed in...

As I have mentioned, I was involved with two panel discussions recently at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.    At one point, I was asked about the best teaching advice that I ever received.    Over a 44 year period, everyone hears a lot of good teaching advice (and some bad advice also).    Deciding which advice is best can be a challenge.    But, my mind always goes back to something my boss told me during the first year I was teaching.    The advice came at a time when I was struggling to figure out who I wanted to be as a teacher.    Those first few years are so important because they form the structure on which a teacher builds an entire career. One day the head of the business program was talking with me about teaching.    He looked at me and said �If you truly care about these students, you will push them as hard as you can to be great.�    There was a lot that I liked about ...

As most people know, I am a full-time faculty member here at the University of Richmond.   Over the summer, Dr. Ronald Crutcher was named the 10 th president of our University.   I was at one of the opening ceremonies for the fall semester this morning.   President Crutcher spoke and was kind enough to mention this teaching blog.  He said that he had been reading it since he was appointed to the position of president.   So, I want to wish President Crutcher a true welcome to the University of Richmond.   No matter how good you think we are, your job is to make us better.   Make it happen. **   I was at a conference in Chicago last week and was part of two panel presentations on teaching.   In such wide ranging discussions, I inevitably talk about quite a number of ways to become a better teacher over the course of the next academic year.   Not surprisingly, I tend to give a variety of answers...