Dr. Norm Stafford - Thoughts on Teaching in the MBA Program

Few, if any, of our instructors have taught as many courses in as many subject matter areas as Dr. Norm Stafford (pictured left). Over the course of six years with Centenary College, Dr. Stafford has taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels in both the face-to-face and online formats. His teaching versatility is a byproduct of his impressive educational background (an MBA and two doctorates!) and workplace credentials.

He describes his occupational experience this way: "In 2002 I 'retired' after a long career in the fast paced telecommunications industry. I held a number of executive level Sales and Marketing positions with various well known domestic and international telecommunication companies. My playground was literally the world, and I enjoyed doing business with the many different cultures."

He put the word retired in quotes because he subsequently opened a consulting practice and started teaching with Centenary. As you will garner from the article linked below, teaching, to Dr. Stafford, is an opportunity to give back and help students grow vocationally. As such, Dr. Stafford is a proponent of academic rigor, attention to detail, and having pride in your final work product. So say the students.

Dr. Stafford was kind enough to put together and share his thoughts on teaching in the MBA program. Teaching MBA students, those who will be our future business leaders, is a stewardship and Dr. Stafford's piece demonstrates the weight and joy of that opportunity.

Click here to read "Some Thoughts on Teaching in the MBA Program" by Dr. Norm Stafford.

How do you provide feedback for online submissions?

Providing feedback is straightforward when you have a student's paper in hand -- (1) click pen and (2) begin writing (or scrawling, for us left-handers). For online classes it is not quite this simple to provide in-text feedback but it certainly can, and should, be done. I prefer to use the "comments" feature of Word. I open the student submission and immediately save it as a new file. As I read the paper I can highlight specific portions of text and add a comment bubble on the right hand margin of the page. The text becomes highlighted and a line is drawn from the text to the bubble.

In the bubbles I can provide positive reinforcement ("this is a well-supported assertion"), comment on format ("you need to provide a citation for these facts"), ask questions ("if you had to make the opposing point, how would you do it?"), provide constructive criticism ("this paragraph might have worked better under the prior section"), or provide food for thought ("if you are interested in learning more about eminent domain, I suggest your read the Kelo case").

These are the steps for inserting a comment (the screencast provides a quick demonstration of how to do it, as well):

1. Highlight text on which you wish to comment

2. Click "Insert" on the top tool bar

3. Select "Comment" and a bubble will appear to the right of the text

4. Type your comments in the bubble.

Be sure that students have Word set to "View Markup" so that they can view the comments you provide.

As demonstrated in the screencast, I also like to copy and paste the rubric on the final page of the student's submission. This creates a unified, triple-play of feedback: specific comments in the text of the paper, numerical assessment through the rubric, and general comments at the end. This is just one system. Please feel free to let us know the system that you use.

I know that the screencast is a bit small. If you want to view it in a larger format (Windows Media), click here.

Taking off the "Teacher Mask"

Before writing his acclaimed memoir Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (who passed away last month) was a high school English teacher in Manhattan.

One of his former students recently wrote an essay in tribute to McCourt which included this praise:

"Frank McCourt was a wonderful teacher. He wanted us to take our blinders off, reflect on the world broadly, get off the professional treadmill, and note the things around us. He was able to touch us so effectively, I suspect, because, just as he sought to escape the suffocating provincialism of Limerick, he knew many of us were seeking to escape the parochialism of our own families' lives." (Kenneth R. Weinstein, The Master of Class 205, printed in The Weekly Standard, August 3, 2009).

That observation from a past student neatly folds into McCourt's own self assessment. In a 2007 address to Syracuse University's graduating class, McCourt credited his teaching success on two factors: (1) extirpating his pomposity, and (2) learning about himself. He put it this way:

"I had to take off the teacher mask, which so many of us put on at the beginning; the mask that says: 'Well, I'm the teacher and I know it all. You sit there and I'll tell you.'"

I wonder if we, as adjuncts, wear more or fewer "masks" than our full-time counterparts. I think some of our masks are borne not out of pomposity but out of insecurity. It takes a certain confidence to take the risks that student-centered teaching requires, yes? Isn't the theory rooted in heavy reliance on others (the students) for a successful class?

In any event, the article and the commencement address both are worth a read. Even though McCourt taught high school, I think there are ideas that transfer to the college setting.