Faculty Voices - April 2024

Speakers: Susannah Gal. Allison Lange. Michael Mozill. Sean Coughlin. Dr. Cristina Cosma

Michael Mozill: Hi, and welcome to Wentworth. I'm Michael Mosel. I'm an associate professor in the School of Management in the Business management department. Um, if this is your first time teaching? Congratulations. This is you the beginning of a great ride and that my, my advice for you, if you're gonna do nothing is be yourself, be genuine. Um, the people you're teaching, uh, that this generation, um, looks for genuine, um, genuine people and authenticity and the best way to do that is being yourself. Don't be afraid to tell stories about yourself, especially if there's stories where you don't come out looking good. Um, you'll gain some empathy from them and you, and by being yourself and showing, um, a different side of you something they're not really expecting. Uh, there's a pretty good chance that they'll respond and they'll tell stories about themselves.

Allison Lange: My advice for a new faculty member at Wentworth when you're planning your classes is to really think about what our students respond to. Um I find our students to be very task oriented. They want to know what the task is, why they are doing it and that they will receive some sort of credit for it. So this has meant that I really focus on giving reading quizzes to kind of give them an opportunity to demonstrate. They've done a reading and give them a grade for it, give them a credit for the work that they've done. And I do find that really helps. So think about kind of what kind of task you can give them that um they see a meaningful result with. And I do find that is um more successful than more abstract um assignments.

Dr. Cristina Cosma: Uh general advice, try to avoid talking for a long time. Um Make your lecture 15 minutes or so and engage the students in conversation in discussion in analysis. Sometimes you can even start by asking questions first to see what they know how familiar they are with the subject and then complete that, that subject with uh your lecture. Uh Avoid this typical question. Do you have any questions? That's the worst question a professor can ask. Need to be precise. So what do you think that the crane does or what do you think that it's epsilon or uh what is this equation uh being used for? And try to give practical examples? Might be difficult in math but not impossible.

Susannah Gal: So what I would recommend to um a new adjunct faculty member is get to know the other people in your department um and get, you know, visit them, maybe talk to them, invite them for coffee. Um Get to know them and they can become a resource for you in multiple different ways. Um Resources for your class, resources for who else to meet, resources for what to do at the institution. Um And that allows you to feel more part of the Wentworth community and engage and hopefully enjoy your job more.

Michael Mozill: I think the best way to management conflict in the classroom is to pay attention because usually you can see it coming before it starts and if you see it coming, you can put an end to it and you can put an end to it without stopping a conversation. Something I find that works effectively is if I see two students or groups of students who are starting to come to some kind of conflict or it looks like it may, it may rise a little bit. I just, with a big smile on my face, say, do I need to get in between the two of you? And usually both students laugh, the other students laugh and it breaks the tension. So if you can see it coming, do something about it, um, it's much easier to stop conflicts when they're small before they grow into something big. When they go into something big, it's much more difficult. So pay attention to what's going on in the classroom.

Susannah Gal: Managing conflict is a tough thing. And so I guess it would depend on the conflict. Um and the um classroom, how big it is. Um What's the situation? Um And uh I think I would acknowledge the student's concern and then uh ask to postpone the discussion until, until um you have a chance to speak to them one on one. And I think it's important to acknowledge their concerns um especially in front of the class, but it's not helpful to derail the whole class for one or even a few students. Um use the time to settle things down, address the concern and then try and postpone it. Um the, the major discussion of it to another time you had a chance to react, relax and sort of think about how to respond. Um If it's between two students, it's also um a time to sort of um you know, work indicating if we want to be respectful um in our um interactions and accept that people may have differences of opinion. Um If it's between you and the students, then that's a different kind of thing. Um If you're gonna wanna think about that and and say, you'll, you'll think about their concerns and their aspect representing the conflict. Um And then hopefully have some time and, and engage other people to talk about how to manage it. You don't do this alone. We all have um challenges with conflict in the classroom. Um And so I think those are a couple of strategies um reach out to get other ideas of how to address it. Thanks.

Dr. Cristina Cosma: Managing conflict in the classroom. I didn't have that too often but I had one time, uh, three roommates, two of them being a little bit, uh, too aggressive to the third one, even if they were friends. So you need to step in and separate them and definitely you need to invite them later to a conversation and explain to them why, uh, a certain behavior is not acceptable in class. So, um, that's what I did and I, uh, they, they stopped, uh, fooling around during a class. I do find that, um, if you give students something to do in class they will not have time to have a bad behavior. So, experiential learning, uh, helps a lot, uh, in, uh, minimizing conflicts.

Sean Coughlin: Conflict. I just don't allow it in my classroom. Um, so if I ever see, like, beginning any place starting anywhere I hit it off in the past and, uh, but it is definitely not allowed in my classroom.

Allison Lange: I teach us history. So the kind of conflicts that I can have in the classroom is conflicting ideas over an interpretation of the past, over how we are experiencing the present, how those historical things might affect our present world. Um And so one of the things I really just encourage students to do is share their opinions, um, share why they have those opinions. And usually that is, is a pretty meaningful conversation. Um, that, that doesn't usually go too much, uh, become too much more of a conflict than that. I think it's really great to have conflicting opinions in the classroom because, um, then students get different perspectives, different ideas. Um, so I think that giving students the place to share them, uh, is a, is a really useful use of your time and energy in the classroom.

Allison Lange: When I'm dealing with student disruptions in the classroom, it's most often about students perhaps chatting with each other, not related to the class. Um And if I um kind of ask them to, to stop talking so that we can hear, you know, perhaps the presenter um talk, um I try to emphasize that it's a professional, professionality question. I want them to, you know, go into meetings in their future workplaces expecting to be quiet and here um What everyone else is trying to say, sometimes you will find that they do need to be redirected to, you know, what we're actually doing, they missed a page number or something at some point further back and that can be useful as well. Um Usually I find that, you know, a quick, please don't do that or something like that is all it takes. Um But if you do have a larger problem with than that, please do reach out to um administrators. Um The DE I office title nine administrators, et cetera.

Sean Coughlin: Again, students know that uh there is just no kind of disruption that's allowed in my classroom. So, you know, again, a any, any signs of that happening, I just hit it off right away. So, uh it's just not something that happens.

Dr. Cristina Cosma: Uh student disruption. I don't know if chewing tobacco and spitting is a disruption, but I experienced that years ago and I found it disgusting and I told to the student that either, um, they stop and, or I leave the, the classroom, uh, need to be firm, need to be precise, always refer to the safety uh and to the feelings of other students as well and, uh need to, to do something about it immediately. Uh Also it's good if, um, at the beginning of the class, when you present, uh the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, um, you set the, the limits and the expectations in terms of behavior.

Dr. Cristina Cosma: Unexpected assessment results. Um I prefer to talk with the students, one on one in my office and that's what I do. I take the initiative, email the students that have uh poor grades and invite them to my office to discuss their performance in class. Uh I try not to engage with large groups of students because then the result can become a little bit uncomfortable for you as a professor. So, um the keyword is one on one in your office um during the office hours or after class.

Susannah Gal: So yes, but that can be a tough pain for some students to take um unexpected, you know, poor results. Um And so I would start with, you know, maybe, you know, that this, you said, I know this was a difficult thing, uh test or excitement for many of you. Please read my feedback. Some people set up one on one office hours to try and um talk to each student. Um and another time um on an exam where many students didn't do well. I said I won't give you the answers. I won't change your papers back but you get to retake the test, take home and I'll split the answers, um the, the scores between the two. And it was still pretty amazing that many of the students didn't get 100% of the uh assignment when they could take it home. So, um and work on it. So I think it, it being reasonable listening to their concerns and encouraging them that they can um improve.

Michael Mozill: The best way to deal with unexpected assessment with student results is to prevent them from happening to begin with. The best way to do that is having very clear unambiguous instructions, written instructions in the syllabus and on bright space. The other thing is to hold students to a high standard and let them know that from the beginning, the Wentworth grading rubric can be your best friend here. The written description of sea level work is that students did what they were supposed to do, learn what they were supposed to learn, uh did what was expected of them that gets them ac not all my colleagues do that but um live by that. But I do so tell them up front that if they do what was they just check off the boxes, they're gonna get ac um they're gonna ask you what they have to do to get more and tell them they have to give you more, they have to give you insight, they have to show you that they've, they've learned more than just what the, what the initial instructions say you have to do. Um They do mediocre work, they get a mediocre grade, they want to get an, a, do great work. And if you do poor work, you're gonna get an F.

Allison Lange: One way that I try and ensure that students are prepared for the grades that they get is by honestly preparing them and offering plenty of opportunities in advance um, to, uh, to try and get the grade that they want to get. Um, I offer my students, I teach us history. So a lot of written work, um, the opportunity to show me any assignment, come to my office hours and chat about any assignment they have um, before they submit it. Um I offer significant feedback on rubric so they can see exactly where, um, they earned more points and where they earned not as many points. Um And I also offer a paragraph or so of information kind of additionally allowing them to say if you have questions about this grade, please come to my office hours. Um, and we can talk about it. Um, and usually for the most part, I, I don't have many students asking about that because I give them a significant amount of feedback. So that, that really helps.