Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55878
Your Turn The Business Professor as EMCEE The dean of my school recently asked me what I considered the hallmarks of outstanding instructional leader- ship. Since I've spent 30 years in front of college classrooms, I had no difficulty thinking of some boilerplate-type responses. But weeks later, the question lingered. What is the essence of a great instructor? Clearly, students have the right to assume that, at a minimum, profes- sors will be prepared and skilled at communicating. But what can fuel a lifelong desire to continuously improve the classroom experience? I believe that a professor who demonstrates instructional leadership harmoniously melds five roles— expert, maestro, cheerleader, experi- menter, and empathizer—EMCEE for short. Passionate, student- centered professors take on each of these five key roles. Expert: Instructors should be experts in their subject matter and exhibit humility surrounding that expertise. Expertise plus humility attracts stu- dent inquiry and curiosity. Humility looks for the best in each student's comments. Humble professors acknowledge when a student has asked a great question—and admit it when they don't know the answer. Instructors should be expert lis- teners, paying attention to what's being said without being biased by what they want to hear or who is speaking. By listening carefully, a pro- fessor can tell if a student has made the appropriate learning connections or if an important learning building block is missing. Finally, especially in discussion- 62 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2010 oriented courses, instructors should be knowledgeable about their stu- dents' backgrounds. At the Uni- versity of Virginia's Darden School, professors receive biographical infor- mation for everyone in their classes, which enables them to link debates and examples to contexts that are familiar to students. For instance, if professors know that some of their students have expertise in China, the not-for-profit sector, retail business, or military leadership, they can tap into that knowledge for richer class- room discussions. Maestro: Like orchestra conduc- tors, classroom maestros are more than facilitators; they know the entire score. They know how a topic should be paced as it unfolds, what the best transition points are, and when a particularly difficult topic will require a slower approach. They know when students should perform solo, in pairs, or in teams. And, just as an orchestra conductor knows when to bring in the brass section to complement the woodwinds, a classroom maestro knows when to embellish a learning point with a current events story, a research insight, or a dissenting view. An orchestra conductor is a mas- ter at coordinating many disparate parts, and a classroom maestro knows how and when students' courses interconnect. At Darden, professors in the accounting course frequently collaborate with col- leagues in other required courses— such as quantitative analysis or communications—to use parallel or even identical cases. Also, we help students coordinate their course- by Mark Haskins work with their job searches. For instance, when students need to study a corporate annual report for their accounting classes, at a time when they are interviewing for jobs, we have allowed them to choose an annual report based on the compa- nies they are pursuing. Maestros also know when they should improvise. For instance, in an accounting class, a professor might ask students to role-play in an impromptu budget negotiation; in a marketing course, he might pause to have students brainstorm a tagline for a new product introduction. One of my former organizational behav- ior colleagues improvised brilliantly when a student decided that a case study could be resolved best when an employee was fired. The professor immediately dismissed—or fired—the student. The next day, the professor asked the student what the dismissal felt like, thus adding an important human dimension to a frequent workplace occurrence. Cheerleader: Everyone learns best in a positive, supportive environment. Whether professors are moderating class discussions, meeting with stu- dents after class, or grading papers and exams, they must patiently and vocally support students' efforts to learn. One quick way to offer encour- agement is to send affirming e-mails to students who offered particularly poignant insights during a class. Another way is to start class by asking a student to summarize an important point she made in a previ- ous session. In addition, it's impor- tant to write words of praise on an exam, paper, or case analysis. A student's flagging confidence often can be bolstered in an office meeting. If individuals are strug-