1 Fundamental elements in

teaching
ja m e s g . s . c l aw s o n

Students in the back row of a class in Japan are reading the newspaper
while the instructor up front drones on about his subject. Across the
Pacific at one of the world’s most renowned universities, a physics pro-
fessor spends his entire time talking to the chalkboard while writing for-
mulae. Three thousand miles away in England, another professor reads
to his students from the textbook for most of the hour. In South Africa,
a college professor cannot get the overhead projector to work and
spends fifteen minutes of a sixty-minute class wrestling with his audio-
visual aids. At a high-level executive program in Germany, the room is
filled with round tables and medieval columns so that participants can-
not speak to each other. At a New Jersey corporate training facility, the
participants file in, weary to have to sit through another mind-numbing
experience – as the renovation crew on the floor above begins its drilling
and hammering. And at a meeting of the Southeastern United States-
Japan Society, the former chairman of Nissan Motors declares that the
reason more Japanese firms don’t build plants in the United States is
that they can’t find candidates who are well-educated enough.

These situations demonstrate organizations’ worldwide tendency to

squander prime learning opportunities. Universities, consulting firms,
and corporate training departments all too often subject their students,
clients, and participants to poor teaching technique and poor learning
experiences that undermine their very purposes. This phenomenon is a
global tragedy, a tragedy of opportunity that turns aspiring students off
to a variety of disciplines, and more than that, to learning in general.
The costs to students, whose investment in education and potential
for future accomplishment are compromised, are significant. The costs
to business and the economy – witness the former Nissan executive’s
comment – can be huge. All too often, bright, energetic students feel
discouraged and dissuaded from pursuing further studies by the stul-
tifying nature of many learning environments. Often that is because

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 13

Institutional
Culture
Program
Culture
Setting E
L INRA GN

Knowledge
Students Skills
a
V lues
Faculty Persistence
Applicability

Materials
Methodology

Figure 1.1 Fundamental elements in teaching

teachers have learned to focus on their subject matter at the expense

of devoting attention to the learners.
In many cases, the fault lies with instructors – they get bogged down
in their subject matter and ignore their students or they mindlessly
perpetuate the instructional methods that their teachers used. We often
talk and write about how effective this or that teacher’s style was and
remember the teachers who taught us well. But effective teaching –
teaching that results in long-term, usable learning – is a function of
much more than just a teacher’s attributes.
If we take a systems view of teaching for a moment, we see quickly
that there are at least seven elements that contribute to learning:
institutional culture, program culture, students, teacher, pedagogical
approach, materials, and facilities. Each element in Figure 1.1 links
with the others. The students are in the physical facilities. The mate-
rials interact with the teaching methodology. The institutional culture
affects how the instructor behaves. And so on. All those elements are
closely linked. The sum of their collective effects determines the quality
of learning that results.
Harmony among those elements facilitates learning. If one or more
elements contradict one or more of the other elements, learning will be
diminished. All seven elements will probably not be perfectly aligned
in any one teaching situation, yet an awareness of how each interacts
with others helps instructors plan for and improve their alignment
and hence the learning. This seven-element framework provides the

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 14 Teaching Management

conceptual spine of this chapter and previews much of what will be

developed in the book. Consider each element separately.

Institutional culture
Every instructor operates within an institutional culture. Every school
and virtually every business has written and oral histories, rich in their
ability to convey an institution’s established norms and attitudes. The
reputation that a school or a corporate training department has and the
view it has of itself influence the way members of its community func-
tion. For example, an institution with a reputation of honesty among its
students may expect the faculty to set relatively few controls on cheat-
ing and to develop and support an honor system; a school steeped in
empirical research expects its faculty to behave in ways consistent with
that tradition, emphasizing research and deemphasizing the student
experience; a training department within a practically oriented orga-
nization will expect its members to teach and learn principles that
students immediately apply. These historical realities shape and often
define an institution.
All organizations also develop subcultures; what constitutes an
acceptable mode of instruction can vary from department to depart-
ment. The challenge for instructors, experienced as well as novice, is to
understand the historical culture in which they are teaching and make
adjustments to match that context. One way of assessing an institu-
tion’s culture is to examine its emphasis on teaching versus research.
Most universities focus heavily on the research end of the scale shown
in Figure 1.2, while most businesses focus on the teaching/application
end of the scale. Consulting firms often subscribe to a mixed model
that tries to balance research with teaching process. We believe a blend
is possible in all three settings.
The cultural focus of an institution along this teaching-research con-
tinuum will affect how its instructors behave. Those that emphasize
teaching will likely attract and develop teachers with good classroom
skills. Those that emphasize research will probably have teachers with
less effective classroom skills. Those that take a middle road will build
a reputation for mixed quality in the classroom setting. Students, of
course, usually prefer the classroom focus; their instructor’s published
output means little to them. Yet we must remember that the univer-
sity scholar’s audience is a broad one and does not end at the door
to the classroom. Likewise, the consultant is always looking for new
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 Fundamental elements in teaching 15

High
a
T rget oZ ne:
Most
n
U iversities High Impact
Teaching

o
C nsulting
Firms
R SEAHCR
EMPIRILAC E

Corporate
Training

o
L w

o
L w E
T IHCA GN PRE
CO SS High

Figure 1.2 Balancing teaching and research focus

insights, models, methods, and solutions to offer existing and prospec-

tive clients. Corporate trainers too must understand and synthesize
effective business practices so as to enhance their company’s talent.
Instructors’ promotions and salary levels are usually good indicators
of an institution’s culture. Other indicators of an institution’s teaching
subculture include how classes have been taught in the past, how many
students are in the majority of classes, who teaches those classes, how
often and in what forums the instructors engage in discussions of teach-
ing activity, the level of support the institution offers for teaching activ-
ities (comfortable, up-to-date classroom space, audiovisual support,
and general attitude toward innovative teaching techniques). Each of
those indicators provides a view of what is valued in the institution’s
culture.
As a springboard for reflection, you might simply rate your present
organization on the grid in Figure 1.2 and then check with your col-
leagues to see if they share a similar view. Talk about what indicators
informed your assessment. Then note the kinds of indicators you’ve
seen at other institutions or that you might expect to see at organiza-
tions representing both ends of the spectrum.

Institutional culture
An individual department’s culture may vary significantly from the rest
of the organization. The university, for instance, may have a lecture-
dominated culture while the graduate school of business may have a
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 16 Teaching Management

case-oriented culture. Such differences are important to note because

they can tell you something about how the larger organization, such as
the university, may view members of the subunit or college in question.
If, for instance, you are a faculty member of a particular program (e.g.,
MBA) in a particular college that balances its criteria for excellence
(teaching, research, administrative service, etc.) differently from the
rest of the university, you may have greater uncertainty about ratifica-
tion of promotion recommendations. Similarly, a manufacturing com-
pany focused on ever-shorter cycle times may be unsympathetic to a
corporate training staff’s program design time request. Such disparities
should be acknowledged, discussed, and reconciled before investments
of time and money have been made and before expectations have taken
root.
The size of the subunit and its number of instructors surely affect the
nature of its subculture. Smaller subunits may tend to have a stronger
esprit de corps than larger ones. And a subunit’s demographics, years
in residence, and prior work experience all influence its culture.
Here is a series of questions that may help you begin to assess your
unit’s distinctive subculture:
1. What do the unit’s instructors value?
2. How does this compare with the values of the larger organization?
3. Does the unit’s preferred pedagogical approach sit at odds with the
tendencies and desires of the larger institution?
4. Do the instructors tend to be promoted?
5. Are the unit’s instructors included on important committees and
task forces of the larger organization?
6. Are instructors seen as mavericks or part of the organization’s main-
stream?
7. What is a normal teaching load for an instructor?
8. What are the current and desired relationships between students
and instructors?
Cultural alignment, or at least blended fit, is not a trivial issue for
both learning outcomes and instructor careers. Consider, for exam-
ple, that in the late 1980s, deep, protracted, and severe differences
between the organizational behavior department within Yale’s School
of Public Management and the rest of the faculty and administration
of the school led to the unprecedented dismissal of that department’s
untenured faculty and the canceling of the classes taught by its tenured
faculty. Similarly, the sociology department at Washington University

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 17

was disbanded in the 1990s because of differences with the rest of the
school. We have heard of corporate training departments being closed,
and all educational programs outsourced because of a need for a better,
more effective curriculum.

Students
Learning begins and ends with the students. The characteristics they
bring to the classroom affect what they learn and how they learn.
People have different learning styles, different educational and profes-
sional backgrounds, and different interests, each of which will shape
their learning. Students’ levels of education should influence your selec-
tion of instructional materials. Varying levels of student experience
and maturity call for different methods of instruction and evaluation.
Students’ general level of motivation and their motivation toward par-
ticular subjects may also influence the selection of teaching methods.
And the students’ motivation for study will be in part a reflection of
the other demands (social life and athletics, for instance) on their time,
energy, and curiosity.
You can heighten your students’ motivation to study by demonstrat-
ing the course’s relevance to their goals, interests, and daily problems.
Part of a course’s relevance depends on what other courses students
are taking and have taken. If the course fits into an integrated pro-
gram, you can manage that more carefully; if it is part of a wide range
of courses offered that they can select from, you may have to work
harder to point out how the course’s material fits with the rest of the
students’ experience.
Collectively, students are capable of creating a “student culture,”
depending on their number and diversity and the expectations that
they have as well as expectations placed on them. That student subcul-
ture may or may not support the teaching objectives of the institution.
Demonstrations at many universities during the late 1960s and early
1970s clearly showed the impact a student body can have on schools’
learning objectives and the operating goals of society.
Individually, students vary widely in how they learn. They have,
for instance, different cognitive styles. Students learn in different and
characteristic ways. Further, given their past experience with educa-
tional programs, they have come to expect certain patterns in their
educational encounters. A program that uses a markedly different

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 18 Teaching Management

pedagogical pattern, from the one individuals or groups of students

are used to, will put them off balance. The effective teacher will be
aware of this and will work to lessen the effect. For example, if you
wish to teach cases and your students’ past experience has been pre-
dominately lecture, the students are likely to be confused when you
first introduce cases to them. Similarly, some students used to learning
in one way – say, deductive sequential memorization – may have dif-
ficulty when suddenly confronted with an inductive, holistic creative
learning exercise or class.
Again, people have different learning styles. Neurolinguistic pro-
gramming (NLP) is a theory of psychological development that suggests
that people process information in one of three dominant ways: some
preferring to hear it, some preferring to see it, and some preferring to
experience it. Effective instructors will recognize that there are proba-
bly all three types in any one classroom and will work to include audio,
visual, and emotional components in their classes. Though humankind
is touted as being the most flexible of mammals, we as instructors
reduce the effectiveness of our teaching when we do not allow for
variations in our students’ cognitive styles.

Faculty
As this book emphasizes, your personal characteristics as an instructor
will clearly mold your students’ learning experience. Those character-
istics extend beyond your teaching style to include your mannerisms,
personality, values, techniques of punishment and praise, ability to
explain or to ask questions, and a host of other factors. Instructors
have habitual ways of behaving and communicating (just as students
do) that set a tone for the class that permeates its learning. Though I
don’t believe that instructors can be all things to all people, I do think
we can modify our habits and approaches so as to reach the broadest
range of learners. If we aren’t ready and able to do this, how can we
expect our students to alter their characteristic ways of thinking and
learning to accommodate our styles? The willingness of each to accom-
modate the other enhances the effectiveness of a learning situation.
Instructors learn how to teach. They watch their parents, their ele-
mentary, middle, and high school teachers, and their university pro-
fessors. Often they draw conclusions about what they don’t want to
do from these observations, but that is a very inefficient method of

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 19

learning since the array of options left to choose from remains enor-
mous. Instructors learning on the job how to teach may, by trial-and-
error, grow and develop into excellent teachers.
Yet experience alone will not ensure the development of a good
instructor. For some, as Samuel Coleridge pointed out, experience is
like the stern light on a passing ship, illuminating only the wake where
one has gone but offering no help in guiding one’s direction. It is use-
ful, therefore, to have some kind of teacher development activity. That
may be informal peer coaching, teaching meetings, or a more formal-
ized teacher development program.
I also believe that people teach and can only teach what they are.
Our attitudes toward our subject matter, toward our students, toward
learning, toward life are all communicated daily, moment by moment in
the classroom. An instructor who thinks he can separate who he is from
what he teaches is fooling himself, even in working with impersonal
subject matter. If you are interested in the students, it shows. If you
cannot wait to get out of the classroom, it shows. If you discount the
questions students ask, it shows. Students pick up on the little signals,
your voice tone, your facial expressions, the way you press students, the
attitude you bring to class. These and a myriad of other signals convey
our attitude to our subject and in turn influence the students’ attitude
and approach to it also. If we are enthusiastic, they are enthusiastic.
If we are dismissive of them, they may be dismissive of us and our
subject matter. In part, your attitude will determine whether or not
your students will get close enough to the subject matter to “catch the
bug.” It is in that sense that we teach what we are.

Materials
Teaching is in part an art. A significant portion of that art is the selection
of materials – lecture notes, chapters, books, magazines, reprints, cases,
films, documentaries, exercises, and so on. A course’s subject matter
is not always self-evident. Even the selection of subject matter for the
same course will often differ for different instructors. Introduction to
finance can start in a number of ways, develop in a number of ways,
and end in a number of ways.
The selection of materials for a course sets you on one of several
paths. By selecting certain items and not others, you begin to answer
certain questions: Which aspects of the subject will we emphasize?

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 20 Teaching Management

Which teaching and learning techniques will we favor? Which theories

are most useful? How fast will we go? What level of entry knowledge
will we assume? How much skill development will we incorporate?
And even (increasingly an issue) what language will we work in?
Many instructors leave the choice of materials up to the institution
or to an unknown textbook author. When an institution prescribes a
text, the assumption many new instructors may make is that “they,”
the wise old department seniors, have reviewed the alternatives and
selected the best one, the one that has the most truth and best fits the
need. If the text is a given, as it may be for some new instructors,
you have to determine if your personal style and approach to the field
is consistent with the text’s and decide whether or not to push for a
change. Accepting the book, you have to then sort out how to fit your
view of the field with the author’s and then how you can best present
that view to the students.
Some instructors voluntarily choose a text even when one is not pre-
scribed and in so doing, yield much of their creative opportunities to
the text’s author. Publishing companies demand teaching notes, over-
head slides, diagrams, discussion questions, charts, exam questions,
and even class outlines in their teaching manuals. It is easy to see how
that is helpful to instructors and helps them see how another might
teach some concepts, but I worry that some instructors become little
more than conduits through which the ideas of others flow. If you use
a text, remember that you can only teach what you are, and that you
should feel free to examine the teacher’s manual with a critical eye. Be
ready to develop your own exercises, your own overheads, your own
test items, your own way of evaluating.
The choices of how to teach and what materials to use extend over
the course of a term. If you use the same kind of material throughout
the program, students are likely to get bored with its predictability. Use
your freedom and creativity in selecting materials to vary the medium
through which the students engage your subject. Variety in materials
adds some spice and interest to a classroom. Experiment with the use
of films, tapes, props, cases, and other kinds of materials.

Methodology (pedagogical approach)

Instructors choose the method by which they teach. For some, it is
not an explicit choice, but rather one that they make matter-of-factly

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 21

by virtue of their training and coaching. You can choose from among
at least four main popular teaching methods: lecturing, case method,
discussion, and experiential exercises. The more you become familiar
with each of them and the ways in which they can be employed – either
over a course or in short bursts amidst each other within a class – the
better prepared you will be to respond to the learning needs of the
moment.
Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Lecturing to students
gives instructors the opportunity to convey important information rela-
tively quickly. The instructor is also able to maintain virtually complete
control over the teaching side of the learning equation. On the down
side, since lecturing is primarily a one-way communication pattern,
it is difficult to know how students are responding to your efforts.
Thoughtful lecturers wrestle with how well their messages are getting
across. Are my lectures relevant to the students’ interests and focus in
life? Are the lectures overly difficult? Are my students understanding
what I’m presenting?
The case method relies on learning by analysis and discussion of
descriptions of actual events involving the area of study. Case method
helps students develop their analytic and decision-making skills and to
learn to present their ideas articulately. It presents the opportunity to
teach many social skills pertinent to professional relationships while
simultaneously presenting the content of the subject area. On the other
hand, instructors of case method have less control over what happens
in the learning situation than the lecturer. Case method also requires
a certain level of experience among the students; novices in a field
are likely to be unable to participate in deep discussions of complex,
real situations. Perhaps the case method’s greatest drawback is that it is
less efficient in presenting what is already known to be a valid analysis,
principle, or concept. On the other hand, presenting is not equivalent
to learning. Yet even here, the case method gives the instructor impor-
tant insight into what the students know and therefore what can be
effectively (though perhaps much less efficiently) introduced to them.
Discussion or seminar techniques mix aspects of the lecture and case
methods. Here, students are involved in a dialogue with the instructor.
The instructor can maintain control over most of what happens and
can gain insight into the thinking and understanding of the students.
Discussions can become abstract and theoretical, though, and leave
students searching for links to the practical world.

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 22 Teaching Management

Experiential learning exercises are fun, popular, and creative. More-

over, these small simulations or parodies of real world circumstances
produce a personal experience that can either provide fodder for learn-
ing itself or cement learning more solidly and render it more available
to the students in the future. Experiential exercises can be difficult to
orchestrate, though, and can leave students wondering what the con-
nections to their real world applications might be.

Setting (facilities)
Learning occurs in physical settings and it is a function of the relation-
ship between the senses and the brain’s processing. If the five senses
are diverted from the subject matter by irrelevant sounds, sights, and
experiences (such as temperatures too hot or too cold or lighting too
bright or too dim), learning is inhibited. The classroom’s size, shape,
color, and accommodations can have a tremendous impact on learn-
ing. Students are almost always peripherally aware of the size of the
room, the comfort and condition of the furnishings, the temperature,
the lighting, the noise of the chalk, the squeak of the movable black-
boards, the echo off the bare walls, and even the dreariness or vibrancy
of the paint color.
The ideal learning setting is transparent. The ultimate, if unachiev-
able, objective is that the setting disappears from everyone’s attention
because it is so conducive to learning that instructor and students alike
can focus on the topic at hand and engage with it. If the instructor is
using different media, it should be in a seamless, noninterruptive way.
Tripping over cords, trying to figure out the sound system or the light-
ing, or scratching the chalkboard with poor-quality chalk filled with
rock pits, or any of hundreds of other distractions can divert students’
attention from the subject matter, can break the learning mood, and
may even erode students’ confidence in the instructor and his or her
material altogether.
Many instructors take the room, the arrangement of the chairs, the
positioning of the overhead and computer projector, even the room
assignment itself as a given. But these are all manageable teaching-
effectiveness variables, and the instructor desirous of improving his or
her skills will observe and manage these factors as well. Pay attention
to the setting. Look at all the features of the setting you’ll be using
to teach in. Go early to practice in the room. Pace around it, practice

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 23

your voice in it, view your writing and overheads from the back row.
Imagine the conversations that can occur in this setting. Can people
talk easily with each other or do they have to crane their necks to
observe and address other classmates? Where are you most likely to
make a fool of yourself? Are all of the steps the same height? (There
is nothing quite so embarrassing as holding forth in front of thirty to
ninety students in an intense instructional moment and then catching
your heel on a step and falling to the floor!) How do the lights work?
How does the audiovisual equipment work? How do the chalkboards
work (if electrically controlled)? Do you have room to spread out all of
your materials? What distractions are there? What will students think
of this room?
If you take the time and interest to check things out, you will likely
discover several little details that, corrected and managed, will make
your class go more smoothly. A case in point is the handing out of
papers. How many times have you seen an instructor divide a large
sheaf of papers in half, hand one batch to the left and one to the right
and then try to talk while some are passing papers, others are hold-
ing on to the stack trying to follow the instructor’s comments on the
handout, and others fidgeting nervously because they don’t have the
handout in front of them. Handouts are a common and often misman-
aged part of a classroom setting. A simple but powerful fix that takes
very little time was given me by my mentor and coach at Harvard,
Tony Athos. Simply count the number of chairs in your room from
one of the aisles and count out your handouts in advance of the class,
stacking them at 90-degree angles. Then, when the moment comes to
give the handouts, you take the top stack and give it to the first row,
the next stack to the second row, and so on. Further, if you begin with
the longer rows (usually in the back of amphitheater-style rooms), by
the time you have reached the front of the room and turned around to
refer to the handout, everyone in the room has one in front of them
and the place is quiet again.

Interrelatedness of the basic elements

These seven elements of a basic teaching situation are not independent
balls to juggle concurrently; rather, each is connected to and will affect
the other(s). If you change your teaching materials it may have an effect
on how well the room serves your learning purposes. If you admit a

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 24 Teaching Management

different kind of student, he or she may affect your choice of teaching

technique. If you teach in a different program, your style may affect
the students differently from how it did in your previous program. The
lines in Figure 1.1 portray these various relationships. It is important
to note that the elements and their connections form a whole that col-
lectively determines the quality of the learning output. The elements
are somewhat like chemical elements that can be combined to form a
compound. Some elements work better with one element than another.
Different mixes can be used to create new compounds. The chemist
must be careful how he mixes the elements lest he create something
dangerous. An appropriate mix will produce a compound that is both
stable and highly useful. Well planned and carefully executed, the com-
bination of particular elements in particular ways creates valuable and
powerful compounds.
The learning that comes out of the combination of these seven ele-
ments forms an eighth element in the model. Effective learning is learn-
ing that the students can use either in discussion or in practical affairs
throughout their lives. Effective learning occurs on at least three lev-
els – behavioral skills, knowledge, and values – and in a way that is
lasting. Effective learning is that which allows a student to draw on
it throughout her life to think more wisely, to behave more expertly,
and to choose more appropriately. Learning that is intellectually regur-
gitated for an exam and then promptly forgotten and not available
to the student is hardly effective and will be of minimal impact. In
fact, courses of this nature may even be counterproductive in that they
distance students from the thrill of education and effective learning.

Conclusion
Institutional culture. Program culture. Students. Teacher. Pedagogical
approach. Materials. Facilities. Effective teaching, teaching that results
in learning, is a function of at least those seven elements. As you prepare
to teach, develop your own teaching tools and skills, and then as you
begin to collect years of experience as a teacher, I encourage you to
consider each of these areas that influence the learning of your students
and manage them well. Most businesses talk about the importance of
the bottom line. In their case, it’s profits. Here, the bottom line is the
effectiveness of your students’ learning. Unfortunately, and unlike the
business world, that is not something that you can measure when they

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 Fundamental elements in teaching 25

leave your class, and you may not ever be able to get an inkling of how
much your students learned. But it is that learning result that counts,
not the quality of your teaching. If you understand how each of those
seven elements contributes to learning and are willing to manage them,
you will surely improve the quality of their learning. And if you can
improve the quality of their learning, you will have been a quality
teacher.

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https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617850.002