Based on a Needs Analysis conducted by CTL (IIMB) that included the inputs of faculty from colleges and universities across India, we are building a database of video clips that we hope will help teachers be more effective in the classroom. They are packed with practical, easy-to-implement tips, but brief--you can choose to watch just one each day or binge watch five at a stretch! Keep checking in for teaching tips on tap.
Challenges in Teaching – Analog Shots Solution in a Digital World
Rajalaxmi Kamath, Associate Professor, Public Policy
In an age where educators are facing Gen-Z students in the classroom, who are digital natives and have access to any information 24/7, and most of this information comes to them in discreet bite-sized inputs, Professor Kamath sees her role as an educator evolve in facilitating the students achieve an overall perspective. According to her, teaching has more to do with giving students an over-arching framework; where they can differentiate between information and knowledge.
But the issue facing teachers today is something deeper than information being gained through the internet or smartphone – it is around attention spans, concentration levels and an ability to slow down and reflect. To address this issue, Professor Kamath now takes a break before any key issue is discussed in class, and then she hands students an assignment with a very specific question on which they must ponder, reflect, and write. She then opens the class for discussion. This should not be seen as a random break – but a very precisely timed, structured one, where the students not only have to think or analyze an issue, but put pen to paper and write it down. Professor calls it her “analog shots in a digital world”. This slows the students and slows them and gets them all concentrating on one key issue. Further, the notes can help even the introverts rise and answer even when cold-called.
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On Teaching Pedagogies – Case Study Method and Other Methods
Rajalaxmi Kamath, Associate Professor, Public Policy
Professor Kamath sometimes feels there is too much being made of teaching pedagogies: case methods, non-case methods, flipped classrooms, and hybrid classes. Ultimately, these are all recipes. And a good cook can turn out a wonderful dish with a very ordinary recipe.
She sees the advantage of the case study methodology, especially in courses involving multiple instructors, cases can turn out to be useful pegs around which, both uniformity as well as some amount of teaching flexibility can be attained. Cases these days also come with teaching notes, which makes it very convenient for instructors. But to equate case teaching pedagogy or hybrid pedagogy with class participation or a gold standard of teaching is facile, according to her.
Professor believes it depends upon the context, the course, and the comfort of the instructors. She had had instructors who could hold a class spell-bound through just their hand-held lectures. But the difference from today was that these lectures were a distilled and a painstaking product of their years of thinking, and students had the perspicacity to see that. Students then did not chime in with the intention of having banal class discussions.
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Being a Good Teacher
Rajalaxmi Kamath, Associate Professor, Public Policy
Professor says that being a good teacher is the same as being a good doctor or a good lawyer. To see your profession as a vocation, as a craft that you are continuously honing and not just another ladder for career progression.
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When the Teacher Does Not Know the Answer
Professor U Dinesh Kumar, Decision Sciences
When a student asks a question and the teacher does not know the answer, what does he/she do? In this short video, Professor U Dinesh Kumar speaks from his experience and tells educators how to deal with such incidences.
Professor says educators must first accept that they may not know the answers to all questions asked in class. When they do get asked a question to which they don’t have an answer, they must frankly tell students that they will look it up and answer in the next session and that's okay to do.
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Desirable Level of Difficulty: Introduction - The 3 Principles
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
Professor Sourav Mukherji discusses the teacher’s role as a facilitator of learning. Even while teachers are helping students to learn, they should not make the learning process too easy or too difficult; bringing in the right balance is important.
He proceeds to talk about the ‘Desirable Level of Difficulty’ that should be an integral part of an effective learning process. In this introductory video, Professor talks about the 3 principles of the Desirable Level of Difficulty – (i) the Generation Effect or Allowing Struggles in Learning for more effective learning; (ii) Spacing to enable better retention; and (iii) Interleaving for understanding of concepts. He will be covering each of these principles in the Desirable Level of Difficulty series.
Desirable Level of Difficulty: The Generation Effect or Allowing Struggles in Learning
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
This short video is about the first principle in the Desirable Level of Difficulty video series - The Generation Effect or Allowing Struggles in Learning. Professor Sourav Mukherji talks about how learning becomes sustainable in the long run if struggles are allowed in the learning process. He mentions an experiment to elaborate on this. A group of students were given a problem to solve, where their teacher guided them with hints toward the solution. Another group of students were given the same problem to solve, but this time their teacher provided no hints and help. They were compelled to arrive at the solution by themselves. The first group of students could arrive at the right answer very quickly, while the second group struggled to arrive at the correct answer.
However, when the two groups were tested for their learning after a few months, it was the second group that showed a better understanding of concepts that they could successfully apply to solve problems. Professor’s take away from his case teaching experience is not to give away answers. Probing students to think and generate answers makes learning stick.
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Desirable Level of Difficulty: Repetition in Learning
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
This informative video is about the second principle in the Desirable Level of Difficulty video series - Repetition in Learning. Professor Sourav Mukherji stresses on the known fact that when we repeat something, we learn better. However, he feels it is important to know when to repeat and how often to repeat. He proceeds to explain this principle with the help of examples. One group of students were taught something and asked to recite it; a second group of students were taught the same thing, a small gap was given and then they were asked to recite what they learned; finally, a third group of students were taught the same thing, a long gap was given, then a second topic was taught, and then they were asked to recite what they learned in the first class.
Professor discusses the results. The first group of students were the most productive and they remembered almost everything of what was taught. The second group was also good and remembered most of what was taught. The third group was the one that struggled; some of them remembered something, some remembered something from the other class, and some were left wondering. So, the first group was a far better performer, second group was in the middle, and the third group couldn’t do well.
At the next stage of experimentation, the students were tested on their learning after several months. There was a reversal in the outcome. This time, the third group of students could recollect almost everything. The first group could hardly remember anything, and the second group performed somewhere in the middle.
Repetition is good, but not if it’s done immediately. If teachers can put in gaps, inundate students’ minds with something else, and then take the students back to what was taught to them, the learning sticks a lot more.
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Desirable Level of Difficulty: Interleaving
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
This brief video is about the third principle in the Desirable Level of Difficulty video series – Interleaving. Professor Sourav Mukherji explains this principle through examples again. A group of students were taught a subject for a 90-minute session. It was followed by another session on the same topic for another 90-minute duration. This is blocked learning. Another group of students were taught a 90-minute session on a topic, then given a break, and then taught another topic. The next day this second group of students were taught the remaining of the first topic in another 90-minute session. This is called interleaving.
In blocked learning, students learned the process better, but the concept was not learned well. In the interleaving approach, students grasped the concept way better. In an experiment, a group of students were shown a variety of paintings by Pablo Picasso, followed by Paul Cézanne’s paintings, followed by Pierre Auguste Renoir’s paintings. The paintings were mixed up for a second group of students. They were shown one from Picasso, one from Cézanne and one from Renoir. The second group of students were better able to distinguish between the painting styles and genre.
Professor Mukherji stresses that when a process is taught to students, blocked learning might work better. However, when a concept is taught to students, interleaving wins hands down.
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Desirable Level of Difficulty: Conclusion
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
In the concluding video of the Desirable Level of Difficulty series, Professor Sourav Mukherji wraps up this series by reiterating that teachers need to be facilitators of learning, but offering too much help to students is not good for the learning process, and this must be kept in mind.
If a subject is difficult to understand, many educators feel that teaching must be gamified, so that students can have fun while learning. Professor agrees that learning must not be a scary experience. However, he strongly feels that too much gamification and fun is not good for the learning process. Gamification along with the Desirable Level of Difficulty can help learning become successful.
Creating More Student Engagement in Class
Professor Prateek Raj, Strategy
In this short video, Prof. Prateek Raj shares his experience in student engagement. He says inclusivity is key; a teacher needs to be aware that there are students from different backgrounds and of different personalities to be able to make them feel included and comfortable in the classroom. Prof. Raj proceeds to provide tips on achieving this.
The teacher should interact with every student, be available to them even after class, and be a good listener. Creating online groups with students to share learning materials also helps students share their opinions and thoughts on the subject being taught.
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Being More Confident in the Classroom
Professor Prateek Raj, Strategy
In this brief video, Prof. Prateek Raj talks about the importance of being well prepared for teachers to be confident in class. He stresses that working with colleagues can enhance the educator's comfort level. In this context, Prof. Raj talks from experience about the briefing sessions in the Strategy area of IIMB, where educators come together to discuss teaching materials and share their thoughts on the same.
Prof. Raj also says that working on a few slides for presentation in class, helps educators structure their thoughts so as not to get lost in the flow of teaching and be able to cover all intended vital points. As the icing on the cake, being natural in the way a teacher talks to his/her class can also enhance comfort level in teaching.
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Preparing for a Class in 4 Steps
Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
In this video, Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan brings her 20 years of teaching experience talking about preparing to teach a class. This video will be informative to educators who feel they have not prepared sufficiently for a class or aren’t sure about how much preparation can be labelled sufficient preparation.
Prof. Srinivasan explains that this ‘self-doubt’ in a way helps her indulge in experimentation and look at topics differently. She speaks about the 4 steps of preparation she does before teaching a course. (1) As a first step toward preparing for a session, she advises educators to invest time in preparing a detailed course outline; this outline should include the topics that the instructor wishes to cover, the readings he/she wishes to offer, the linkages between different modules and sessions of the course, and it must ensure an overall integrity with the course being offered. Professor also provides a breakup of the 20 sessions in the course, which will help educators understand what they should do and when. (2) The second step of preparation is at the beginning of the course. Educators may file away any takeaways that might offer new and different perspectives for the course and may be necessary for the class; these takeaways maybe newspaper articles, videos, or any learning from events or committees. (3) The third step of preparation starts a week or two before the module begins. Instructors might wish to cover several incomplete aspects or ideas from previously taught sessions that may have to be linked to future sessions, and (4) at the last stage, just a couple days before class, educators must be ready with a detailed session plan.
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Session Plan – Development and Process
Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
In this video, Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan talks from her experience when she provides tips on developing a session plan. She starts by pointing out that it is even more important to have a detailed and well-planned session plan during COVID’s online and hybrid model of teaching. In this scenario, instructors will need to have time allocation if they plan to use digital tools in their teaching.
She proceeds to explain the 4 aspects of developing a session plan. (1) Firstly, it is important to have clarity on the learning objective for the session; instructors should know what they intend students to take away from the course, should understand if it is a new topic that students are unfamiliar with, or is it about deepening the students’ learning on the topic, or whether it is about students being able to analyse better, and be able to evaluate decisions in management. (2) Secondly, Professor talks about prioritizing objectives in terms of emphasis in case there are multiple learning objectives. This, she explains is a critical role for an instructor. (3) Instructors should also be clear about the learning material they should provide students - is the intent to familiarize students on the topic through reading, or to assess the students’ depth of understanding? (4) Finally, educators should pick the combinations of pedagogies they should use. It may be a case, an exercise, group work, or cold calling individuals.
For the process of the session plan, educators must think about the time they would need to spend on introduction, what they should introduce, what concepts are mandatory for students to take away, what should be the overview they would need to provide in the course, and what exercises/case studies they would need to bring in to class.
Prof. Srinivasan concludes the talk by providing a breakup of the time allocation for a 90-minute session. She also believes that a micro session plan structure determines an educator’s efficiency in class.
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Creating Energy in the Classroom
Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
In this brief video, Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan stresses that as a teacher you need to be enthusiastic in the classroom first, if you want to evoke enthusiasm in your students. This holds true especially in mandatory core courses, where students did not have the option to choose the course. She goes on to offer tips on how to imply to students that the course is going to help them in their future roles. Educators could seek expectations from the class to understand what students wish to take away from a core course, what they already know about the topic being taught, and why they think it's going to be exciting or not exciting.
Professor talks about some hooks to bait students’ interest. She says that an educator may bring to the class a video of a business leader who is talking on the topic being taught, or a controversial issue being debated by media, or bring an acclaimed role model who talks about how they would have benefited if they had focussed more on some of the aspects that the instructor is teaching in their core course. These tips would help in engaging students. She adds that peer group discussions also generate energy into the classroom. She ends the talk by emphasising that as facilitators of knowledge, teachers must take care to remain relevant to students and make classroom experiences more meaningful for students.
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Teaching Business Management vs. Teaching a Science Course
Professor B Mahadevan, Production & Operations Management
In this video, Prof. B Mahadevan clarifies how teaching in a business school is different from teaching in a science course; a question that many educators think about. He starts by pointing out that unlike a science problem which has a definite answer always, a business problem does not have one right answer. A business management teacher always must bring in scenarios when discussing business issues – more the scenarios, the better the learning. Prof. Mahadevan also says that in business teaching, there can be no ‘marketing’ issue or ‘operations’ issue alone; a business issues is a business issue. This must be clarified when teaching to make the learning effective.
He believes that business teaching is a trade-off between learning across breadth and in depth, however in science it is all about learning in depth. Professor advises educators to spend some time in learning what’s in practice pertaining to business models and issues. This is something that science educators most often do not need to do. Having a delicate balance between real life examples and concepts is also a must in business teaching, whereas science is more about experiments, observations, and inferences.
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Tips on Becoming a Great Academic
Professor B Mahadevan, Production & Operations Management
In this short video, Prof. B Mahadevan addresses all educators who aspire to become great academics and offers them some thumb rules based on his experiences in teaching. Professor finds it very useful to (1) do 4-5 hours of relevant reading for every 1 hour spent teaching in the classroom. The more educators spend time consulting different textbooks, papers, and cases, the more successfully they can teach their class. The extra reading will boost their confidence. He also advises educators, especially the ones who just got started with teaching to (2) invest time into writing detailed session plans. He also suggests that (3) after every class, the educators must immediately note what worked and what did not work in the session plan and revise it accordingly. According to Prof. Mahadevan, a good teacher should be able to (4) anticipate the situations and students’ questions that may arise in class.
He concludes the video by encouraging teachers to follow the rules. Students will love their classes and they will have finally be able to achieve their dream of becoming great academics.
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Traits of a Confident Teacher
Professor B Mahadevan, Production & Operations Management
In this video, Prof. B Mahadevan brings to light a question that often crosses educators’ minds, especially the ones at the beginning of their career; the question is if they are capable of teaching with confidence. He shares some guidelines that teachers should abide by to be able to teach confidently in the classroom and walk out of it with joy. He begins by stressing that the teacher should believe that they know more than the students and work toward it by investing in it. A teacher may end up using only 25% of their total preparation in the class, but they should not forget that all the extra read helps boost their confidence level and puts them in a position to better address questions from students.
Prof. Mahadevan explains that an important occupational requirement for a business school professor is to be able to 'apply in work observing practice.' When a teacher talks about a concept/model, they should be able to show how that is applied in several business situations. Teachers in business schools should invest time in updating themselves through reading, surfing internet, and being aware of what's going on in the business world. He ends the talk by discussing how important it is to read up on seemingly unrelated aspects. For e.g., a Professor of Operations like himself, may do some reading on finance. They will then be better able to connect things in classroom and teach students better.
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Importance of a Detailed Session Plan
Professor B Mahadevan, Production & Operations Management
Effective classroom delivery is all about a logical story unwinding in the class. Prof. B Mahadevan says a detailed session plan is necessary to achieve this. He goes on to provide educators some useful tips on developing a session plan. As a first step to developing the plan, Prof. Mahadevan suggests educators decide on the issues that need to be discussed in class. The educators will then need to take a call on what topics need to be introduced in the class and how they need to be introduced. Lastly, he advises educators to chronologically organize the activities scheduled for a 90-minute session. Educators should also be able to anticipate the questions that may arise in class and decide on the time to be devoted in answering those questions.
He concludes the talk with an after-the-class tip. Educators are advised to update the session plan sheet with any variations made in class.
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How Often Should You Start a New Elective
Professor B Mahadevan, Production & Operations Management
In his talk, Prof. B Mahadevan shares his thoughts around how often an educator should start a new elective. He states that in a business school, issues unfold faster than imagined and educators must keep pace and come up with more electives. However, it is important to keep in mind that an elective must be developed for a maximum of 5-6 years only. This is not only because business issues may have undergone changes by that time, but it is more importantly for academicians to regenerate themselves.
Prof. Mahadevan advises teachers to start developing ideas for a new elective when they are in the 5th year of the previous elective. Teachers can use the 5th year for reading and planning the new course. Once they are ready with the first rough structure, they can start working on detailing the course outline with the help of a course committee.
Prof. Mahadevan also suggests a timeline that teachers may follow once they have a new elective course. He asks teachers to test waters the first year. In the second year, teachers can fine tune the content. In the third year, they should almost be ready with a flawless course design. In the fourth year, they may make some changes if needed and in the fifth year, they can repeat the offering and start planning for the next new elective.
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Challenges in Teaching
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
In this short video, Prof. Sourav Mukherji talks about the challenges educators face when teaching. He focuses on two factors – demand side (student perspective) and supply side (teacher perspective). Due to a lot of information being available on the demand side today, students have a plethora of choices which help them teach themselves and they are often left wondering if the classroom is really the place they need to be at.
On the supply side, educators are often overburdened with researching and publications in top quality journals. Prof. Mukherji discusses why it is important to keep pace with teaching that is valid and relevant today, especially in a management curriculum. Given the large amount of information from various sources that students have access to today, he concludes the talk by asking educators to think about how they add value in class. Are they disseminators of knowledge, are they facilitators of learning or do they have something unique to bring to the class?
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Teacher-centric Education vs. Student-centric Education
Professor Sourav Mukherji, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
In this video, Prof. Sourav Mukherji reminisces how education traditionally has been largely teacher-centric. Teachers lectured in class while students listened and took down notes. He speaks about his experience when he started teaching and recalls himself as being confident in addressing the class as he had made presentations to clients during his years as a strategy consultant. However, within a few years, he had realized how important it is as an educator to be concerned about students’ learning rather than his own presentation.
Content is no longer the king and educators should redefine their roles. Prof. Mukherji feels educators must learn from research on cognitive science and pedagogy and be focused on the drivers of learning. He points out how important it is for educators to be aware about the reason students are in the class and how they are receiving what is being taught. It is only by making education learner-centric, that educators will be able to help students learn effectively.
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Engaging Students in the Classroom
Professor Rahul De’, Information Systems.
Dean, Programmes
In this brief video, Prof. Rahul De’, brings his 30 years of teaching experience and suggests 4 ways of successfully engaging different types of students in various kinds of institutions.
Prof. De’ teaches technical courses like artificial intelligence, cloud and information technology; while these courses evoke interest among students, more details on those topics often make the course dry. For tackling this situation and engaging students, he suggests educators use (1) applications/real world examples to help students apply what they learn to real situations; (2) humor to wake students up and get them more focused, while ensuring learning happens; (3) controversies on topics like job loss, privacy, surveillance, digital divide, etc. to get even the quieter students speak their mind and get enthusiastic. Debates around those controversies help with the learning too; and (4) quizzes, where students can get points. If several students get an answer wrong in the quiz, the educator gets the hint that the topic wasn’t fully understood.
Prof. Rahul De’ concludes the talk by assuring educators that engaging students is difficult, but not impossible.
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- https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/engaging-students-on-the-first-day-and-every-day
- https://www.engineering.cornell.edu/MTEI/teaching-tips-week/active-learning-increasing-student-engagement-and-retention
- https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/explore-teaching-guides/foundations-course-design/learning-activities/increasing-student-engagement