I’ve always admired Galileo Galilei because he stood up for what be believed, even in the face of the Roman Inquisition. Despite considerable pressure from the Vatican, he refused to give up his heretical position that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

More than a maverick scientist, however, Galileo was an insightful and experienced teacher:

“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it for himself.”

I remember the very first course I taught, Introductory Statistics. It was in Second Summer Session, in the un-air conditioned Physics Auditorium on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota, surely built in Galileo’s time and not updated since. The students were mostly graduating seniors who had put off taking this dreaded course until the very last minute. Every single morning in the very first row, not five feet in front of me, a young man first nodded, then dozed, then drooled onto his chest. No matter how carefully I prepared my lectures, it was the same thing every morning… nod, doze, drool… nod, doze, drool… nod, doze, drool.

Having spent my own student years nodding and dozing – surely not drooling -- in the back of classrooms, I’m convinced that the beloved lecture method is the worst possible approach to teaching. Anyone who doubts that needs only to take a look at how much students remember a year after the final exam, or a week.

Accordingly, I try to get students to take responsibility for their own learning. I generally give “mini-lectures,” twenty- to thirty-minute explanations of the essential terms and concepts, complete with printed and on-line outlines, and then require the students to do something with that information. Because students remember better what they read than what they hear, I flatly refuse to deliver lectures that are mere paraphrases of the textbooks. This annoys the daylights out of students who are training to become stenographers but seems OK to students with more academic goals.

In Introduction to Mass Communication, 150 freshmen and sophomores, at least half our class time goes to discussing and debating “Controversial Statements,” for example, “Hustler magazine deserves every bit as much First Amendment freedom as the New York Times.” Teams of students research their assigned statements and present all sides of the issue to the class. Most of the time, spirited discussion follows. I often hear students talking about the material in the hallways afterwards. I never heard them discussing lecture material in the hallways.

In Strategic Communication Research Methods, 45 juniors and seniors, I also give mini-lectures, and always insist that the students read the textbook on their own. Students spend the lion’s share of their time working on realistic projects under realistic conditions patterned after the research portion of NSAC, the National Student Advertising Competition: “Figure out how strategic-communication specialists can help White Castle achieve its goals, and research out the consumer and brand insights for an Ad/PR campaign.” Extensive on-line study guides tell them what they need to do. Class sessions are mainly devoted to consulting with students about their team and individual projects.

In Multi-Method Research Methods, 8-10 Masters and PhD students, we discuss classic measurement papers and apply them to each student’s own mass communications research project. The goal is to produce a publishable paper by the end of the course.

For a list of the courses I’ve taught over the years, please click here.

Teaching