Personal Note: Insights from a professor of religion on teaching. I found it comforting to realize he faces similar challenges to teaching...
Lloyd D. Newell (ldnewell@byu.edu) was a professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU when this article was published.
EXCERPTS
Many of us can relate to this phenomenon, especially when we teach two classes back-to-back: one of the classes is full of spirit and enthusiasm and active learning; the other seems dead, lifeless, without energy or zeal. Of course, with so many variables involved, it’s difficult to determine whether the fault lies in the teacher, the students, the subject matter, the temperature, the time of day, or the won-lost record of the football or basketball team. But this much is certain: each class has a spirit about it, a personality and temperament, and that is one of the things that make teaching both exhilarating and, at times, disheartening.
As one BYU Religious Education professor noted: “As every class begins, I never know what I’m going to find. Will the students welcome me with open hearts and minds, or will they tune me out and ignore what I’m trying to teach? Will I enter the room prepared spiritually and mentally to teach a class that is worth their time and mine? Will this be a bad, good, or great class? Every day of teaching is a new experience.” [1]
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What’s a teacher to do?
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No teacher is good enough to be all things to all students at all times, and not every class experience can be exceptional or transcendent or transforming, but as teachers we can sincerely strive to do our best to teach with power and spirit and breathe life even into a dead class.
How?
Here are five suggestions that have helped teachers enliven their classrooms.
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Be Prepared, Especially Spiritually, for Each Class
It takes courage to face a class full of diverse students and attempt to teach them something worthwhile, especially when we teach the most important subject on earth—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our students are brighter and better prepared and have higher expectations than ever before. They expect and deserve that when we enter the classroom, we are prepared in every way to offer our best.
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Few students wonder if their statistics professor really believes in statistics; few economics students are concerned whether their teacher really lives the principles of economics; few chemistry students worry about whether their instructor really feels the periodic table in the heart. They appreciate good teaching, learn the subject, see its usefulness, and move on. But what we teach is different. Our students want to know and feel and see that we really believe what we’re teaching, that we really strive to live what we profess, that we really feel the power of the gospel in our hearts. We are always under surveillance, and our students want to know that this is more than an academic subject or a set of facts and a pile of interesting information to us. They want to know that we really believe and are sincerely striving to live the gospel, which may do more to change hearts and minds than any class lecture or assignment.
Our mind and our heart must be ready as we enter the classroom: our mind filled with knowledge, information, and facts; our heart overflowing with love, faith, and testimony. If our heart and mind are prepared and our attitude is positive and proactive, we will be better able to teach with the Spirit and bring life to a lifeless class.
Certainly, we must pay the price to know our subject, but even more importantly, we must pay the price to live the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we enter the classroom reflecting his image in our countenances (see Alma 5:14). To paraphrase the words of the Savior, “What doth it profit a teacher to have all the knowledge in the world, yet teach without love or the Spirit?” [6]
President Harold B. Lee said, “If you want to be an effective teacher of the gospel, you have to live the principles that you propose to teach. The more perfectly you live the gospel, the more perfectly you will be able to teach the gospel.” [7]
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Of course, students do not expect perfection from us, nor should we expect perfection of ourselves. Neither do our students expect that we know everything about any given subject. What they do expect is that we have come to the classroom academically and spiritually ready and prepared to engage their minds and touch their hearts. This kind of robust preparation will help breathe life into a dead class.
Make Application to Students’ Lives
It has been said that learning is changed behavior, and if that is true, then both teacher and student ought to be learning and changing. Effective teachers don’t monopolize the conversation; they listen, they learn from their students and from the Spirit. They say things that are edifying and positive, they build and bless, and they enlarge understanding and testimony.
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Note these student comments:
One of the things I liked about this class was how the teacher connected the teachings of the living prophets to my life today. I wasn’t just learning things for an exam, I felt like I was learning principles for my life.
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Love and Care about Each Student
Teaching is more than a job; it is a relationship—a relationship of trust, caring, and respect. Teachers walk on holy ground each time they enter a classroom, and in a sense, every time they enter their office. This is part of the profession we have chosen.
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But being a teacher is first and last all about students. If we do not love and care for our students, and if we do not place them in the center of our thinking and doing, we’re missing the essence of our profession.
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And Elder Dallin H. Oaks, the eighth BYU president and current Apostle, has said, “Those who teach out of love will be magnified as instruments in the hands of Him whom they serve. . . . [A teacher’s] total concentration [should] be on the needs of the sheep—the good of the students. A gospel teacher does not focus on himself or herself.” [13]
This need not be a complicated thing. Simply striving to learn the names of students and then calling them by name breathes life into both them and the class. Asking about their lives, trying to note when they are absent, commenting on their efforts, acknowledging them outside of class, and a host of other sincere gestures show that we truly care about them as individuals. The less distance students feel between themselves and the teacher, the more likely both will be taught and inspired by each other. The more authentic care and interest students feel from a teacher, the less likely they are to skip class or tune out.
Even teachers that may not be the most dynamic in the classroom can change the culture and spirit of a classroom by simply and sincerely loving and caring about each student.
Be Patient with Yourself and Take Advantage of Opportunities to Improve
Faithful teachers understand that not every class will be a home run and that not each term will be a spiritual feast. But the Lord will bless us for our efforts, not for the outcome. If our efforts have been sincere and earnest, if we have given our best to the students, and our teaching evaluations are not stunning and our classroom environment not electric, then we can have peace in the knowledge that our efforts are accepted of the Lord. If we are patient and perseverant, if we take advantage of opportunities to improve our teaching and continue to work at it, the Lord will magnify our efforts and seal our teaching with the Spirit.
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One Religious Education professor said this:
I’m sure my teacher evaluations are not the highest in the building. I may not be the most popular teacher. But I can honestly say that I really try to give each class my best effort. I try not to compare myself with other teachers who are smarter or more entertaining, but I do my best. I really feel that teaching is not a competition. I’m only trying to compete with myself and make each class excellent. After a good class, I thank the Lord, and after an average class, I don’t give up but try harder next time. [14]
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