Rediscover the Joy of Learning

Stuff Your Eyes with Wonder (Deborah C. Stearns, 2013)
Trying something new, I began my Inspiration Series.

I love to learn new things.  In fact, I positively deliciate in learning.

* Deliciate = to enjoy or indulge oneself, luxuriate, revel, to take one's pleasure.  

Did you feel a little zing as you learned that word?  A recent study found that learning new words stimulates the ventral striatum, the part of the brain that is associated with reward and pleasure.  In other words, learning a new word seems to activate the same part of the brain as gambling, sex, and tasty food.  (One could say that this means you probably deliciate in learning the word "deliciate.")

I suspect that this is not just limited to learning new words, but is true of learning more generally.  There is pleasure in acquiring knowledge and mastering new skills.  One recent study of elementary school children found that:

joy arrives when the child surmounts a series of difficulties to achieve a goal. One of the authors’ videos shows seven-year-old Esko, tapping himself proudly on the chest and announcing, “Hey, I figured out how to do math!” A desire to master the material leads to more joy than a desire to simply perform well, Rantala and Määttä add: joy often accompanies “the feeling of shining as an expert.” (from http://www.creativitypost.com/education/wheres_the_joy_in_learning)  

Sadly, I think we often lose sight of the joy of learning.  I remember one student in my General Psychology class some years ago who insisted that there was nothing he wanted to learn -- nothing at all.  It made me unutterably sad.  Learning can be a wonderful experience, and yet many of us forget its pleasures, thinking of it only as joyless labor.

I am fortunate to work in a profession that is committed to lifelong learning.  Higher education is not only in the business of providing access to learning for our students, but also recognizes the importance of ongoing learning for faculty and staff.  For example, I was able to spend last year on sabbatical so that I could learn more about the flipped classroom approach and the science of teaching and learning.

But you don't need to be an academic or take a sabbatical to experience the joys of learning.  Want to learn something new?   Here are some suggestions.

I've been reading for as long as I can remember.

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

• Read.  I read voraciously, learning from science writers, biographers and scholars of all types.  I find new ideas in speculative fiction and memoir.  I read online articles, physical books and magazines, and enjoy the occasional audiobook.  Reading is accessible in any number of formats, and can be enjoyed without cost through libraries and the internet.  If you are a bibliophile, definitely head over to Brain Pickings, one of my favorite blog finds this year.  

 Baining Night Dance Mask (Kavat)
made of bark cloth by the Central Baining people
from Papua New Guinea, New Britain
(from the Metropolitain Museum of Art, NYC)

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge. ~Thomas Berger

•  Ask questions. Opportunities for learning are everywhere for those who are curious about the world.  When we ask questions, we open ourselves to new learning.  Ask questions of your friends and family to learn more about their lives and experiences.  Ask questions of experts to learn from their expertise.  Ask questions of yourself to learn more about your inner world.  If you can't find someone to answer your questions, go find the answer yourself!  (I'm still working on finding out more about the art of Papua New Guinea, for example.)

    

We all have an Elephant's Child, full of insatiable curiosity.
Drawing by Kate Reed (used with permission of the artist)



• Research.  When you find a topic that interests you, pursue your curiosity.  Explore it in depth.  Follow links, look for additional readings, ask questions and find answers.  Become an expert.  I spend many hours researching to prepare for my presentations and it has led me to all kinds of interesting learning -- from the science of happiness to successful relationships to all corners of human sexuality (check out my posts on sexual language, the sexual double standard, and same-sex marriage, for example).  

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver (2012),
where I learned about traditional Chinese garden design

All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.  ~ Martin H. Fischer

• Travel.  Travel offers us the opportunity to learn more about history, architecture, art, science, language and culture.  Explore the environment and notice what is different.  Talk to the people who live there.  Try new foods and have new experiences.  Read guidebooks to find out more about the places you visit.  Go to the local sights and visit the museums.  I always learn a lot from traveling, as you can tell from my extensive travelogues (such as my blog posts on Krakow, Prague, and Iceland).

via

• Listen to podcasts.  There are so many great podcasts out there -- free and full of learning potential.  I listen to podcasts on long drives and while I'm cooking or filing.  Podcasts like This American Life, Radiolab, Invisibilia, and The TED Radio Hour have given me insight into all kinds of topics I knew little about.  I'm looking forward to getting into Hidden Brain, as soon as I have some time, as I have really enjoyed Shankar Vedantam's pieces on NPR.

• Watch documentaries.  No matter where your interests lie, there is sure to be a documentary for you.  I favor historical and cultural documentaries, and I'm always finding new ones to watch through Netflix.  (I haven't even finished all of Ken Burns' documentaries yet!)  Make sure it is a reputable source, of course -- not all of the "documentaries" on YouTube are accurate.  So check out your PBS station or other credible media sources.  Beyond documentaries, you can also watch educational videos at TED-Ed and learner.org.  

I learn from my students, too.
(Photo by Sanjay Suchak)

• Take a class.  This gives you a chance to do more in-depth learning and connect with other learners.  Classes are available everywhere -- the local recreation center, community college, art/dance/writing centers, and other community resources.  Check out retail outlets, too, as you can find cooking classes at your local kitchen store, jewelry classes at the bead store, and ceramics classes at the art store.  If your local area doesn't have the class you want, there are plenty of online classes; you can study with experts all over the world without ever leaving your home.  I generally prefer face-to-face classes (such as the television/video classes I took last year), but I've also enjoyed several Craftsy classes and I'm looking forward to an online photography class with Ricky Tims that starts in January.  

• Get private lessons.  If you know what you want to learn and can find someone to teach you, you might want to invest in private lessons.  These can be a bit more expensive than classes, but you get to focus on what you want to learn at your own pace and in your own time.  If you have a local expert, face-to-face lessons are a great option, but you could also consider distance learning via video calls (Skype, Google Hangout, etc.).  Over the last year, I've been studying pattern fitting with the fabulous Sarah Veblen, and watching her figure out the right shape for a sleeve or rotating a dart has definitely expanded my understanding of how to engineer clothing that fits well (though I still have much to learn).

What Would Your Eyes See If They Were Newly Bloomed?
(Deborah C. Stearns, 2007, made as a class assignment)

• Try something new.  We often think of learning only within formal contexts, but we can learn anytime and anywhere.  Walk a different route and take note of what you see and hear.  Use a recipe you've never made before or tweak an old recipe -- what worked well and what didn't?  Explore unfamiliar types of music, art, performance, or athletics.  Try something new and see where it takes you.

Start off your year by rediscovering the joy of learning.  You know that learning is good for you -- it keeps your mind engaged and helps you grow and develop your capabilities.  But don't forget that it is also pleasurable.  So go ahead and deliciate in learning.  I'll be deliciating, right along with you.  

College Is Not A Content Delivery System: Interpersonal Interactions and Student Success

Montgomery College graduates via

It's that time of year again, when thousands of high school students go off to college.  What is it that college offers, in an era when the internet is teeming with freely available information?

All too often, we think of education, particularly higher education, as a content delivery system:  College provides access to information and programs that foster the development of particular skills, such as critical thinking.  This idea leads some to enthusiastically embrace technology as a replacement for the traditional college experience.  After all, we can make the content and relevant assignments available online, for a fraction of the cost now incurred by college students (see, for example, massive open online courses [MOOCs] and aspects of Kevin Carey's vision of the future "University of Everywhere").  This would seem like an ideal way to increase access to, and reduce the costs of, higher education. Right?

Not really.  The problem with this approach is that it ignores the important role of interpersonal interactions in education.

Higher education is not merely the mechanical transmission of content and skills to students.  College students' success is embedded in their immersion in a broader college culture, comprised of a network of relationships with faculty, staff, and other students.  Decades of research have found that positive, educational or intellectual interactions with faculty and peers, both within and outside of the classroom, are associated with students' intellectual development and academic success.¹  Faculty-student interactions:

are critical for everything from building students' capacity as scholars, fostering degree aspirations and retention (especially in the sciences), and promoting the success of students from underrepresented backgrounds.²

One review of relevant research concludes that many of the effects of college are "mediated through the interpersonal environments they create."³  In other words, higher education affects students largely through the kinds of social interactions they have in college.  The authors argue that personal and academic growth emerges from interacting with those who are different from us and engaging in substantive discussions of new ideas.⁴

Why are social interactions and relationships important for college students' success?  Here are just a few of the many factors that are potentially relevant.

Teacher and student interaction via

People are sources of practical, academic help.
Students who have good relationships with their professors and with their peers have access to a key learning resource -- other people.  They can ask questions about the material or about course assignments, learn effective study skills, get extra help, and participate in study groups.  Students hone their intellectual skills and deepen their understanding of course material through their interactions with faculty and other students.⁵  As one community college student noted:

You know, the more I talk to other people about our class stuff, the homework, the tests, the more I'm actually learning, . . . and the more I learn not only about other people but also about the subject, because my brain is getting more, because I'm getting more involved with the students.  I'm getting more involved with the class even after class.⁶  

Faculty and peers can also model relevant academic skills, such as critical thinking and respectful discourse.  More broadly, faculty can act as advisors and mentors, providing guidance to students as they navigate their college experience (e.g., helping them choose classes and programs of study, identifying ways to pursue their academic and professional interests, suggesting effective responses to academic challenges or setbacks).  Students who are assigned a faculty mentor have better academic performance and a lower dropout rate.⁷   Faculty, staff, and even peers can also connect students with support services as well as academic and professional opportunities (e.g., study abroad, internships).

College classroom -- lots of smiles here! (via)

Strong, positive relationships provide a safe space for teaching and learning.
Learning often involves vulnerability -- we have to stretch ourselves, and in doing so, we risk failure.  Learning is hard work, and we will make mistakes along the way (in fact, certain difficulties and errors can enhance learning⁸).  Students are asked to embrace new perspectives and ways of thinking, which can be distressing.⁹  Positive student-teacher relationships are important to creating a supportive environment for learning, as noted by this undergraduate student:

[I would learn best with a] caring relationship [with my instructor] in which honest feedback and opportunities for growth are provided.  With this type of relationship I would feel free to take risks to enhance my own growth.¹⁰

Teaching can be risky as well.  When instructors create a new class activity or assignment, it will sometimes fall flat (even a tried-and-true teaching technique can fall flat, at times -- yep, been there myself).  This means that trust, empathy, and respect among students and teachers are fundamental to successful teaching and learning.

Highly effective teachers tend to reflect a strong trust in students.  They usually believe that students want to learn, and they assume, until proven otherwise, that they can. [. . .] Above all, they tend to treat students with what can only be called simple decency.¹¹  

Students participate more in class when instructors create a more supportive atmosphere.¹²   Conversely, when students do not feel respected or supported, they are likely to disengage from class and/or school, hindering their ability to learn and succeed.¹³  Both students and teachers highlight the importance of open, supportive, comfortable, safe, and respectful relations in class.¹⁴   Feeling respected when interacting with faculty is a key factor in academic motivation and confidence.¹⁵

Having good relationships with students is likely to reduce teachers' frustration
and increase their enthusiasm (via)

Positive teacher-student relationships can result in better teaching.
When professors have positive relationships with their students, they are likely to enjoy their teaching more and be more motivated to provide high-quality instruction.  The professor who has positive engagement with students will probably be more approachable and committed to going the extra mile to support students' academic development.  Students report that faculty approachability, enthusiasm, and dedication are helpful to their success¹⁶ and faculty are seen as more approachable when they show concern for their students.¹⁷  In short, positive teacher-student relationships are likely to improve faculty job satisfaction and enthusiasm for teaching, as well as their approachability, which is likely to result in better student outcomes.¹⁸

via

Good relationships can strengthen students' motivation.
When professors show genuine concern for their students, their students are more motivated, have a more positive attitude toward the class, get better grades, and learn more.¹⁹  Similarly, more frequent student-faculty interactions outside of class are associated with stronger student motivation.²⁰  Poor relationships with faculty undermine students' motivation:  Students who feel alienated or distant from their professors tend to be discouraged and unmotivated.²¹  Faculty enhance students' motivation directly through encouragement, positive feedback, and concrete suggestions for improvement.  In other words, faculty can let students know that success is possible, as well as how to achieve it, which can foster students' sense of self-efficacy and academic self-confidence.

A positive teacher-student relationship also motivates students to work harder to please the instructor.²² As one undergraduate student put it:

When you have a personal relationship, or personal interaction, it makes you want to give 100% and do your best -- you don't want to let this person down.  ²³ 

Peer interactions also predict student motivation.²⁴  Strong relationships with peers can also foster a greater motivation and engagement with coursework.

The more students are involved, academically and socially, in shared learning experiences that link them as learners with their peers, the more likely they are to become more involved in their own learning and invest the time and energy needed to learn (Tinto, Goodsell, & Russo, 1993).  The social affiliations that those activities provide serve as a vehicle through which academic involvement is engaged.²⁵

In other words, students' relationships with faculty and peers have the potential to increase their motivation and effort, which is likely to result in enhanced learning and better academic outcomes.

via

Relationships can provide emotional support.
Students have emotional needs and concerns which can intrude on their academic work.  A bad grade can result in feelings of hopelessness.  A family crisis can cause anxiety that makes it hard to focus on studying.  Feelings of loneliness, experiencing harassment or disrespect, a difficult breakup -- all of these have the potential to negatively impact a student's academic life.  Students need supportive relationships with friends, family, faculty, and staff to help them weather these difficulties. While most of my meetings with students focus on course-related, academic matters, my students also discuss personal problems with me, seeking advice or a shoulder to lean on.  I have reason to think these conversations are helpful academically as well as personally, as students who go to their college mentor for support and encouragement are more likely to stay in college.²⁶  Receiving sufficient emotional support (along with social companionship support) may be key to successful adjustment to college for first-year students.²⁷

Students of color often face stereotyping and discrimination
that can make them feel marginalized (via)

Positive relationships can increase students' sense of belonging.
When students have warm relationships with faculty, staff, and other students, it helps them feel connected to the college community.  The sense that others in the college community know them and care about them increases their commitment to their college education and makes it more likely that they will persist and achieve their academic goals.²⁸  College students' sense of belonging is also associated with stronger academic motivation and self-efficacy.²⁹   Overall rates of college completion are lower than desirable (especially for lower-income students), given the financial costs of higher education and benefits of obtaining a college degree.  Stronger relationships with faculty and peers are likely to increase student persistence and academic success.

The sense of belonging can be precarious for first-generation and ethnic minority college students, who may feel marginalized within the college community or experience doubts about whether they belong in college at all.³⁰  So for all students, a sense of belonging is associated with positive academic outcomes, but for first-generation and ethnic minority students, strong and positive relationships with faculty, staff, and peers may be even more critical for academic success.  One study of Latino students found that those who frequently discussed course content with peers outside of class had a stronger sense of belonging to the campus community.³¹

College students often lack confidence in their abilities (via)

Students' relationships can strengthen their academic self-concept.
When students get encouragement and positive feedback from their teachers and peers about their work, they begin to have greater confidence in their academic abilities.  Academic self-confidence is greater among students who see their faculty members as approachable and respectful, for example.³²  Students need other people to provide validation that their ideas are valuable and they are worthy of being in college; college students, particularly new students, have a strong need for self-esteem and self-affirmation.³³

Faculty, whether as advisors or role models, can expand the students' sense of their possible future. One of my students, for example, wrote me a couple of years ago to let me know that taking my General Psychology course helped re-invigorate his own love of learning:

I found I really loved the material which helped, but more than that I was really struck by how much you obviously loved what you do and that really resonated with me for a very long time. That was exactly the kind of engagement I was looking for in my life.

Whether encouraging students to take a particular class, apply for an internship, or consider graduate school, faculty and staff can help students see themselves as capable of achieving more than they thought possible.

Employers are looking for interpersonal skills (via)

Relational skills and personal growth are important educational outcomes.
College education is not just about intellectual development; it must address the whole person.  Certainly intellectual growth is an important aspect of higher education, but it must be accompanied by personal growth to ready students for the challenges of work and life after college.  Research has found that non-cognitive skills (e.g., perseverance, self-control, emotional stability) predict success in school and work,³⁴ so gains in relevant non-cognitive skills are another important outcome of education.  These "soft skills" are also what employers are looking for in new hires.  Interpersonal skills are highly ranked among those sought-after skills:  Employers rate characteristics such as the ability to work on a team and communicate with others as among the top skills they look for in employees.³⁵  Social interactions with faculty and peers predict college students' personal development, as well as their intellectual growth.³⁶  In other words, the interactions students have with peers and faculty have the potential to help them develop skills that are vital to employment and success at work.

Abraham Maslow's theory states that we have an intrinsic need for love and belongingness (via)

Positive relationships fulfill our need for interpersonal connection.
Humans have a fundamental need to have close interpersonal relationships.  We need to have regular interpersonal interactions within the context of caring relationships.³⁷  When our social needs are not being met, we experience distress, making it more difficult to focus on other goals and activities.  In other words, students are unlikely to learn or grow academically if they are suffering from depression and anxiety resulting from social isolation or loneliness.  While students are likely to have relationships with friends and family outside of the college community, strengthening students' relationships within the college community is important, particularly for residential students, to ensure that all students can satisfy their relational needs on a regular basis.

Learning is Social

Don't get me wrong -- I believe in increased access to education and I love the array of educational resources available online.  But if we are serious about designing higher education, we need to understand the needs of learners.  Rather than thinking of learning as an individual activity, we need to remember that learning is usually social.

We are social animals.  Researchers are increasingly finding evidence that virtually every aspect of our behavior -- including thinking and learning -- is influenced by our social context.  Even the most minimal social connection can enhance our achievement motivation.  When someone interested in math finds out that they share a birthday with a successful math student, they become more motivated to pursue math and they work longer on a math problem.  Our achievement motivations are not merely our own, but are affected by our sense of social connection, or what has been termed mere belonging.³⁸   Our memory is also better when we are socially engaged:  People remembered a list of items better when the person reading the list sat closer to them, leaned in, and engaged in eye contact (showed greater immediacy) than when the experimenter sat further away and didn't engage in eye contact.³⁹  (As one student aptly says, "I learn better when I am treated as a person rather than a number"⁴⁰) Conversely, the threat of future social isolation causes impairment in our capacity for intelligent thought.⁴¹

Can students learn from content alone, without interacting with a teacher or other students?  Probably, at least in some cases.  But research suggests that such learning might be less rich than the learning that is fostered through social interactions and supportive relationships within a diverse community of teachers and peers.  In addition, it is clear that many, if not most students, need more than just access to online content to successfully learn.  While thousands of students have enrolled in MOOCs, very few actually finish the course, and those who do are typically those who have already completed some college (indeed, one study concludes that most of those who enroll in MOOCs are young and well-educated).  Most students need more than just access to an online course to successfully learn the material.  Further, what students gain from higher education isn't just the content learned in one class -- students immersed in the college experience learn broadly and deeply from what they do in and outside of class, including a myriad of social interactions and influences within and beyond the specifics of any one class.

Rather than re-imagine college as a content-rich, but interpersonally impoverished, landscape, we should combine a content-rich learning environment with strategies to expand the social interactions that foster college students' learning and academic success.

• Students should be encouraged to engage with their professors and peers both in class and outside of class.  (I know, I know -- you may be intimidated or think that faculty aren't interested in meeting with students, but you need to get past those concerns and take advantage of the opportunities for intellectual and personal growth that college affords.)  
• Faculty can include classroom and co-curricular activities that foster more opportunities for students to interact with each other and with their instructors.  (It is clear that faculty need to do more than just post office hours if we want to encourage such interactions.)  
• College facilities can be structured to encourage intellectual interactions (student lounges could be situated near faculty offices, for example⁴²).  
• Programs can create spaces for academic discourse, such as informal discussions that are attended by students, faculty, and staff. (That was my goal in creating the Psychology Brown Bag Series at Montgomery College.)  

This is not to say that such interactions couldn't be fostered in an online or blended learning environment.  Indeed, online college courses often include structures to encourage interactions with peers and/or the instructor.  The online environment can also provide intellectual, interpersonal interactions, though they need to be designed with the specifics of online learners in mind.  The argument for the importance of relationships is not meant to denigrate the potential of online courses.  Let's just not kid ourselves -- giving students access to content alone is not sufficient for successful higher education.  

What higher education offers is not merely intellectual content.  It is the opportunity to engage in an academic culture of diverse learners and teachers and researchers.  The relationships students form in college can help them learn and motivate them to do their best work.  Faculty, staff, and peers can help students dream big and make progress toward achieving their dreams.  At its best, college provides a supportive interpersonal environment in which students can discuss new ideas, stretch themselves, and grow, both intellectually and personally.  Content may be available freely on the internet, but students need more than access to content to succeed in college.  They need strong, positive relationships with faculty, staff, and other students.  They need a community.  They need people.

My students clowning at the National Museum of the American Indian (2011)

You might also enjoy these other posts on teaching:

Making a Difference: Whether You Know it or Not
Become an Incremental Theorist
Teaching toward a Better World
Writing is Life
Losing the Lecture
Interrogating Museum Exhibits
The Value of Dissent

References

1. Two articles that review this research are:
• Lamport, M. A. (1993).  Student-faculty informal interaction and the effect on college student outcomes:  A review of the literature.  Adolescence, 28, 971-991.
• Terenzini, P. T., Pascarella, E. T., & Blimling, G. S. (1999).  Students' out-of-class experiences and their influence on learning and cognitive development:  A literature review.  Journal of College Student Development, 40, 610-623.
• Also see this study on the impact of peer relationships:  Whitt, E. J., Nora, A., Edison, M., Terenzini, P., & Pascarella, E. T. (1999).  Interactions with peers and objective and self-reported cognitive outcomes across 3 years of college.  Journal of College Student Development, 40, 61-78.
2. Baker, V. L. & Griffin, K. A. (2010).  Beyond mentoring and advising:  Toward understanding the role of faculty "developers" in student success.  About Campus, 14, 2-8.  doi:  10.1002/abc.20002 (p. 2)
3. Terenzini, P. T., Pascarella, E. T., & Blimling, G. S. (1999).  Students' out-of-class experiences and their influence on learning and cognitive development:  A literature review.  Journal of College Student Development, 40, 610-623 (p. 614).  See also: Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (1980).  Student-faculty and student-peer relationships as mediators of the structural effects of undergraduate residence arrangement.  Journal of Educational Research, 73, 344-353. 
4. Terenzini, P. T., Pascarella, E. T., & Blimling, G. S. (1999).  Students' out-of-class experiences and their influence on learning and cognitive development:  A literature review.  Journal of College Student Development, 40, 610-623.
5. Kember, D., Leung, D. Y. P., & Ma, R. S. F. (2006).  Characterizing learning environments capable of nurturing generic capabilities in higher education.  Research in Higher Education, 48, 609-632.  doi:  10.1007/s11162-006-9037-0; Smith, D. G. (1977). College classroom interactions and critical thinking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 180-190.; Whitt, E. J., Nora, A., Edison, M., Terenzini, P., & Pascarella, E. T. (1999).  Interactions with peers and objective and self-reported cognitive outcomes across 3 years of college.  Journal of College Student Development, 40, 61-78.
6. Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 68, 599-623. (p. 611)
7. Campbell, T. A. & Campbell, D. E.  (1997).  Faculty/student mentor program:  Effects on academic performance and retention.  Research in Higher Education, 38,  727-742.; Hu, S., & Ma, Y.  (2010).  Mentoring and student persistence in college:  A study of the Washington State Achievers Program.   Innovative Higher Education, 35,329-341.  doi:  10.1007/s10755-010-9147-7
8. Clark, C. M. & Bjork, R. A. (2014).  When and why introducing difficulties and errors can enhance instruction.  In V. A. Benassi, C. E. Overson & C. M. Hakala (Eds.) Applying science of learning in education:  Infusing psychological science into the curriculum.  Retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology web site:  http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php
9. Baxter Magolda, M.  (1987).  The affective dimension of learning:  Faculty-student relationships that enhance intellectual development.  College Student Journal, 21,46-58.
10. Baxter Magolda, M.  (1987).  The affective dimension of learning:  Faculty-student relationships that enhance intellectual development.  College Student Journal, 21,46-58. (p. 54).  
11. Bain, K.  (2004).  What the best college teachers do.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (p.18)
12. Nunn, C. E.  (1996).  Discussion in the college classroom:  Triangulating observational and survey results.  Journal of Higher Education, 67, 243-266.
13. Juvonen, J. (2006).  Sense of belonging, social bonds, and school functioning.  In Alexander, P. A., & Winne, P. H. (Eds.) Handbook of Educational Psychology, 2nd Edition, p. 655-674.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. 
14. Anderson, L. E., & Carta-Falsa, J. (2002).  Factors that make faculty and student relationships effective.  College Teaching, 50, 134-138.
15. Komarraju, M., Musulkin, S., & Bhattacharya, G. (2010).  Role of student-faculty interactions in developing college students' academic self-concept, motivation, and achievement.  Journal of College Student Development, 51, 332-342.  doi:  10.1353/csd.0.0137
16. Devlin, M., & O'Shea, H. (2012).  Effective university teaching:  Views of Australian university students from low socio-economic status backgrounds.  Teaching in Higher Education, 17, 385-397.  doi:  10.1080/13562517.2011.641006
17. Denzine, G. M., & Pulos, S.  (2000).  College students' perceptions of faculty approachability.  Educational Research Quarterly, 24, 56-66.
18. Graham, E. E., West, R., & Schaller, K. A. (1992).  The association between the relational teaching approach and teacher job satisfaction.  Communication Reports, 5, 11-22.  doi: 10.1080/08934219209367539; Spilt, J. L., Koomen, H. M. Y., & Thijs, J. T. (2011).  Teacher wellbeing:  The importance of student-teacher relationships.  Educational Psychology Review, 23, 457-477.  doi:  10.1007/s10648-011-9170-y
19. Teven, J. J., & McCroskey, J. C. (1997).  The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation.  Communication Education, 46, 1-9.; Wilson, J. H. (2006).  Predicting student attitudes and grades from perceptions of instructors' attitudes.  Teaching of Psychology, 33, 91-95  doi:  10.1207/s15328023top3302_2; Wilson, J. H. (2008).  Instructor attitudes toward students:  Job satisfaction and student outcomes.  College Teaching, 56, 225-229.; Wilson, J. H., & Taylor, K. W. (2001).  Professor immediacy as behaviors associated with liking students.  Teaching of Psychology, 28, 136-138. 
20. Jaasma, M. A., & Koper, R. J.  (1999).  The relationship of student-faculty out-of-class communication to instructor immediacy and trust and to student motivation.  Communication Education, 48, 41-47.
21. Komarraju, M., Musulkin, S., & Bhattacharya, G. (2010).  Role of student-faculty interactions in developing college students' academic self-concept, motivation, and achievement.  Journal of College Student Development, 51, 332-342.  doi:  10.1353/csd.0.0137 
22. Cotten, S. R., & Wilson, B.  (2006).  Student-faculty interactions:  Dynamics and determinants.  Higher Education, 51, 487-519.  doi:  10.1007/s10734-004-1705-4; Terenzini, P. T., Rendon, L. I., Upcraft, M. L. Millar, S. B., Allison, K. W., Gregg, P. L., & Jalomo, R.  (1994).  The transition to college:  Diverse students, diverse stories.  Research in Higher Education, 35,57-76.
23. Cotten, S. R., & Wilson, B.  (2006).  Student-faculty interactions:  Dynamics and determinants.  Higher Education, 51, 487-519.  doi:  10.1007/s10734-004-1705-4 (p. 500)
24. Rugutt, J., & Chemosit, C. C. (2009).  What motivates students to learn?  Contribution of student-to-student relations, student-faculty interaction and critical thinking skills.  Educational Research Quarterly, 32, 16-28.
25. Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. Journal of Higher Education, 68, 599-623. (p. 615).
26. Hu, S., & Ma, Y.  (2010).  Mentoring and student persistence in college:  A study of the Washington State Achievers Program.   Innovative Higher Education, 35,329-341.  doi:  10.1007/s10755-010-9147-7
27. Ramsay, S. Jones, E., & Barker, M. (2007). Relationship between adjustment and support types:  Young and mature-aged local and international first year university students.  Higher Education, 54,247-265.  doi:  10.1007/s10734-006-9001-0
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29. Freeman, T. M., Anderman, L. H., & Jensen, J. M. (2007).  Sense of belonging in college freshmen at the classroom and campus levels.  The Journal of Experimental Education, 75,203-220.
30. Chang, J. C.  (2005).  Faculty-student interaction at the community college:  A focus on students of color.  Research in Higher Education, 46, 769-802. doi:  10.1007/s11162-004-6225-7; Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2007).  A question of belonging:  Race, social fit, and achievement.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 82-96.  doi:  10.1037/0023-3514.92.1.82
31. Hurtado, S., & Carter, D. F.  (1997).  Effects of college transition and perceptions of the campus racial climate on Latino college students' sense of belonging.  Sociology of Education, 70, 324-345.
32. Komarraju, M., Musulkin, S., & Bhattacharya, G. (2010).  Role of student-faculty interactions in developing college students' academic self-concept, motivation, and achievement.  Journal of College Student Development, 51, 332-342.  doi:  10.1353/csd.0.0137
33. Terenzini, P. T., Rendon, L. I., Upcraft, M. L. Millar, S. B., Allison, K. W., Gregg, P. L., & Jalomo, R.  (1994).  The transition to college:  Diverse students, diverse stories.  Research in Higher Education, 35,57-76.
34. Kyllonen, P. C. (2013).  Soft skills for the workplace.  Change:  The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45,16-23.  doi:  10.1080/00091383.2013.841516; Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R.  (2012).  Psychological correlates of university students' academic performance:  A systematic review and meta-analysis.  Psychological Bulletin, 138,353-387.  doi:  10.1037/a0026838
35. Kyllonen, P. C. (2013).  Soft skills for the workplace.  Change:  The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45,16-23.  doi:  10.1080/00091383.2013.841516
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41. Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., & Nuss, C. K. (2002).  Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes:  Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83,817-827.  doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.83.4.817
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Aparth-eyed

My first year of college was hard for me. I felt socially isolated and disconnected from many of the students in my dorm, who spent their free time getting high or going to fraternity parties. I joined a couple of student groups to try to find a community, including the Anti-Apartheid Coalition. The Coalition was working to convince the college to divest itself of any holdings in companies that did business in South Africa, which at the time was still under apartheid, a system of racial segregation created and maintained by the state. The idea was, first, that it was immoral to reap profits from a violently repressive, racist state, and second, that divestment would create economic pressure for South Africa to change its oppressive policies. Those of us in the anti-apartheid group spent time educating ourselves about the history and politics of South Africa as well as putting together campus rallies and demonstrations to urge the college trustees to divest.

I grew up inspired by the activism of the 1960s. I often felt that I had been born in the wrong era, as I so passionately wanted to be part of a larger social change movement. Yet by the time I came of age in the 1980s there was little enthusiasm for social activism. While I proudly identified as a feminist, the popular culture offered up anti-feminist backlash; I wouldn't find a strong feminist community until the 1990s, when I was in graduate school. The political idealism of the anti-apartheid movement was deeply compelling to me. I wanted to be part of a movement that worked toward positive social change and I truly believed that dedicated activists could, in fact, make the world a better place.

Like most college students, I was juggling the academic work of writing papers and studying for exams, as well as a number of extracurricular activities. As the semester wore on, paper deadlines neared and we stepped up preparation for our big divestment rally, so I got even busier.

It was an unwelcome surprise, then, to wake up one day with my eyes glued shut.

Seriously, my eyes were completely glued shut, and I couldn't open them. I didn't even know that was possible! I panicked, and finally found my way to the sink in my dorm room. I washed out my eyes and was able to able to open them, which was a huge relief. My eyes were red and puffy, crusty with some stringy mucus secretion. Weird. It seems like a design flaw for a species that relies so much on sight that your own eye secretions can render you unable to see. I rinsed them out more fully and got ready to go to class.

I know -- you're thinking that I should go to the student health service and get this red-eye-gluey thing checked out. But you don't understand: I was busy. With important, life-changing, world-changing things. What did it matter if I had a little eye goop in the morning? We were going to end apartheid. Not only were my personal problems trivial, but ignoring my suffering revealed the depth of my selfless commitment to the cause. Real activists are willing to lay their bodies on the line, risking arrest and bodily harm on a regular basis. Of course, I wasn't in the least prepared to face arrest or expulsion, so my inflamed eyes would just have to do. And it never occurred to me that this even needed treatment. I didn't think of it as an infection that could be spread or that it could have long-term consequences if left untreated. The same boundless optimism that made me think I could change the world also told me that my body could take care of itself.

Another reason I didn't see this eye goop thing as a problem had to do with the pink eye scares of my childhood. When I was a child, my parents and the pediatrician periodically thought I had pink eye. I rubbed my eyes and they were red, so they couldn't tell if my eyes were red because I rubbed them or if I was rubbing them because they were red and infected. Just to be on the safe side, they would diagnose it as pink eye and prescribe daily eye drops as treatment. Couldn't be simpler, right? Except not for me. I have a very strong blink reflex -- when I see something coming at my eye (even if it is just a tiny drop of fluid), I blink. To me, that has always seemed reasonable. So to get the eye drops in my eye, my mother would hold my eye open and say, "Now, don't blink." And I would agree not to blink. But then as the eye drops were falling toward my eye, I would blink so forcefully that she couldn't keep my eye open, and the eye drops would fall on my closed eyelid. We'd do this a couple of times, and then my mother would just give up, hoping that some of the medication got into my eye through my closed lids.

As it turned out, it hardly mattered -- I never did have pink eye as a child. So I learned two things from this experience: One, that some things are out of my control, like blinking, and two, that I was invulnerable to pink eye.

But back in my college dorm room, I had to figure out some way to manage my goopy eyes. So I worked out a system. I'd keep a damp washcloth next to my bed so that I could clear out my morning eye-glue, at least enough to open my eyes, and then I could get on with my day. I worked my shift at the cafeteria, went to class (I never missed class), then handed out leaflets for our upcoming divestment rally. I'd stand in the path through the main campus green, wearing my denim jacket covered with political buttons, rub my red and gooey eyes, and offer leaflets to passing students.

"Don't forget about the rally on Wednesday!"

"Anti-apartheid rally, Wednesday afternoon!"

"Divest now!"

The passing students could not have been less interested. This was not Berkeley -- the majority of these students were not politically engaged. And South Africa was far away. What did this have to do with their lives? When the administration later attempted to ban keg parties, then the students found their political voice, to be sure. But the number of students interested in demonstrating to ostensibly help people in a distant country was a small minority, at best. And even if successful, our movement would only benefit those oppressed by apartheid indirectly through economic pressure -- it was not as though attending the rally would instantly free Nelson Mandela and others unjustly jailed. But I couldn't help being angry at the apathy I saw all around me. Why can't people see how important this is? So we persevered, handing out leaflets and getting the word out about our rally. I even wore a DIVEST NOW sandwich board to classes one day. I was the only one wearing a sign. I got quite a few stares that day.

The rally came off, though it wasn't as well-attended as I had hoped. We stood in front of the campus administration building, listened to the speakers, and chanted as loud as we could.

Hey hey!

Ho ho!

South African stocks have got to go!

Hey hey!

Ho ho!

South African stocks have got to go! . . .

We were a small group, to be sure. But student groups across the country made similar demands, and colleges started to feel the pressure to respond in some way. There was some divestment, though the process was sometimes slow and incomplete. And the international social and economic pressure did have a role in bringing down apartheid. I think we made a difference. 

Photo of the protest via  

I came through the experience with my optimism largely intact, both in terms of social change and in terms of my own body. Maybe I couldn't marshal thousands of students into the rally. Maybe the trustees delayed their decision on divestment. But in the end, the divestment movement had an effect. In the end, apartheid fell. And that goopy eye thing? After a week or two, it cleared up on its own; I never did go to the doctor about it. It wasn't until years later that it even occurred to me that I might have gotten pink eye that semester. No matter how often I got sick or hurt, I maintained a pretty robust belief in my body's resilience, assuming that any physical problems would resolve themselves without the need for medical intervention.

I have to admit, though, that my political optimism was a bit bruised by all those apathetic students. It can be difficult to sustain one's hope for social change in the face of such pervasive disinterest. My experience as an activist and as an educator has taught me that you aren't going to reach everyone, or even most people. You can leaflet and argue and talk yourself hoarse, but many people will not be persuaded. Like blinking, this is something I can't fully control.

However, as a teacher I've also learned that we can sometimes have an effect on someone that isn't immediately apparent. I don't know that I changed even one mind or inspired one student to attend the rally. But it could be that being exposed to the passionate political ideals we wore so proudly and shouted so enthusiastically created a sense of possibility for the power of a dedicated movement to enact social change. Those seemingly apathetic students may have gone on to become political activists for some other cause, or they may have formed community organizations or joined the Peace Corps. And certainly our public activism raised awareness about apartheid for students who might have otherwise not even known about it.

In the end, I'll never know whether or how they were influenced by our leaflets and chanting. I want to believe that I made a difference, even for those students who seemed utterly uncaring. It's important for me, even all these years later, with my idealism a bit tarnished, to have made an impact. I'd like to think I had at least some effect on them.

Well, if nothing else, I probably gave some of them pink eye.

***********************************************************************

NOTE:  I've come to enjoy storytelling podcasts like The Moth and The Story Collider, which feature live performances of people telling true stories from their lives.  It got me to thinking -- if I had to give a live storytelling performance, what stories could I tell?  I wrote this story with that in mind (it's not the same, of course, since I am writing it, not telling it live, but one does what one can).  Many thanks for helpful feedback from Clio, Ken, and, of course, Q.  The title was also Q's idea, so blame him for the pun.  (In case you were wondering, Divestment Bunny, pictured above, is a relic from my college days, when even my stuffed animals were politically active.)   

Making a Difference (whether you know it or not)

Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island (8/2012)

With the advent of the new year, it's a good time to review the experiences, events, and achievements of the previous year.  Last year, I blogged about my cosmic footprint and tried to sum up all I had done in 2011.  But recently I've been recognizing that we often don't really know what effect we have on the world.  Sure, I can list my activities, but it's harder to capture the impact I may or may not have had on the world around me.  The carefully crafted lecture that I spent weeks refining may have breezed by my students, while an off-hand remark I made might have been a turning point for a student's academic career.

I'm reminded of an email I got over the summer from a former student.  I hadn't heard from this student in years, but I was deeply moved by the story he told.  I share it with you now (with the student's permission), not to toot my own horn, but to let you know that we can all make a difference, even if we don't know it at the time. 

I'm a UMD psych major right now who's pulled nothing but As and academic honors since becoming a full time student again, I'm going to be eligible to graduate in the fall and right now I'm going through the process of finalizing some grad school applications and taking my GRE.  I'm finishing up PSYC300 with a student I found out yesterday also came from MC and we got to talking about how hugely formative having you and Dr. Palmer as teachers was in really shaping our interests.  [. . .]

I bombed out of my freshman year at a 4 year institution, never because I couldn't do well in my classes but because frankly I just didn't care about them.  I hated my job, I hated being in school, my family situation was atrocious, I didn't like myself very much and I was really depressed about that for a very long time.  Even my time at MC was approached very half-heartedly, just stumbling through random classes hoping to find something that would really interest me.  Plenty I would just not show up to after a few weeks because even the idea of coming to class just made me feel deathly bored.

I took PSYC100 over the summer with you what feels like a life time ago and I know it sounds really cheesy to say, but that was without a doubt the best experience I'd ever had with either a professor, or an academic subject ever.  I found I really loved the material which helped, but more than that I was really struck by how much you obviously loved what you do and that really resonated with me for a very long time.  That was exactly the kind of engagement I was looking for in my life.  I felt challenged and engaged in your class and even though it was hugely inconvenient for me to make the trek to Rockville then, I always looked forward to coming to school for that.  I don't think I can really explain how enormously important that was to me.

I ended up taking Human Sexuality simply because you were teaching it, and Abnormal Psyc with Dr. Palmer, even though neither class fulfilled any kind of a requirement for me at the time.  I started reading psych books for fun.  For a few years, I didn't do more than that, because I really didn't think that I could go to school for that, let alone get a career in it.  Going to school for several more years seemed daunting but much more than that, I didn't think I'd be good enough so I didn't try to do more.  My life was a mess, I struggled enormously with depression.  Things really started to run around for me eventually. I found myself a really great therapist with many of the same qualities I saw in the teachers I had at MC.  I got a lot of the encouragement I need from her to really pursue that interest and I was lucky to have really great teachers for my other psych classes.  Long story short now I'm looking at entering a grad program for the 2013 school year.  How that's going to play out exactly is still very uncertain, and even if I feel like I don't always feel like I know what I'm doing making that leap, I can't imagine working towards anything else.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.  Even though I probably didn't show it very much when I was in your class (I was a really average student at best), you've had a huge impact in shaping who I am today.  Please don't underestimate the impact you can have on students, even those that you aren't really sure if you're reaching or not.

I am truly fortunate to be able to work with such amazing students, and to have the opportunity to help them find their way in life.  But we all have the potential to make the world a better place.  To paraphrase my student's sentiment, please don't underestimate the impact you can have on others, even if you aren't really sure you are reaching them.  Your passion, your enthusiasm, your caring, your encouragement, your commitment touch those around you, even though you may not see it at the time.  Don't give up.  You, too, can make a difference . . . whether you know it or not.

Some of my Social Psychology students
at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (3/2012)

Death and the Salesman: The Use of Morbid Sexism in Advertising

As I was reviewing magazine and newspaper ads in preparation for class this week, I was struck by this ad:

Ad in Elle for Louis Vuitton;
from the Ms. Magazine No Comment archive (Summer 2010)

Why on earth would any company want to advertise its product by displaying it with a dead woman?  I couldn't understand the motivation here -- what were the advertisers thinking?  On the face of it, associating your product with death just seems like a bad idea.  I can just imagine the conversation in the marketing department --  I know, Bob, we'll show our bag with a dead woman, so everyone will think that our accessories can kill you!  Ok, maybe this ad is just a fluke, one of those advertisements that miss the mark.  But then I found more.

Become an incremental theorist

You've decided to learn something new.  Say you've taken up the banjo*, for example, and you've never played a musical instrument before.  In those first lessons, you find yourself struggling with the first halting notes of "Old Joe Clark" -- this is not as easy as you thought!  Do you say to yourself:  

A.  I have a lot to learn, but I'm getting better with every session.  If I keep trying, I'll be sure to get this eventually. 

or

B.  I'm not good at this -- I guess I'll never be a really good banjo player.  I'm just not musically inclined.

If you lean towards A, you are approaching banjo-playing as what psychologist Carol Dweck calls an incremental theorist.  That means that you think your abilities can improve over time and that you can achieve this task with sufficient practice and study.  If you tend more towards B, you would approach banjo-playing more as an entity theorist.  You see your musical ability as fixed and unchangeable; banjo-playing is something some people are naturally better at than others, and you are just trying to figure out whether you are one of those gifted musicians or not.   For most tasks, there is probably some truth in both approaches.  Some people have the capacity to achieve a higher skill level than others, but all of us can improve with practice and dedicated study.  Nevertheless, the particular emphasis you bring to the task can dramatically affect how you handle challenges and failures, ultimately affecting your overall performance in the task.

Teaching toward a better world

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
          -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose tireless dedication to a world free of bigotry, poverty, and hatred helped bring us the civil rights movement.  I cannot do justice to the man or the movement, nor can I improve upon the many wise and profound words that have been said by and about him, so I will not try.  I want, instead, to take a moment to reflect on my own commitment to social change.

I sang for social change from 1989-1994.
(I'm in the middle in the back row.)

Writing is Life

Montgomery College student

In recent years, colleges have been asked to prove the utility of a college education for the job market.  Of what possible use are liberal arts courses?  After all, a course in philosophy or literature does not seem to facilitate the development of specific job skills.  The typical rejoinder is that such courses teach broadly useful skills, such as those involved in research, writing, or analytical thinking.  This is indeed true.  Beyond these skills, though, taking on the challenge of college courses teaches life lessons that extend beyond the academic environment.  Take my my students' experiences of completing a research paper, for example.

Losing the lecture?

When I was a college student, most of my classes were lectures.  I had some excellent professors, who gave inspiring, entertaining, and informative lectures.  I sat in the front and took notes furiously, trying to get every word down.  I still have some of those notebooks, somewhere in my archives. 

In graduate school, when I began teaching, I wrote lectures.  I interspersed some demonstrations and some discussions, as well, to engage the students further, but I stayed within the lecture format, by and large.  After all, that is what professors did -- they organized the information and delivered it through lecture.

In recent years, though, I've shifted away from lecturing in most of my classes.  In part, this came from a desire to engage students in discussions of complex issues rather than have them passively absorb information.  One semester I spent four hours of my Psychology of Human Sexuality class lecturing about female sexual anatomy and physiology and it seemed like a phenomenal waste of class time, particularly since the information was readily available in their textbook.  Given that I can't possibly cover all of the material in class, making myself a conduit for information from the textbook struck me as a poor use of class time, which is, after all, a limited resource.  I wanted the students to grapple with debates, learn to apply the concepts, to actively engage with the material, and lecturing was not reliably accomplishing those objectives.

Interrogating Museum Exhibits

I just gave a talk at the AFACCT conference with some of my colleagues about our experience with the Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship program at Montgomery College.  It was a wonderfully interdisciplinary panel, reflecting the diversity of perspectives in our SFF cohort (Marcia Bronstein, English/ESL [moderator]; Genevieve Carminati, English and Women's Studies; Marissa Prosser, Anthropology; Michael Tims, Biology; and me, Psychology).  We each discussed the museum assignments we created for our students and how that facilitated their learning as well as how that reflected the various communities that interconnect through the SFF program.  I talked about what I learned from the museum curators about reading objects and images.

Looking back on 2011

Rabbit on our driveway (6/2011)

New Year's Day is traditionally a day of new beginnings.  I love new beginnings -- the excitement of starting fresh with the allure of pristine new projects.  Accomplishments are just over the horizon, glittering in the near distance.

But taking stock of where we are means pondering the past as well as looking to the future. Yet I'm less likely to mull over tasks completed than to dream of what is to come.  So I'm challenging myself to spend some time thinking back over what I've done.  Rather than compile a list of individual achievements (as in Lisa Call's 100 Accomplishments for 2011), I wanted to think about how my activities fit into my goals.  Perhaps I'm considering my cosmic footprint for 2011 (to borrow a concept from fellow blogger and academic Jill Kronstadt, whose blog is really worth reading).  So in the larger sense, what did I do in 2011?