Discipline or Permissiveness?
A
major lesson one rapidly learns as a parent reading literature on child development is that many traditional and "common sense" approaches to child-rearing are counter-productive, for example, traditional styles of disciplining frequently result in the necessity for more disciplining rather than less.' It may he that many modern modes of lecturing and college teaching are also counter-productive. Just as in child development work, the real clues to the success or failure of a given teaching technique will be found in the underlying emotional set (and needs) of the students as contrasted with the overt behavior and demands of the student. We have to be sensitive to the emotional tone in our lecture halls. I n this regard, I will argue that a more effective form of teaching is one which is highly disciplined and organized rather than undisciplined and permissive. The college teacher serves three main functions: he sets the pace for learning by giving assignments which present material in learnable chunks; he explains difficult points and adds perspective to the material to be learned; and he is a model for his profession, providing both inspiration and a pattern for students to follow. Students really learn very little of the subject matter in the classroom since learning basically involves the solitary interaction of a student with learning materials; and I maintain that the lecturer is a poor learning "material." At best, some points get clarified in the classroom-at the worst they get confused. However, I will now leave these matters since in this paper I am most concerned with the teacher as a model. We are living a t a time when the paucity of charismatic heroes and leaders has left a vacuum in the adult world. On whom will the students model themselves? On whom in the adult world can they depend? Who can they trust? Wishy-washy, double-talking, hypocritical "leaders" in government, industry, and higher education have created this disbelief and the instability it leads to. We as teachers can develop belief in our students and credibility in the universities we populate only if we set a proper example, only if we are real and credible models. I n doing this we have to act to the G I N C IH., ~ , "Between Parent and Child: New Solutions to OldProblems." The Macmillan Co.. New York. 1965. The occakonal self-disciplined student wilirebel against being forced to do homework, but since most students benefit from this procedure it is well worth the few rebels. Indeed, I would maintain that the self-discipline of the rebel is enhanced by the confrontation with required homework. If we must err in the disei~line-~ermissiveness area, less harm is done hy erring .on the sihe of discipline. HOLT,J., "HOWChildren Fail," Dell Publishing Co., New York. 1964: "Haw Children Learn." Pitman Publishinz Co..
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provocative opinion emotional set of students rather than traditional linear subject-oriented modes of teaching. It is easy to fool children on a mechanical level, but almost impossible to fool them on an emotional level. Acts speak more accurately than speeches. (In this sense children and students are our foremost practicing existentialists.) Thus, the way we act in class, the way we comport ourselves, the way we organize our teaching, the demands we make on our students and ourselves, and what we do outside of the class are the real links we have to effectiveinteraction with our students. You may well ask what all the foregoing has to do with the practical problem of teaching chemistry. I would like to give three concrete applications, one dealing with course organization, one with examinations, and the final one with the mastery of subject matter. We as professors are adult models of our professions. As a model we must take our subject seriously and project our commitment to the subject as something of value to the students. In essence our involvement with our subject must answer the question "Why would anyone in his right mind study chemistry?" Secondly, if we expect our students to mature in college and to become more self-assured and self-disciplined, then the way we handle ourselves must be in a confident and a disciplined manner. Not all of us can achieve this as a projectahle personality trait, but we can all utilize the discipline inherent in our subject. There is no reason why a course outline cannot he distributed on the first day of class. Weekly assignments are a necessity. Even though I consider my students (even graduate students) to be reasonably adult and mature, I work t o strengthen this by requiring that homework assignments he turned in weekly. The best way to learn discipline is to practice it, and we as teachers can provide the framework for learning dis~ipline.~It is my observation that students learn self-discipline from a disciplined model. The procedure of suggesting assignments t o "mature" students is counter-productive in that most students fail to learn discipline and often fall hopelessly behind. John Holta has done the remarkable thing of really watching children in class and being sensitive to emotional reactions t o given classroom situations. Much of what he described is applicable to college teaching. As one example, let me cite the emotional tone in a class around examination times. Students are certainly tense-will they pass or fail? How much do they remember? Will it be hard or easy? Our challenge is to de-fuse this atmosphere and turn it into a positive learning experience. I recommend the following as one mechanism.
The giving of examinations can be turned into a kind of programmed learning experience. At the end of the exam, students are given a complete set of worked-out answers to the exam. This catches the student a t the period of his most intense interest in the exam. In fact, the exam might be terminated before the end of the period, giving students the opportunity to look over the answers before they leave. At the end of the following session, the students are given back their graded exams and the average score is announced. Do not go over the exam when you return it-the students are uninterested and do not listen. Instead, tell the students that the next exam will contain repeat problems similar to those which most students had difficulty with. The process is repeated from exam to exam. Rather than ignore the difficult parts of the exam, you are in effect saying to the student "This is important, I'mgoing to help you master it, and we are not going to bury it like some bad dream." Our students much prefer this procedure to the "'standard" ones. One of the group of continuing questions asked by children and college students (especially in general chemistry and very frequently in organic chemistry) is Readers may be interested in "I'm OK, You're OK," by Thomas A. Harris, Harper rand Row, Publishers, New Ymk, 1969, where parenhdult-child interactions are analyzed and discussed via the discipline of transactionrtl analysis (TA). In fact, it would be useful far someone experienced in TA to apply it to college level teaching.
the one starting "But, ~ h do y we have lo kuo~v . . ?" The blanks usually refer to factual material: forn~ulns, equations, definitions, reactions, and assorted "trivia" like the rules for spdj-ing the periodic table. The answers are generally parental4 responses of the types "Because I said so; because it's good for you; or because you will need it later." I t is easy to yield to student requests to require less memorization and less mastery of factual material. Don't do it! Don't give in! Don't he a "nice guy." Students develop very little respect for the professor who is a pushover. Do your best to supply acceptable reasons (to the student) for the material you require. They may not accept the reasons, but they will understand that you do have reasons for what you require. Don't fail them by failing to require material which you know is important to master. Demand the most of students-they respond to challenges more than they respond to yielding to their demands for less work. The discipline you exhibit as a teacher will help students to develop their own sense of discipline and responsibility. We need to share our insights about college student behavior, and we need more intensive research into the psychology of college students and the way they learn. Perhaps we can learn too. \-
Rubin Bafino Wright State University Dayton, Ohio 45431
Volume 48, Number 8, August
1971
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