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This article describes an experience I had as a new professor the first year after receiving my Ph.D. An experiment with an innovative teaching method quickly deteriorated into a disaster. This article describes the emotional toll exacted on me, why my experiment failed, and how it prompted me to develop a personal philosophy of principle-based teaching.
Keywords: principle-based teaching; learning organization; teaching; constructivism; self-reflection
During the fall semester of a 1-year appointment at a prestigious regional graduate business school (my first job after receiving my Ph.D.), I enjoyed a high degree of success. My teaching ratings were high, I was well liked by my colleagues, and students seemed to respond well to me.
In the spring, I taught a 7-week organizational design course (MGT441 ). At the beginning of the module, I was excited and confident. At the end, I was exhausted and confused. This article describes what happened in between.
Warning Signs
A few things bothered me about being assigned this course, though I really had not taken the time to consider them until it was actually time to prepare for the class. First, I was somewhat concerned that this subject was not my bailiwick. However, I had taught five different classes as a Ph.D. student and felt confident that I could do a good job on this one as well. My philosophy, such as it was at that time, was that if I prepared as well as I could, made class fun, and engaged my students, I would do a good job.
Second, in my initial interview for the position, the previous professor in charge of organizational design had intimated that this was not a favorite course among MBA students.
It's highly theoretical-very hard to give them enough "take aways." And that is really what these students are here for. They want a box full of tools that they can take out and use to perform well in their jobs. Honestly, they can be pretty hard on a new professor if they detect even the tiniest bit of ivory-tower thinking.
Third, one colleague had told me only half-jokingly that it ranked somewhere in the vicinity of poison ivy in popularity among the management faculty. Student ratings of the course tended to be...