Mediated Learning Newsletter

Vol. 6, Issue 2: October 2006, page 1

I Work Hard at my Teaching!

Johnny W. Lott,
Director, Center for Teaching Excellence

MaryEllen Campbell

MaryEllen Campbell won the Distinguished Teaching Award of the University of Montana in the spring of 2006. Campbell's quote, “I work hard at my teaching” exemplifies her approach. As a full professor in the Department of Management/Marketing in the School of Business, Professor Campbell explains what she means by the quote by talking about her background, her approach to classes, and her approach to students.

Professor Campbell did not come to the School of Business in a traditional manner. Her academic background was primarily in English, but her work led her toward business and communication. From work with the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in New York to Grubb Advertising in Illinois, and on to work with the California Federal Bank and as the Executive Director of Community Medical Center Foundation, Missoula, Professor Campbell has built links between business, the non-pro?t sector and academia, and she has done it well.

With the diverse background, Ms. Campbell has forged ties between the “real world” and her academic classes. She says, “I don't have to convince my students of the importance of the real world and their academic classes, I give them problems that require that the two be integrated.” As an undergraduate English major, she was ?rst hired because she could write and write she did for magazines and fashion houses, including Estee Lauder and J. Walter Thompson. In these positions, she integrated her skills and education into the business positions she held. She knows the value of experience with the business world and how students will be treated in that world. She says that “students know that what I am doing is relevant to what they want to do” and rarely question why they are asked to do an assignment in her classes. She talks of bringing ?ve or six business environment problems in any given week to her classes phrased in a way that students are asked what they would do and how they might ?nd solutions to the problems. The students are not allowed merely to give opinions but have to relate the problems to the structures they are studying. By solving business problems that are both current and real, the students become excited about being in class and Professor Campbell feeds on that excitement.

She describes herself as a demanding teacher although she doesn't try to hold her students to the same standard as they would have in a work environment. “Few people in the business world are given second chances when they make a big mistake.” That is a major difference from academia. Here, Professor Campbell poses problems to students and if they make mistakes, those mistakes can help them learn and become savvier. Campbell's students seem to appreciate her approach to teaching. As evidence, Campbell has received the Greek Faculty Achievement award twice, The Most Inspirational Teacher Award, the John Ruffatto Memorial Award, and the Beta Gamma Signma Outstanding Teching Award twice. Added to the UM Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006, her record is evidence that she is dedicated to teaching excellence.

When asked for advice that might be given to teachers with less experience, Campbell talks about working hard at teaching by being thorough in her preparation for classes, staying interested in new approaches to presenting material which means not doing the same thing in the classroom very many times, and being aware of students' interests. She freely admits, “I try to prepare students for what life is like in the profession. I put them on the spot. Sometimes they tell me, I'm in their face. I tell them, if they can't handle what I demand of them in class, they cannot begin to handle the stress others will create for them in the workplace.” She further explains, “Some of best professors I had were people who always kept you off balance in class. You never knew what the professor would ask and what the exact answer was.” By being off-balance, students are forced to rely on the structure and knowledge they are learning and are forced to apply this knowledge to arrive at creative solutions to problems. Campbell says the type of learning environment she tries to foster rewards creative thinking--something she finds critical for students to practice. From student responses to Campbell's classes, her strategy is productive. Many of her students have built successful relationships between what they learned from her and the work they eventually do. “They give me too much credit for their success. I just try to give them confidence in their ability to think creatively using the tools of the discipline”.

Campbell adds that faculty members should remember how they want to be treated and attempt to treat students in the same manner. You can learn even from bad treatment, but a more productive
learning experience may be established by considering how you wish you had been treated in different situations. She explains; Academics are great critics because our disciplines teach us to be critics. We are rewarded for fi nding fl aws. If we are not careful, we can be unnecessarily harsh when we deliver professional opinions about colleagues’ work. Sometimes, we even bruise a colleague’s ego. Colleagues learn to take it. Students, however, have fairly fragile egos. We have to be careful not to destroy their confi dence and their motivation by cavalier comments. We can do this by paying attention to how we provide feedback. We need to respect the power of words. Students also need individual feedback and the opportunity for many types of assessment. They deserve the opportunity to grow from their mistakes not just be embarrassed or type cast by them. Only by doing these things can we truly become great teachers.