Latest / Higher Listenings / From Burnout to Flourishing: What Positive Psychology Reveals About Thriving in Today’s Classroom

Transcript

From Burnout to Flourishing: What Positive Psychology Reveals About Thriving in Today’s Classroom · Higher Listenings

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think that human flourishing, helping us all thrive and achieve and enjoy ourselves, connect with other people because that's what really matters.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: The research is clear.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: We can boost our own well-being and that of our students as well.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's Flower Darby reminding us of something deceptively simple.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Flourishing isn't a luxury, it's essential at work, in the classroom, and in the spaces in between.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: But let's be honest, for a lot of us in higher ed right now, the idea of flourishing can sound a bit like a stretch goal.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in her latest book, The Joyful Online Teacher, Flower makes the case that joy isn't fluff, it's fuel.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Drawing on positive psychology and the science of well-being, she argues that when we thrive, our students do too.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, what would happen if joy became part of the job description?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Higher Listings.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Flower, welcome back to Higher Listings.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's wonderful to have you with us.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so delighted to be here today.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to zoom out for a moment just as we get rolling into the conversation.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: But there's been so much talk lately, or frankly, for the past few years, around burnout, student disengagement, faculty disillusionment.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So why do you think joy and teaching of all things is the conversation we need to be having right now?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Eric, to your point, there's just been so much fatigue, burnout, exhaustion, low morale, frustration with societal issues, with forces at work around us that we are struggling with, that we feel like we're reacting against, we feel out of control.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I believe that bringing joy into our teaching allows us to reclaim agency.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, I think it's the secret sauce that's going to help us.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: We have so much empirical evidence to show that enjoying ourselves and creating conditions in which our students can enjoy themselves, it reliably predicts academic achievement and optimal functioning in every way.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I feel like we have a little bit of a magic bullet here, and I'm really happy to be here today to talk about it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I really love the focus on joy, especially in this moment.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, couldn't agree more.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: The new book that's coming out is continuing your notable expertise in online teaching.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's called The Joyful Online Teacher.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: But as you just suggested, the message clearly goes beyond that modality and seems to have something to recommend to teaching in whatever mode.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the core idea that you hope readers to take away, even if they're not in an online teaching environment?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: When I first proposed this book, I was solely focused on asynchronous classes.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: And the reason is I think despite decades worth of research and recommendations, they still leave a lot to be desired.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Asynchronous classes need a lot of help.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: I really feel like that mode is like the patient in the emergency room that gets triaged to the front of the queue.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like we need to work on that.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: But to your point, the research, the theory, and even the recommendations definitely apply whether we're teaching in a studio, in a lab, in a large lecture hall, in a discussion-based seminar.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's evidence to support this, that these ideas apply in any achievement-based context.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: So the soccer field, the gymnastics, you know, we're right now as we're recording winter Olympics are going on.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: These kinds of themes, the research and the findings, apply to promote achievement and success and well-being no matter the domain.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: And it enhances our own experience, allows us to enjoy our work more as well.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: So your work is steeped in positive psychology and human flourishing.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I know we're going to get into that.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds lovely, but it might sound a little ambitious for a Monday morning in higher education as we roll into another large lecture with all of the things that we have to contend with faculty.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what pulled you into that research?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: And once you had that lens, how did that start to shift how you saw the practice of teaching?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so really I was introduced to PERMA through my continuing graduate studies in psychology.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: The field of positive psychology was founded by Martin Seligman and Mihai Chik Chiksen.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he wrote Flow, right?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: He wrote Flow.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: So he and Seligman sort of issued a call for, and I believe it was in the year 2000 or right thereabouts, for the establishment of this academic discipline called positive psychology.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: And it really was intended to look at what is happening in our psychological landscape when we are thriving, when we are doing well, when we are succeeding, when we are happiest and at our best.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: And specifically, the focus here was to take a very scientific and empirical-based approach to testing, to identifying.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: So that's really what positive psychology is.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: And in a word, what it really kind of comes down to, what the findings all point to, is that other people matter.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: And when I look at the languishing that I have been seeing in higher ed, that I have felt myself, especially when all I was doing was teaching online classes, which allowed me a great degree of flexibility as a mother of young kids, right?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I was not thriving as a fully online teacher.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I just see a lot of that languishing.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that human flourishing, helping us all thrive and achieve and enjoy ourselves, connect with other people because that's what really matters.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: The research is clear.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: We can we can boost our own well-being and that of our students as well.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned PERMA, which I think is something Seligman developed.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a model.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Can you unpack what does that actually stand for?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: How does that work?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: How does that find its way into the practice of teaching or just flourishing more generally?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because it definitely has been shown to impact all areas of life.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: It promotes optimal functioning in every life domain, whether that's in a teaching and learning context, a workplace context, whether it is in a community or a volunteer group, a tense family dinner.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it's powerful.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Let me explain what it is.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: PERMA is an acronym for five building blocks of individual well-being.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: And what I love about this model is the flexibility of it and the individuality of it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: We can all tailor it based on our own personalities.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: P stands for positive emotions.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: What the research shows is that when we are feeling happy, or and it's great, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's more than happiness.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's satisfaction, it's pride, it's gratitude, it's hope.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: But what's also clear, and Seligman himself called this out, is about 50% of the world's population, they don't go around feeling happy all the time.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: So what else can we do to foster that feeling good?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: So the other four building blocks really come into play.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: Is that state of flow when we are so totally engaged in what we're doing?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's engagement that we lose all sense of time and self.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: Then that is a source of well-being.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: We can cultivate those experiences that invite us into that state of flow and build up our own well-being.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: Relationships, supportive social connections, feeling valued, accepted, appreciated, even from a quick little moment of chit-chat at the coffee shop when we are intentional to cultivate that and exchange a few kind words or greetings, but especially with more deeper social connections, that is a key source of well-being.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: M in PERMA is meaning.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: It is the feeling that we are connected to something higher than ourself.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: We are serving some greater purpose.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: I would also add, it's easy to lose sight of the meaningfulness of our work when we're in the trenches of teaching.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Last but not least, A in PERMA is accomplishment.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's that feeling of satisfaction and that glow of happiness when you finish the thing, whatever it might be, when you do it, when you finish, when you win.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: And in this context, when we help our students be successful in our classes and complete and proceed, that's a really important source of well-being as well.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: You've been teaching for decades across modalities.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious to know at what point you were able to step back and find a moment to say something has to change in my practice, in the practice I see around me.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: What was the turning point?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: What sparked your desire to pursue a different direction and ultimately lead to the side profession of Behim, a renowned expert in faculty development and teaching and learning?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: Anybody who is familiar with my work or me as a person can tell that I am more on that happy and bubbly side of life just by personality.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm more of an optimist.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: When I first started teaching, I was teaching both English composition and jazz dance, and jazz dance is fun.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I would bring that into the English classroom and I would experience that upwelling of just having fun, just fizz.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: But I found that when I brought in the kind of fun that I experienced in the jazz dance studio, it helped energize my students.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now the thing is, is I was young and I was kind of embarrassed about how much fun we were having in my classes.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: I thought my colleagues going down the hall would judge me for that.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I sort of tried to hide it.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: But then in around 2016-2017, a pivotal moment for me was reading Sarah Rose Kavanaugh's book, The Spark of Learning, Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it gave me permission to do what I knew was working.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: But around the same time, that's when I was teaching really fully online.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: And what I noticed is that my teacher self, my joyful, bubbly, fizzy self, was dying inside.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: It I was just shriveling down to nothing because online teaching and learning didn't feel very rewarding or satisfying.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that was one of those moments when I was like, all right, we need to see what we can do to invigorate these spaces.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: I started going deep into emotion science and asynchronous classes, and the result is the joyful online teacher.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: What does that actually look like in practice, especially if someone who feels like their own fizz has gone a little flat?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Would you recommend a fellow faculty member consider doing, maybe just in their own life and or how they actually approach the craft of teaching, or perhaps things that they might do with their students to recapture some of that fizz?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of what I wrote about in the book is about taking the time to notice what makes you feel good, taking the time to notice what benefits your students and to reflect on that, to derive meaning and to double down on those kinds of things.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: There was a moment a little bit later after I had that sort of in motion sciences awakening.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: There was this moment that I had a student in my graduate online course, it was a three-credit master's level course that took place in four weeks, which was insane, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: And toward the end of week two, she reached out to me.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: She was having a problem with a project that was required using LinkedIn.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: It was a technology fluency class that I was teaching.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: This was the second to last class before she was going to finish her master's.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: But this project had her stumped and she was so frustrated she was about to drop the entire program.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: And she reached out.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: She said, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Okay, I get it.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: I tell you what, I think we can figure something out, but I want to have a phone call because we need to just connect.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now, when we got on the call, which by the way was less than 10 minutes, I noticed her voice, frustrated, heavy, right?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: Discouraged.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: I made a deliberate effort to infuse warmth, support, encouragement, optimism.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: We got this.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up offering her a seven-day extension.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: I said, set that project aside, resume everything else that's happening at the end of the class, take seven more days.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: She was able to legitimately finish the class, earn an A.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: And here's my point: it didn't cost me anything to give her seven more days.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: It cost me less than 10 minutes, but I was intentional to foster that human connection.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that brought me a lot of joy to be able to help that student reach her goal.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I'm saying that instructors can facilitate, can notice, can try to do more of.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: And last thing I would say on this is I am currently facilitating an online workshop for faculty at my university.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's called Teaching for All Learners.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's about helping all of our students be successful.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: And somebody just literally today in the introduction post said, you know what?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: I need to notice what I enjoy more and do more of that in my teaching.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I couldn't have said it better myself.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: I would I want to just pick up on that because that's a one-to-one interaction.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's a beautiful story.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: And like you say, it's amazing how what's a relatively modest investment, the kind of impact that that can actually have on an individual.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: But if we were to zoom out, imagine I'm teaching a course and I may have like 200 students in my class.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: I might be able to do that with a handful of folks over the course of a semester.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: But any thoughts on how you can develop relationships in a context where the class size is so big?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a really important question, Erica.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Again, what the literature shows is that we can teach with rapport, we can kind of project that approachability, that willingness to support our students, even in contexts like a large lecture class, or even for students who are very perhaps introverted or not very confident about approaching the instructor, but it's very clear the literature shows that when we adopt that persona, when we adopt that mindset of I'm here to help you, and when we prioritize that kind of rapport building, that trust building, even in those large lecture classes, it is clear that all students will be more successful.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: And just because I love to be super practical, I want to share one sort of category or set of behaviors that people can practice even in circumstances that aren't ideal.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: There is something that comes out of communication studies.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's called immediacy cues.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: And these are verbal and nonverbal behaviors that communicate to the person you're interacting with that you're on their side, that you like them, that you're there for them, you're available, you're you're approachable.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: In a large lecture hall, here's one example: maintaining a relaxed body posture, looking up from the lectern and not just always reading your notes or talking to the board, being more open and expressive and making more eye contact, projecting outward and upward.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: Those are immediacy cues that are practices that everybody could cultivate.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's not rocket science.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: I would also be quick to add, some of those behaviors don't come naturally to all instructors.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: I recognize that it's important to be true to yourself, but it's also important to look at what the literature says, little things that we can do that demonstrate to all students that you're there to support them.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if that was a previous conversation we've had or if I picked this up somewhere else.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: But even if I don't reach out to you for help as an instructor, the fact that you give off these cues, this vibe, this energy of I'm invested in your success, I'm here for you.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I just sort of feel better about being in that class.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: I may even feel like I actually belong, that I'm a part of a learning community, that sort of thing.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it's got a ripple effect, presumably, beyond, you know, the one student who asked the question.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: It really does.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: It creates an entire atmosphere that is warm, that is supportive, that enables a little bit more intellectual risk taking.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: So perhaps if I'm in your class and it's a really chilly climate and you're Professor Mean Eric Gardner, that's gonna naturally, because I know that's kind of how you roll.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be harder for me if I don't feel confident as a student taking that class.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I don't know if I have what it takes.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I'm a first generation student.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be harder for me to really experience intrinsic motivation and drive to engage deeply, you know, take the scary act of raising my hand in class or coming up to you after class.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: So projecting that warmth, creating this atmosphere.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: So these are things that we can do to help students who may have a low degree of uncertainty to feel more confident in their ability to do the work and be successful.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: What's striking me in our conversation is how the relationship between a learner and an educator and instructor is so critical to the success of the learner.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've mentioned in the past some activities or in your own practice, I've seen your keynote on several occasions, and you start with a personal story.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So is it things like that?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Even if I tend to be in the function of the educator role, very formal and set very high standards and very demanding and not particularly warm one-on-one environment, because that's just not who I am.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: There are things I can do to invite at least a conception of a relationship with me as an educator, as a coach, as a mentor who wants them to be successful, even if I don't really want, can't really have a one-on-one relationship with 200 students in a course.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: I will fully admit it's easy for me to come across as this is gonna work for everybody.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: But the fact is, as you just mentioned, not every educator is wired like me.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: Many of my esteemed colleagues would rather maintain more of an authoritative stance, more of a scholarly or academic tone.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: And that's great because being authentic to yourself is actually critically important as well.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: But let me back up here.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: This is the kind of statement that when I first heard it, I went, oh yeah, but I hadn't ever heard it articulated before.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: And that is teaching and learning are inherently relational.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: You can't teach effectively, and somebody cannot learn from you effectively if there is poor communication there.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: We know that, again, that rapport, that trust enhances the communication.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: So to your point, we definitely hold our standards high.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is a misbelief, I would say a myth that when we are being more open, supportive, being more approachable, that actually we may be lowering our standards for academic challenge.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: I would argue that that is not what we're doing.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: I like the phrase that folks like Michelle Bakansky Brock are normalizing and are promoting.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's called warm demander.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: We have high expectations and we communicate our warmth and optimism that students will get there.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: We should be intentional to build up the steps and the scaffolding to help students achieve those standards because we care about our students, right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: Even an instructor or professor who is, by personality, not quite as effusive or more reserved, more scholarly.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: We care about our students and we want them to be successful and being intentional to communicate that through decisions related to, for example, late work, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: To proactively build in some flexibility.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's another way to communicate to a large classroom full of students that sure it may not be a lot of one-to-one, but I have been intentional in being empathetic and demonstrating support from class policies.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: Those are other ways to communicate that caring, that pedagogical caring, even if we ourselves are more reserved within professional boundaries and within personality comfort zones.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot that we can do to communicate that we care about our students and want them to be successful as people and as learners.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: The tyranny of content is something that we speak about when we're trying to move our practice forward as educators.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a shift in aim here from content to something else that's necessary?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Or what's the story that we tell in the Joyful Online Teacher if it's not content-focused or content-centric?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: I think the word that we want in that sentence, their bread, is community.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: Let's shift from content to community.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Now, I recognize that this may be difficult for folks.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: I work with academics all the time who are like, but I have to cover my content.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: I get it.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: I understand that.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: I do not want the bridge collapsing under my car when I am driving it, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: Engineering material is important.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: However, I would point to a research study conducted by one of my co-authors, Brian Dewsberry and his colleagues, that is about inclusive and active pedagogies, which take time.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: And about how that particular team of researchers cut 33% of the content, if I remember correctly, they cut a large percentage of material from introductory biology class and were able to show improved learning of biological concepts in the downstream course in the next semester.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: Cutting some of the material in order to make time for the community building, the connections as people, because the research shows that that deepens learning.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: I believe cutting content to make time for community is actually where it's at.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned the curriculum committee and accreditation.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk a little bit about the situational context in which all of this interest in joyful teaching and the constraints or pressures that bear against it.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything I can do as an individual faculty member?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And is there anything that you would speak to institutional leaders directly who might be listening that they might do to support faculty more effectively in making transitions, in ensuring that joyful teaching unfolds across their campuses?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: I know that as scholars, we rely heavily on the empirical evidence.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so for individual instructors who maybe they're even advocating among their colleagues in a hallway conversation or suggesting to the department chair that maybe a smaller class size would be more effective to deepen learning.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: These things are hard to advocate for in the, quite frankly, the challenging economic context that higher education finds itself in.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: But when you look At the evidence about how effectively the positive emotional experiences, the feelings of belonging, of being connected and valued actually predict academic outcomes and achievement and performance and retention and graduation rate, those are tuition dollars, quite frankly.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I would encourage individuals to maybe look to the evidence and bring those arguments to bear when they're advocating for what they may need.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: For example, I'm thinking of another large enrollment introductory biology class that, due to grant funding, the instructor was able to recruit and train a team of undergraduate learning assistants.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's the kind of thing.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: It takes money, I get it, and resources, but we know it works.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: In that particular class, they improved the completion rate by 50% by the process and the designs that they implemented.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: And a large part of that was to recruit and train more help for those large classes.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's really going to be a very similar message for department chairs, for deans, for distance learning administrators, because again, I think that online education has a lot of potential for improvement, broadly speaking.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: We need smaller class sizes across the board.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: We need more support.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm talking time and money to help instructors learn these concepts, look at the research base, practice implementing some new things.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: That takes time and money.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the message I would love to communicate to higher education administrators.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: I do firmly believe that we will see an improvement in the bottom line when we help our students be more successful.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: And that starts with faculty success.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: By the same token, I hate to focus on that economic aspect of higher education, but it is the reality.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have any resources at the moment.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: We're still building the case for that flower.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: But in that context, is there a small shift, maybe even one that feels a little backwards at first that you've seen unlock real joy or an engagement in the course?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about the kind of tweak that you might think, hey, wait, I wish I'd known about that sooner.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: Just recently, I was speaking with an anatomy and physiology instructor at a university who said that she likes to get to her class, 400 student large lecture and enrollment kind of a class.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: She likes to get to class about 30 minutes early because she finds it to be more effective than office hours.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: She just plants herself there and just makes it easier for students to come in and ask a question.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: Those, I believe, are the little kinds of things that we can do.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe we want to bring in a learning game such as Jeopardy Trivia style to review class facts and material.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: Anything like that that is more fun actually deepens learning, enhances retention of those kinds of things.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I am a fan of focusing on what we can do in our own classes as the instructors.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think prioritizing people and quite frankly, thinking about whether an experience is enjoyable or engaging or interesting and making changes that go toward that direction.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think those are small things that we can do.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Flower writing and launching a book is an act of hope.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: What do you hope might come from the release of this latest book of yours?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: I would love for academics to be reminded of the transformational work that we are doing at an individual and a community and a societal level.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Again, the research is clear.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: More education predicts better outcomes for individuals, their families, for local communities, and more broadly for society.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Education promotes tolerance for diverse viewpoints.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: It promotes our ability to dialogue across differences.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: We are literally making the world a better place in the work that we are doing as educators.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: And it's easy to lose sight of that fact.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope that people will be inspired, be renewed in their purpose, be reinvigorated, and desire to bring more joy, more human connection, even just enjoying their classes more, even if we get to that point.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: I do believe it can have a transformational effect, broadly speaking.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I hope that we're we're making the world a slightly better place by having you on Higher Listenings again.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks so much for joining us, Flower.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: It's just, it truly is my passion.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: That's clear, right?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just a genuine delight.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it's very humbling, honestly, that people invite me to hear a little bit about what I think.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's not just what I think, it's what the research says.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I always enjoy conversations with you.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: When we enjoy ourselves, we learn more.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: That is a fact.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you both.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Higher Listenings is brought to you by Top Hat, the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to curating captivating learning experiences, we could all use a helping hand, right?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: With Top Hat, you can create dynamic presentations by incorporating polls, quizzes, and discussions to make your time with students more engaging.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: But it doesn't end there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Design your own interactive readings and assignments and include multimedia, video, knowledge checks, discussion prompts, the sky's the limit, or simply choose from our catalog of fully customizable Top Hat e-text and make them your own.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: The really neat part is how we're putting some AI magic up your sleeve.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Top hat Ace, our AI-powered teaching and learning assistant, makes it easy to create assessment questions with the click of a button, all based on the context of your course content.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Plus, Ace gives student learning a boost with personalized AI powered study support they can access anytime, any place.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Learn more at TopHat.comslash podcast today.