By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
Professor Donald B. Scheick was a Professor of History at Indiana State University. I was in his Ancient History class in 1965 when he first took attendance and assigned our textbook and readings. And then he began asking questions. “Mr. Schrock. Who was Abraham?” Answers on this first day of class did not have to be correct, because we had just received our assignment. But correct answers to questions would be critical in all his future class sessions, because he taught completely by asking questions. These were not questions that could easily be answered by memorizing facts. He forced us to consider the motivations for historical actions and the consequences that would have likely occurred if events had gone other directions. Boy did we learn to think!
Prof. Scheick would be awarded the I.S.U. Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award in 1969. The Scheick Teaching of History Award would be awarded in later years.
Prof. Bill Brett, also at I.S.U., was my instructor in a biology majors class a semester later. He did deliver a lecture that he outlined on the board as he spoke. But as the board filled up with information on calcium carbonate in various life systems, he would have to walk back and erase it to continue speaking. While erasing, he always asked a question. I was a field biology kid, and he never called on me. So when he asked for a common example of calcium carbonate, I bowed my head and looked down at my desk.
“Mr. Schrock, what is an example?” he asked.
“The chalk you have in your hand, sir,” I immediately replied.
Prof. Brett halted his erasing, saying: “You did that to me, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” I confessed with a smile although not one other person in class knew what we were talking about. A teacher can read students’ eye pupils and distinguish those who understand from those who don’t. By bowing my head, he could not see my eyes and suspected I did not know. We both smiled.
Prof. Rudolph Jander was an entomology professor at the University of Kansas. Now I was completing a doctorate in insect systematics and ecology. Jander was a brilliant entomologist and expert on insect behavior. Every doctoral student knew Prof. Jander’s system of oral testing. He did not use paper-and–pencil exams but scheduled his insect behavior students to come in individually for an oral examination that took less than half an hour.
He would begin by asking his student to explain a concept. If the concept had four major points, and the student began by laying out this organization, Prof. Jander would realize that they had full control of the concept and the student would be cut short after a few sentences. He would move on to other concepts covered since the last exam, curtailing the student briefly after they demonstrated a command of the topic, but letting them proceed a little further when they were obviously uncertain.
At the end of these brief question sessions, each student came out realizing the boundaries of what they thoroughly understood, and where their understanding was limited. And of course, Prof. Jander likewise had a solid basis for providing an accurate grade.
While I never took his class, I did write articles in the campus newspaper about problems in academics. Prof. Jander would venture down to my desk in the insect museum and use his questioning technique on me.
“Have you considered such-and-such factor?” he would ask.
“Yes,” I would reply, “and it is important because of such-and-such consequences. But the campus newspaper limits articles to a limited number of words.”
After 20 minutes or so of discussion Prof. Jander would leave, knowing the extent of what I knew. I also now clearly understood the extent of what I knew. This was not questioning to see if a student had memorized a minimum number of facts. This was questioning that revealed fuller understanding, how concepts related to broader ideas not in the textbook, how to apply the concept to new problems, how to synthesize several concepts to solve a new problem, and how our understanding currently has limits.
This questioning has been a critical part of the U.S. generating new ideas. But with the introduction of No Child Left Behind assessment, most K-12 teaching has become teach-to-the-test memorization and universities are following the trend.
As I lecture at international science teacher training programs, I explain: “We don’t get Nobel Prizes for memorizing the textbook. We get Nobel Prizes for asking new questions that can now be solved.”
I learned that from Professors Scheick, Brett and Jander.
. . .
John Richard Schrock has trained biology teachers for more than 30 years in Kansas. He also has lectured at 27 universities during 20 trips to China. He holds the distinction of “Faculty Emeritus” at Emporia State University.