In Praise of Great Teaching 

BAYLOR JUSTIFIABLY TAKES PRIDE IN THE QUALITY OF ITS TEACHERS.

So we built a list of 26 Baylor professors who have been granted Master Teacher status by the university, 23 professors who were chosen to win the Collins Award by the senior class, and nine winners of the Cornelia Marschall Smith Award. Individual departments and schools have their own awards, but we chose to focus on these three awards to help narrow the list to 55 (some have won more than one of these prestigious awards).

We chose 10 terrific teachers more or less at random to highlight in this issue. Though several more have passed away, many alumni contributed fond memories and words of praise on social media and through our website, which we’ve included in this package. But then we decided to do something a bit different. We thought, who better to write about teachers than students? So we reached out to Professor Macarena Hernandez, the Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor of Journalism, and asked her to connect us with some of her journalism students to write some “mini-profiles” of these teachers. What better way to identify future interns and writers for the Baylor Line — or to help them build their byline files — than to see what a group of freshmen (and a few sophomores) can do on deadline?

We discovered that in these particular academic settings, there was a lot more discussion about building learning communities than we expected, having come from a time when professors lecturing from a podium were more the rule than the exception. We learned that students are needing to come to class a lot more prepared because it’s very likely that in these classrooms, they may find themselves leading the discussion. And we also learned that some of Baylor’s best teachers want their students to leave their class at the end of a semester with more than a bunch of notes.

“I think there are four characteristics of great teachers, recognizing that they all have different styles,” says Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Policy Jim Bennighof. “First, they all convey a dedication to student success. Second, they have a clear passion for the subject matter and what it can mean in our lives. Third is they have a command of the material, and fourth they are all able to facilitate communication between themselves and their students, no matter how they do it.”

Bennighof interviews prospective faculty members and says that while the phrase is rapidly becoming a cliché, he’s seeing an increasing number of candidates “who don’t want to be the sage on the stage; they want to be the guide on the side.” While Baylor is committed to building a reputation as a world-class research institution, that doesn’t mean that a focus on

teaching is any less important.

“One reason it’s important to recognize good teaching is because research success tends to be more quantifiable,” Bennighof says. “With research, you’re publishing and your results are more public. But we can’t underestimate the importance of someone who inspires in a student a love of the subject matter and the capability and desire to learn more.”

As a result, he says, one of his priorities has been to ask each department at Baylor to articulate what good teaching is — since it can vary by discipline — and to be as explicit as they can.

So here is a brief introduction, or reconnection, as the case may be, to just a few of Baylor’s best teachers.

Retired Philosophy professor Robert Baird served as chair of the philosophy department for 18 years, created the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core program, and served as both Baylor Faculty Senate chairman and as the Faculty University Ombudsman.

One day at Ouachita Baptist University, Baird was asked to stay after class by his freshman English professor. She told him the questions he brought up in class were philosophical and he should consider transferring to Baylor University to pursue an education in philosophy. He took the advice and came to Baylor as a sophomore in 1956.

“I transferred to Baylor and immediately started taking philosophy courses,” Baird said. “They abso- lutely captured my mind and I realized that was the discipline that most interested me.”

Baird met his now wife, Alice Cheavens during his senior year, which led him to decide to pursue his mas- ters at Baylor so he didn’t have to leave her.

After earning additional degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Emory University and teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan University and Oglethorpe College, Baird decided to become a teacher, filling an open position at Baylor. “Being a lecturer in the philosophy department at a very young age after getting my master’s degree changed my life because I absolutely fell in love with teaching,” Baird said. “I just realized what a marvelous experience it was every day to go in and engage in conversation with students.”

Baird was a member of the Baylor faculty for 47 years. Every year he began his classes by challenging the students to take the course seriously because it could be life changing. Baird was highly concerned with helping students see that philosophy was the most practical of all disciplines.

“Going all the way back to Socrates, the task of philosophy is really to figure out how you are going to live your life,” Baird said. “There is really nothing more practical than that.”

Baird recognized that the formative time spent in college typically coincides with major life choices, including career path and marriage decisions. Baird believes that lessons learned in his classes helped students understand and think clearly about those big decisions so they would not regret them.

Baird shared an epiphany he had many years ago: looking out on a group of talented students, he wondered if the teachers of his three children realized how remarkable his kids were. He realized that each of those students had parents who wondered the exact same thing about their children’s’ teachers.

“Early on I knew but later it just increasingly became clear to me that all these kids are remarkable and all have potential,” Baird said with a smile. “That motivated me to contribute to their lives so they became richer and fuller.”

Baird says he believes the very best teachers build great relationships with students and other faculty members. He says he wanted to make an impact on every student’s life, but kept an eye out for students who had a special interest in becoming a “serious” learner. 

“When I would see that, I would pursue it with them,” Baird said. “I would try to make myself available to students, I would take the initiative in pursuing students whose potential seemed really remarkable. My life has been enriched with relationships with students that early on I began to develop a relationship with and encourage.”

With a big smile on his face, Baird said he frequently receives e-mails from past students, many of whom had him for multiple classes, the notes thank him and reaffirm what a great professor he was. He could only describe the kind words as “overwhelming.”

Baird retired in 2014, leaving him lots of time to visit his grandchildren, two in California and two in Michigan. As an avid reader, Baird said he now has more time to read and reads outside of his field of philosophy, guilt-free. He stays busy going to luncheons with friends nearly every day of the week, keeping those relationships strong.

“On my next birthday I am going to be 80 years old and I look back and I am just so grateful to pursue the profession I pursued,” Baird said. “It allowed me to have at least the possibility of having an impact on so many people’s lives.”

-Emily Edwards ’20, Colleyville, Texas

Dr. Blair Browning stumbled into his calling while in the final stages of pursuing his Master’s degree at Baylor.

“I was asked to teach for one year. It went well and they asked me to do one more year … and on it went,” Browning said. “After a few years, I realized how much I loved what I was doing so I made the decision to start driving several days a week to another school to attain my Ph.D. while teaching full-time.”

Since then, Browning has spent the last 18 years teaching students at Baylor the importance of leading through service.

“Putting your followers first is not the way many are taught to lead,” Browning said. “Yet, it’s far from a weak leadership stance.”

Even with so many different opinions and viewpoints in this world, Browning explained how most people are more willing to follow a leader who they know cares about them and wants to make sure that they gain the credit they deserve. One of Browning’s friends offered some advice that he believes sums up why it is so important to serve as you lead.

“People want to follow a leader who will sprint to the front of the line when the bullets are flying and be in the back when the awards are handed out,” said the friend, a corporate CEO.

With this in mind, Browning makes sure that when he teaches, his students are given opportunities to apply what they’re doing to real-life circumstances in order to increase their understanding. 

The material shouldn’t just be “memorized and regurgitated for an exam,” Browning said. “The hope is that the material will be absorbed and put into action in their lives.”

In addition to creating an atmosphere where his students can learn by doing, Browning said he believes great professors facilitate captivating discussions. He explained that one of the keys to accomplishing this is for the professors to show that they care about the students participating in class, not only their attendance.

“When students take part in the discussion and piggyback off of other comments, it invigorates them and it’s incredibly life-giving to me,” Browning has said. “As faculty members, we all hope for engagement in the material and this seems to accomplish it the best way.”

Rather than just defining servant leadership in class in lecture format, Browning takes his leadership classes into the community serve throughout the semester in hopes that they will learn that leaders lead, but they also serve, and that those two statements are in no way contradictory.

And, Browning says, there’s an additional benefit to an approach that helps students learn from each other: He learns a lot from his students.

Browning strives for his students to continue to learn and grown, even outside his classroom by keeping one key phrase of his in mind, “I’m not where I want to be, but I’m better than I used to be.”

-Kaitlyn DeHaven ’20, Cedar Park, Texas

When Dr. Mona Choucair thinks about great teachers, one of the first who comes to mind is Ann Vardaman Miller, one of Baylor’s first master teachers and the person Choucair credits for inspiring her classroom teaching style and exemplifying a true love for life.

“Ann Miller. She was a legend in the English Department. She just had a way of greeting students, making us feel comfortable, making us feel like they had ownership in the class,” said Choucair. “I thought if I ever get to teach, I’m going to try and be like that.”

While splitting her time between the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences, she treats each moment in the classroom as a means to encourage students to think outside of the box and beyond what’s expected. Choucair’s teaching style depends on the day since her lesson execution is personalized for every class dynamic. She’s a flexible professor and she has her reasoning.

“You have to meet each student where they are, know that each student has ability, and then tap into that ability,” Choucair said. “All students are different.”

She views her time in the classroom similar to teaching art. She doesn’t hold all the answers, but she encourages students to constantly express their views and perspectives over every topic in class. She finds joy in every reflection the students experience during class since it’s all about the relationships created.

“Literature is a vehicle for me to speak with students. Many things in literature resonate with our lives,” explained Choucair. “Literature and fiction mimic our lives. That’s why we read it. We grow from it. Art mimics life.”

As an educator, Choucair strives to constantly hone and expand her skills. She aims to extend each lesson beyond expectation and across the common narration of an average English course. She provides outlets for her students through class journals, essays, and reflective options, which have made her class noteworthy as what she refers to as being a “break from the norm.”

Choucair’s teaching style focuses on tools and a way of thinking that students can carry forward after her courses. She demonstrates a true love for learning in her class and aims to guide every student into a renewed appreciation for reading. She hopes that when students leave her class at the end of the semester, they are bit more cultured and prone to reading something that isn’t on a syllabus.

“I love all the subject matter, but if I can’t relate it to any student and make it matter in each life, then what’s the point?” Choucair said. “It’s the students that matter. I love the students.”

She brings this level of passion and commitment to all of her relationships with students. Today, Dr. Choucair serves as a Faculty in Residence for the School of Education Living Learning Center in South Russell Hall where she enjoys connecting with students personally, just as she does in her classroom.

-Cameron Bocanegra’20, Georgetown, Texas

For many Baylor alumni, memories of classes taken often include sitting in on lengthy lectures and lessons, the content of which has long since been forgotten. However, for those who took a class from Dr. D. Thomas Hanks, this typical style of teaching was non-existent, replaced instead by student-led discourse and discussion.

“Basically, I don’t teach,” Hanks said. “I start by saying a couple of things about the topic, but then I ask the students, ‘Why has this been an amazing publishing success?’ and I wait until they tell me. I have an idea, which I hold in reserve, and their answers are usually better.”

Hanks has been a professor at Baylor for more than 40 years, and has impacted hundreds of students with his unique teaching style. Winner of the Master Teacher award in 2005, Hanks is a member of the English Department, with an emphasis in Medieval Literature, Geoffrey Chaucer and Sir Thomas Malory.

“My biggest challenge is just getting out of the student’s way,” Hanks said, smiling. “I like to show off, and if I can just restrain myself and instead let them take center stage and maybe say ‘That is great,’ or maybe say ‘You are a fine writer.’ If I can get out of my own way, and get out of their light, their light is going to shine forth.”

On the other end of the classroom, Hanks believes that the greatest obstacle facing students is the “fatalism of the multitude,” or the feeling that one person cannot make a difference in the world. Hanks said that one of the best examples of this idea was his father’s decision to create a center for cerebral palsy treatment in Missouri.

“My father changed things by just going out and saying, ‘We’re going to change this,'” Hanks said. “He got with the National Cerebral Palsy Association, and they couldn’t give him any money but they sent him some information. Dad founded a center for cerebral palsy, and did it on his own, because my little sister had cerebral palsy and it just killed his heart that he couldn’t do anything to help her.”

Along with making sure that his students know that they “are capable of far more than they think they are,” Hanks believes that the mark of an adept teacher is to be able to use other teachers’ successes to their own advantage.

“I think one of the characteristics of someone who’s going to be as good a teacher as they can be is to steal widely from people who do it right,” Hanks said. 

Hanks has implemented the practices of many other professors in his classroom, the idea of eJournals, which was created by Dr. Anne-Marie Schultz, director of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) and professor of Philosophy.

“The real community has to happen in the classroom, and I stole that idea from Jerome Bruner,” Hanks chuckled. “All the people in every one of the classes I’m teaching knows the names of all the others. Students have told me that years later they’ll see someone on campus and they’ll remember his or her name and stop and talk a while.”

Bruner, who was a professor of psychology and law at Harvard University, New York University and University of Oxford, introduced the idea of the “Web of Social Reciprocity,” which implies that in a social setting, whatever one contributes to the situation, one will also receive. Hanks has applied this principle to his classroom, making sure that his students participate in discussion, and are aware of their peers’ contributions as well.

“In class, they know that if they don’t take part in the conversation, they look like real jerks,” Hanks said. “It’s just expected in the class. Their friends expect it, and they know I expect it, but a big part of it is that they expect it of themselves. They really are a pretty friendly lot; they like each other.”

Hanks, who received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota, compared this sense of unity in the classroom to when a car has become stuck in a bank of snow, and a group of random passerby will swarm to help the trapped motorist.

“Your car will skid very gently and undamaged into the curb, and you’re in a very slick spot and you can’t just accelerate and get out,” Hanks said. “What happens, and it’s almost magical, is suddenly a group of people will appear and they start rocking your car on no apparent signal. It frequently happens in just 30 seconds, and you’re out and on your way again and waving out the window.”

Before Hanks studied in Minnesota, he was on track to become a career Air Force Officer at Dulles Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada when out of nowhere, he was sent orders to be an English professor at the Air Force Academy. 

After two years teaching young cadets in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hanks chose to leave the Air Force to go to the University of Minnesota on the GI Bill to receive his Ph.D. before making the decision to come to Waco.

“I came to Baylor because in Springfield, Missouri, people in Baptist circles know that if you lead a good life, and obey the injunctions of the Lord, when you die, you go to Baylor,” Hanks said with a grin.

-Bailey Brammer ’20, Phoenix, Arizona

In an office lined with the colorful spines of books, Dr. David Lyle Jeffrey sits, surrounded by shadows of his past: a 7-year-old boy flipping through a Charles Dickens novel and a rambunctious young man. 

Author of several books and a Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities who was born at the beginning of World War II, Jeffrey describes his life and career as a series of interventions of God, of prominent adults, and of books.

“I lived in the far north of Canada – pretty rugged environment, pretty simple, not much money and I grew up as a young boy when the war wasn’t over yet,” said Jeffrey. “We didn’t have enough food and we were working on rations and all sorts of stuff like that. So, you could forget about all of that; pick up a nice book and you started to read and it does kind of open up new worlds. And it makes you open to the possibilities – which is, I think, one of the great things about reading in general.”

“I look back with gratitude and I feel like in ways that I wasn’t looking for it, hadn’t thought about and certainly didn’t perceive always at the time,” said Jeffrey. “I think the Lord was being very kind to me by putting these sort of guardian angels in my life – the grade eight teacher and my aunt.”

As a kid who got in constant trouble, Jeffrey was sent to a reformatory school. There Jeffrey met a teacher for eighth grade whom he describes as the most brilliant teacher “[he’s] ever had, including when [he] got [his] PhD at Princeton” in 1968.

“But I would say, he is the most important reason I didn’t wind up in jail or worse like some folks I knew,” said Jeffrey.

Middle school soccer and hockey city champs, Jeffrey’s beloved eighth grade teacher also had the 36 reformatory boys memorize 2000 lines of British poetry, got them to Calculus in mathematics and worked them hard.

Jeffrey explained how his eighth grade teacher challenged him as any great coach and teacher would. Although he “could never teach as well as he does,” Jeffrey thinks about that teacher while he teaches and challenges his students as well. 

Jeffrey left the reform school and in high school, he commented that he “didn’t have a single teacher in high school that was worth anything.” Football, basketball and hockey kept him in school despite never doing a single piece of homework. When he graduated, Jeffrey was not planning to go to college. He was prepared to get a job and live on a farm. The aunt that taught him how to read at the age of 3 told him he was going to college and paid for his education.

“She sent me down [to Wheaton College] to take the SAT test in August before the term started,” said Jeffrey. “I worked there with the JV basketball team and the coach drove me back to the airport and I got into college. That’s how that happened. I wouldn’t have been in college.”

Now, as a professor who has taught in the philosophy, English and religion department, Jeffrey says he is blessed and full of gratitude for a life that found him.

“What really makes me happy when I get up in the morning is smart, interested undergraduates and I even like to teach freshman,” said Jeffrey. “I always teach a freshman course. That would be one of the two favorite courses I have now.”

The small moments in Jeffrey’s life continue to influence him: grandparents with a well-stocked library and an often-absent father who made his time back count.

“On Sunday, I was able to go to my grandparents’ house and take as many books home as I wanted as long as I brought them back the next Sunday,” said Jeffrey.

Books became a part of one of his favorite childhood memories with a father who only came home from the war once a year.

“My favorite memory is of him coming home and sitting down with me and reading me stories, because my mother really wasn’t gifted in that way,” said Jeffrey. “From the time I was a little kid, that was a pretty special memory.”

Jeffrey gave a definite “no” and a hearty chuckle when asked if he would have ever imagined himself becoming a teacher. Despite that, he finds the greatest satisfaction for an “old professor” is when a student he taught 40 years ago asks to visit him or past students send him an e-mail of thanks.

“I would be happy if those things didn’t come, but they are wonderful little benedictions,” said Jeffrey. “When you get something like that you think, “Thank you, Lord.”

-Kristina Valdez ’20, Irving, Texas

Baylor University prides itself on being driven by professors whose main concern is their students. Dr. Roger E. Kirk takes that mission to heart and it shows in the classroom where he creates an engaging learning environment for students fueled by the love for his wife and ballroom dance.

“I monitor expressions, I am always looking at the class very carefully,” said Dr. Kirk. “When I see a lack of interest, I’ll chase rabbits. I’ll talk about my wife, Jane. I’ll talk about ballroom dancing.”

Dr. Kirk recalls one day where all of the loves of his life converged in his classroom. His wife Jane had surprised him on Valentine’s Day with a moment that students would remember for years to come. Jane, a professor in the Baylor School of Music, arranged for group of her students to come into his classroom to sing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.” Both avid ballroom dancers, they took the floor in his classroom and waltzed in front of his students. 

Dr. Kirk and his wife are not only two-time Texas Senior Champions in Ballroom Dancing, but take their dance skills into the Baylor community as well. He is the faculty sponsor of the Latin Dance Society, while she is the faculty sponsor of the Baylor Ballroom Dance Society. They both will give dance lessons to Baylor students occasionally at the club’s meetings.

“I am well aware that [statistics] is not the most popular course for students. So what do I have to do?” said Dr. Kirk. “I have to work extra hard because they’re taking a subject they don’t enjoy. They want to learn about psychology. Here I am teaching statistics,” he said with a smile and a laugh.

When he sees students slouching over, and glazed eyes he has a special trick up his sleeve to perk them up out of their seats.

“A couple days ago, I demonstrated a tango step in class,” he said. “It’s just interesting how all of a sudden they will perk up.” He also adds how his students “are always fascinated by Jane,” and love to hear about what she is doing.

In addition to spicing up the classroom with dance and heartwarming stories of his beautiful marriage with his wife; he stops at nothing to continue creating the best learning environment for his students. He critiques himself after every lecture, and extensively prepares for the day’s class. But what makes his preparation unique is how interactions with students are his primary concern. 

With large classes of 85 to 95 students, he acknowledges that having personal interactions with the students is a mountainous feat that he attempts to tackle every class day. So he makes learning the students’ names and something about them part of his pre-class routine.

He makes a list of his students where they sit, will memorize a few names every day, and will arrive early to do a walk around where he will have a few conversations with students. He makes an extra effort to know a little something extra about who that student is.

“For example, there will be an athlete. I’ll make a note about how the team did and then I’ll go to class and mention that to the athlete,” said Dr. Kirk.

Dr. Kirk has received many honors throughout his years of teaching. But the one that he values the most and describes as the “greatest honor I have ever received,” was the Outstanding Teacher of the Year award given to him in 2015 by the American Psychological Association.

The Psychology and Neuroscience Department named a conference room in the Baylor Science Building in his honor in 2015. This honor was special because it was given to Dr. Kirk by his colleagues for the service and contributions he has made at Baylor over the last 58 years.

He has cha-cha stepped his way into the hearts and memories of all the students who have had the opportunity to grace his classroom. Through all the research contributions, impacts he has made on his students, and every dance step along the way – the genuine joy of doing what he loves, teaching, does not go unnoticed.

With a smile, Dr. Kirk says, “Every morning I start the day, I get up and think – I get to teach today. That’s happiness.”

-Jamie Sandoval’20, McAllen, Texas

Film and Digital Media Professor Dr. Michael Korpi, who is also a senior research fellow at the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers, received the Excellence in Education Medal Award from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers on Oct. 24 in Hollywood, Calif. Known for his research dealing with new communication technologies such as high-definition TV (HDTV), nonlinear editing systems, digital cinema, and video games, Korpi uses his connections with film studios and electronic companies to secure internships and entry-level jobs for students.

Korpi was “expelled” from ultra-conservative Liberty University (think Baylor in the 1930s) for blasting Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” single during the last required chapel of his junior semester. All music falling loosely into the category of “rock’n’roll” was strictly banned at Liberty. 

Immediately after his expulsion, he had a long conversation with Liberty’s chancellor Jerry Fallwell, explaining that it was just a harmless practical joke. By the end of the two-hour conversation – Falwell had a lot of questions about Korpi’s experiences at Liberty – the chancellor told Korpi not to worry about the expulsion and to come back in the fall. Korpi reports that Falwell and he talked often after that and chatted for a few minutes every time they ran into each other on campus. As a result, Korpi enjoyed a practically rule-free senior year from the “Gestapo Pharisees,” which he compared to Community Leaders at Baylor.

“Imagine these Gestapo Pharisees wanting to control every part of your life. Those are the people who voted that [the prank] must’ve been me because I’d done other things before that,” said Korpi, smiling. “So they quickly saw Jerry Falwell knew who I was and would always talk to me. So they were afraid to do anything. Curfew? Not for me. Not my senior year.”

With an aversion to authority, it is unsurprising that one of Korpi’s reasons for becoming a professor was so that he wouldn’t be told what to do.”

“I like to teach – that’s a given,” said Korpi. “I can be curious about anything and within certain limits, nobody’s going to tell me I can’t. I don’t have a supervisor over me constantly telling me I have to do something. It boils down to I don’t want someone telling me what to do.”

Korpi’s role model, Dr. Robert Packard, had a similar attitude when he lit himself on fire every semester in his physics class for years.

“If I could just be 10 percent as good as Dr. Packard, that would be great,” said Korpi. “I tried to do the sort of things he would do, which is to make things interesting enough that students will come to class because something interesting is going to happen, not because they have to.”

Korpi makes things interesting for his students by being memorable – even if that means breaking a generally accepted rule at Baylor by incorporating profanity into a lecture. In his most famous mass communications lecture, he decided to do his equivalent of Packard’s fire stunt: Drop the F bomb in front of a slide that read “F *** ,” making the point that communication changes depending on its context and where it’s used (e.g., in a classroom).

“And so then I just say it out loud and everybody goes like that,” said Korpi, opening up his eyes wide in shock. “This is the most common thing alumni will tell me: ‘I remember the F-word lecture.’ Not only do they remember the lecture but they remember what the point was.”

Korpi is an early adopter, keeping up with latest technology innovations and fads. Rather than wait for students to update him on the new trends, he tells them. Before vinyl records were “cool” again, Korpi had an Audio Technica player hooked up to his classroom speakers. He even had a DJ-style turntable until it started to wobble from overuse.

“They would come up and ask me things like ‘How did you put down the needle at the beginning of the song?'” said Korpi. “They didn’t know there was a little gap there. And I said yes, that’s how a vinyl record works. But now, 15 years later, everybody knows what vinyl is.”

Korpi is so in tune with changing technology, he predicted the smartphone before its conception and imagines a day when the interface to your phone will be in your eyeglasses or contacts.

“One thing alumni tell me all the time is ‘I just saw this in the news and you were talking about this 10 years ago and told us this was going to happen and I thought you were crazy,'” said Korpi.

But for Korpi, crazy gets through to students. Even teaching the same 300-freshman mass communications class every semester, Korpi is always adapting – dumping out the material that doesn’t elicit a reaction and changing with the times. 

“It’s the being able to take another stab at it that’s the best part about teaching,” said Korpi. “I just hope I’m going to learn something and keep students going on trying to learn something too. It’s always a moving target.”

-Olivia Bragg’20, Carrollton, Texas

After 27 years at Baylor, Finance and Entrepreneurship Professor William Petty has learned how to help students walk away from his class not only with academic knowledge, but life lessons as well.

Petty works to find the small things within a class that establish a unique connection with students. By focusing more on peer communication than lecturing, students are given the opportunity to experience and solve actual financial and entrepreneurial cases that they will encounter in the working world.

“For me it’s doing the little things that some people don’t think about … to know students beyond that they sit on second seat, third row,” said Petty.

On the first day of classes every semester, Petty tells the students of a special “talent” he has. He explains to students that by simply saying “Sic ‘Em” he can determine their hometown. As he goes through the class roster, Petty astonishes students with his skill just by hearing their voice. Little do they know that prior to classes beginning, he has memorized every student’s name and hometown. 

“I like to do things that show you care and just do the little extras,” Petty said. “Finding the things that makes your class unique.”

Learning more about each student during the semester is very important to Petty. At the beginning of the semester, Petty assigns The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey and then has them discuss what they learned and personalize it. This gives Petty a chance to learn about students as well as see the way they communicate with others. Petty explains that overall the book teaches students how to be effective in relationships, how to affirm others, and, most important of all, to dream big.

Petty wants students in his classes to connect to each other and to him.

“I have a goal to have a mentoring relationship, ongoing, with two of my students after class is over,” Petty said, explaining that he enjoys watching them grow after graduation. “Sometimes I choose the person; sometimes they choose me.”

While Petty’s objective is for students to learn from his methods, he shared how over the years he has benefitted from them. One student lent Petty her copy of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Though having already read the book many years ago, Petty explained that by reading highlights and notes she made within the book, he gained new perspectives.

“I am blessed just listening to their conversation,” Petty shared. “You are never too old to learn from a young person.”

At the beginning of his career as a professor, Petty had a student who lied frequently about assignments. Petty explained how he naively believed the student until one day he came to the realization that the student was taking advantage of him. Since then, Petty has been faced with the challenge of assuming dishonesty immediately from a student. Over the years, he learned to

have a sensitivity to listen carefully to students and take into consideration the kind of day or week a student is having.

“Sometimes I misread a student,” Petty said. “I have had to really work not to be quick at reaching a judgment about a student.”

After nearly 30 years of teaching at Baylor, one could understand why Petty would not always be eager to hop out of bed to go teach, but they’d be wrong. Dr. Petty has found his passion working with students and despite daily difficulties, he continues to be a role model in student’s lives.

“There has not been one day in all these years I was not excited about coming to work,” said Petty. “Now at the end of the day some days I was disappointed in myself, but the next morning I was ready to go.”

-Morgan London ’18, Kilgore, Texas

The most notable feature in the office of Dr. Laine Scales, are the numerous photos scattered around the room. While there are certainly family pictures, many more are dedicated to her past students from the past 10 to 20 years. Seeing a visitor trying to not to stare, Scales begins to share stories about the individual students, revealing that she has kept in touch after all of these years. One, she points out with a big smile, was a graduate student who is now a colleague in an office down the hall.

In traditional classrooms, professors stand in the front and lecture;the students in turn take notes and keep quiet. Not so in Scales’ classroom, where the sense of community and the feeling of mutual respect permeates the atmosphere. She encourages students to freely discuss opinions and ideas in a safe learning environment.

Scales has turned her classroom into an educational battlefield, where students are encouraged to debate each other. However, instead of pitting them against one another with a victor and a loser, she has the students play off each other, grow from the critiques and learn to not let traditional forms of teaching get in the way of their success.

“It’s creating a learning community where all of us, myself included, the students are working together toward one goal,” Scales says. “The students end up relying on each other’s input, rely on me some, and rely on themselves. All of us are in a community together, all around this subject we’re trying to learn. This is much better than trying to have students compete against each other or compete for grades or try to outshine each other.”

Scales, a Professor of Higher Education and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, says she had not considered becoming a teacher until her Master’s program in Social Work, where she watched her own teachers share their knowledge and get their students excited to learn and make the world a better place convinced her to try it out.

“When I watched my teachers, it looked like they were really enjoying teaching and that it was fulfilling and fun for them,” said Scales. “Then I realized the influence and impact that those ideas can have is multiplied when you share it with a whole room of people. And I wanted to be a part of that.”

After earning her Master’s in Social Work and a Doctorate in Higher Education, Scales began her Baylor journey in 1999 when she was hired by the School of Social Work as a faculty member. After eight years, she moved to the School of Education as a Professor of Higher Education.

Beyond her recognition as a Master Teacher, Scales has been awarded Outstanding Faculty Partner by Baylor University’s Division of Student Life, selected to participate in the National Leadership Forum for Women, and chosen as one of six Baylor delegates for the Seminar of Academic Leadership. 

Scales says she is “humbled” by her Master Teacher designation, but that it is also challenging to hold that title because she knows other Master Teachers at Baylor and of their skill.

“Once you have been given this title, it calls you to be excellent every day,” said Scales. “To be worthy of the title. It’s inspiring because I want to live up to that title and always do my best for my students.”

As years pass and students graduate to move on to bigger and better things, it is sometimes hard to maintain the relationships that have been built over the years. Scales said she and her students work hard to keep in touch with one another.

“A lot of students [tell me] ‘I remember this class for the community that was built, the relationships that were sustained, the desire they have together for the reunions of our class and to stay in touch with each other.’ In my class I really do feel we build friendships that will carry on.”

-Courtney Marco ’20, Harker Heights, Texas

Dr. Yancey, who has been on faculty with the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work for 17 years and acts as the director of the Center for Family and Community Ministries, says she enjoys providing students with opportunities where they can grow and learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.

“One of the experiences that I find most meaningful is when I see the students come alive in the classroom,” Dr. Yancey said. “For me, it’s not about the individualized assignments, but rather how can we apply the learning that comes not just from the textbook, but with applying what we do in the classroom in life.” Real-life application is important for Dr. Yancey. She tries to keep students at the center of her teaching. “If you’re going to be student focused, you have to

be focused on the students and what they are learning,” Dr. Yancey said. “If you’re not student-focused you could be so far off the mark it wouldn’t be funny.”

For young professionals entering the social work profession, it’s very important that they be prepared for the challenges they may face when going into the field. Strong leadership and communication is vital to gauge the efficacy of the practice.

“I love to encourage people because I think that it builds our confidence,” Dr. Yancey said. “I want the learning to be there more than the accent on the grade.” 

For many students, getting the highest grade possible is at the top of their agenda, but for Dr. Yancey, she wants to find what will make the student most successful in the learning process.

“I love to take communities, organizations and people and help them discover what will make them thrive or flourish,” Dr. Yancey said. “If I’m going to be ‘successful as a teacher’ I will only have that success as the students are successful.”

In Dr. Yancey’s classroom, the relationship between teacher and student is different. She sees herself as a guide for her students, helping them along the course of their educational journey. 

“I’m probably not going to work with my students as a typical teacher-to-student relationship. I like to do it shoulder-to-shoulder,” said Dr. Yancey. “It’s more like mentoring where we learn together and hopefully there is modeling that comes from both of each other as well as students to students.”

Dr. Yancey remains active in the community as well. As a social worker, she enjoys finding a balance between her work in the classroom and her work in the community.

“If everything about me is being centered on the academic world and there is no service to balance, I have to know that I am contributing back to the community as an extension of my faith,” Dr. Yancey said. “It’s so important that the balance is there. I find that everything I do in the classroom is equally as important as what I do in the community.”

Over the course of her career as an educator, Dr. Yancey has encouraged students to be the best that they can be and to aspire to the goals that they set for themselves.

“Great teaching ends up in the mind and the experience of the beholder,” said Dr. Yancey. “It’s not about whether I am a great teacher or not; it’s about whether the student has been able to be all that they need and want to be as a result of being in that teaching. If the student can thrive and flourish in that, and it helps to inform what they want to do in life, then that is what is going to make a great teacher.” BI

-Pablo Gonzales ’18, Dallas, Texas

Iconic professors discuss their teaching styles in BLF video interviews

DR. JAMES VARDAMAN NEVER USED NOTES IN CLASS WHEN HE LECTURED; DR. WILLIAM HILLIS LIKED TO SING TO STUDENTS.

Both Vardaman and Hillis rank among the best professors to grace Baylor’s classrooms. And both talk about their teaching philosophies on the Baylor Line Foundation’s Oral Histories Project on YouTube.

The BLF is committed to growing its library of interviews with great Baylor professors. To find the full videos, you can go to our website and click on the Oral Histories button.

Vardaman relates a story he heard while on a visit to Atlanta about a professor who was asked by a student one day whether he needed to know all the formulas that were being covered in class. “Of course you do,” the professor answered.”Why,” the student responded.”You don’t. You use notes.”

Vardaman relates on the video how he decided on the flight home to change his teaching style and start going into the classroom without notes or outlines.

To be a great professor, Vardaman says, requires three things:

· Know your material.

· Have an ability to communicate: knowing when to speak loudly and knowing when to shut up, and knowing when to expand and how to look into their eyes to see if they’re getting it.

· ” Like students. “You are playing with a mind,”he says, adding that it’s also important to take the time to listen to students.”You have no right to be in [that classroom] if you don’t like the people you’re dealing with.”

Hillis, who like Vardaman won many teaching awards, feels his strength as a teacher was his ability to interact and impart a love of knowledge to his students. He says he took an approach that was similar to Plato and Aristotle, asking questions and having classroom discussions. That, and introducing new topics with songs he learned in medical school. He even offers an example involving taking a bite out of a student’s finger.

Hillis views his legacy as the number of students who became teachers and used his methods.

“Some even sing to their students,” he says with a smile.