Ask a lot, give a lot, get a lot

Today was the last day of class, and I've gotten some really nice comments from people about the course and my work. Most of them include some version of "it was hard," but that this was not necessarily a downside. I got a little feedback before the class suggesting that I may want to dampen my expectations of the class, that I might be demanding too much. But this experience, building on my prior experience, is that high expectations -- not just asking for a lot but also communicating the expectation that the students are capable of pushing themselves to achieve a lot -- are generally more associated with good classes than setting an expectation of easiness. A key element to making that equation work, however, is giving a lot: I worked my ass off to get this course together, and it showed.

I hated in grad school when the professor would say, "Oh, I fully expect everyone to get an A in this course if they work hard" or "Oh, this class is pretty low-key." Maybe there was some social desirability issue there (like me! like me!) or some attempt not to scare off people from other departments. I hated even more the courses where the professor didn't seem prepared or didn't seem to care about getting the syllabus up on the web by the first day or about providing extra help to students who wanted it.

The best courses were those in which the professor was prepared -- or at least apologetic when things weren't quite up to speed, which happens -- and in which the bar was set high. My advisor's class is a great example of this, and I completely stole his grading philosophy: A perfectly competent job will get you a B. To get an A, you have to show innovation, mastery, and a strong sense of having pushed yourself to think things through. Instead of wondering and whining about points getting taken off from 100, people worried instead about how to add points to the defaul tof 85, how to go above and beyond. The grade distributions ended up pretty similar in the end, but the actual product and process of creating it was vastly different.

I think another characteristic that comes from giving a lot and asking a lot is that it engenders a lot of mutual respect. You don't ask a lot out of people when you don't have a lot of respect for them. Students know that, and they reflect back the respect they intuitively feel themselves receiving.

So, I'm sure not all the evaluations will be glowing, but I'm certain that the criticisms will reflect a norm of high expectations (you've done a lot and we know you can do more) and a tone of respect.