Xblanation:

Description of a New Class Organization

"The 'bottom line' is their learning, not your corrections," the Director of the Writing Center told me, using
the vocabulary of my department. "You have to distinguish between your fanaticism about grammar and your goal as a teacher, which is for students to be able to do something today that they couldn't do yesterday. You focus on student learning in your class; stay focused on it when you correct papers."
This short paper actually focuses on my class, Management and Organizational Behavior, but applies the class's pedagogical lessons to teaching in general. It states my assumptions, outlines design principles, describes results, and suggests implications for teaching other courses. My purpose is to sketch a new paradigm, a horse of a different color.  

Assumptions:

1)  Centrality of the peer group

We work in the Blackboard Jungle. This 1954 movie showed the power of the peer group, and I try to
hitch my learning wagon to this autonomous power. Specifically, I believe that the peer group motivates students more than any other element in any class. The peer group either works for you, against you, or both – but it never goes away. A great management guru, Dick Beckhard taught his disciples to consider the group (not the individual) as the basic building block of organizations.

We think of ourselves as a society of individuals, but the peer group ultimately controls belief. I consider
the class of students a collective culture: they are very sensitive to each other and tend to move together.
No adverse judgment is implied; we teachers are conformists, too. In practice this assumption works like this: a student testifying to learning (as in a fundamentalist church) will influence the beliefs and attitudes
of other students.

The peer group can be trusted to a certain extent. Although not the teacher's enemy, it works more like
what Carlos Castañeda (1971) called an "ally," an autonomous force of nature that can help you or harm you. With a modicum of knowledge, caution, and agility (or training), you can use its power.

2)  We remember lessons associated with strong emotions

Once my students drank a toast to our grading system with cod-liver oil. Thereafter they remembered that control in organizations is distasteful but good for you. Our culture tends to suppress unpleasant feelings. We teachers forget how hard learning is and overlook teachable moments hidden under fear and anger. Teachers can harness the power in these emotions.

3)  "Life goes on within you and without you."

Like anyone else holding authority, a teacher must distinguish between the needs and drives within and events outside. When the class running itself is wasting its time, they may blame the teacher - me. Scared that the whole semester will go down the drain, I may take control because of my concerns about my own competence, reputation, or image in the class rather than concern about the objective situation. Sometimes it is difficult to draw the line between feelings among the students and feelings within me.

4)  The 'bottom line' is their learning.

This paper's opening distinction between what I teach and what they learn raises two thorny issues: attitude and definition. A responsible teacher cannot take the attitude: "Once the words have left my mouth, the students are responsible for learning." I stand on the opposite shore: No matter what I do - suppose I sit in silence or don't even show up to class – if the students learn the appropriate material, then I am succeeding as a teacher.

"Be careful what you wish for; you just may get it." This cliché challenges us to define learning.
What do we mean by it, and how do we measure it? Rather than unseal a container of ontological
and epistemological vermicelli, I posit:

I want my students to take responsibility, to deliver on their commitments, to observe events
objectively, and to articulate their understanding of concepts and situations.