placed all the hour exams with a pattern of frequent quizzes.) I found it more effective to respond to incorrect problems one at a time than to dump as many as a dozen corrections on a student at once (sometimes this was the case when I graded an hour exam). (The coach never waited until half-time to give his quarterback a truck- load of criticisms and suggestions!) And I found myself making a point to write more positive comments on ex- aminations before I returned them to students. Yet, I wasn’t quite satisfied. I went back to the football field for more pointers and more consultation. | noticed some other things that happened there. Players practiced with each other--blocking, tackling, chucking, and all those special behaviors that have begun to make football a complicated (if not fine) art and science these days. Often, they corrected each other without any help from the coach. I decided to have my students some- times come to coaching sessions in pairs to work with each other, and I encouraged them to continue to do so on their own. Some of them, having experienced the value of working together, did so and reported favorably on the technique. In one class, collaboration evolved into a system whereby students prepared and posted solu- tions to homework problems for others to use in comparison to their own work. I’m now exploring how to capi- talize on the process of students working together during actual class time. Another thing I noticed on the football field was the relationship between practice and performance. Pro- cedures were learned slowly in practice and gradually improved to the point of rapid and accurate performance (the coach calls it execution) on the day of the game. I recognized that most of my mathematics students grew in ability in the same way. (How could I have been so blind before?) While I continued to have my ever high hopes for them, I came to expect that they would not have much speed or finesse early on. I encouraged them to work toward refined execution so that they would be ready for the big game--uh, the examination. I also recognized the role played by that ultimate performance, without which practices would lose much of their meaning and purpose. The game, the concert, the play, the examination are very important as goals and incentives. They provide a focus and a target for students’ continually improving efforts. In those highly visible instances, students are on the line. Successful performance is not only a reward in itself, but also an in- centive to continue to perform well. I renewed my efforts to help students succeed. I was less willing to let students fail. I even began to give practice exams when appropriate, just as my colleague coaches staged dress rehearsals and final scrimmages. | began to think of learning and teaching from a new perspective. Again, I sensed that students were responding well. Of course, I recognize that football involves a much larger measure of psychomotor skills than does mathematics, with its heavy focus on cognitive skills. I’m trying to be careful not to overdraw the comparison. But it has been an instructive analogy, and the initial results I have found certainly support its usefulness. I’m continuing to study my teaching from a coach's perspective, and I expect that I'll discover some other new approaches. I hope so. It’s been very satisfying to find that an old teaching dog could learn new tricks. Can coaching concepts be employed in other academic fields? I think so; they involve some fundamental learning principles. Some of my colleagues in English and in foreign languages are doing so with success, so | suspect that what I learned from the coaches can be applied in other settings as well. Last Saturday, the football team lost rather badly. I came up with several ideas on how the game could have been handled better. I’m waiting for the coach to drop by my office and ask me for some advice . . . | owe him one. po et Linc Fisch | pouc Department of Mathematics UGLAS COLLEGE Center College of Kentucky ARCHIVES Danville, KY 40422 Reprinted with permission from To Improve the Academy, Resources for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Development; published by The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Educa- tion. Suanne D. Roueche, Editor September 14, 1984, VOL. VI, NO. 23 INNOVATION ABSTRACTS Is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and bimonthly during summer months. © The University of Texas at Austin, 1984 Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X @