From: KG Brown (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of

From: K. G. Brown (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Workplace Training and Employee Development (pp.495-518). 2018. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

To edify & entertain To make impressive, validated statements To highlight evidence-basedprinciples To showcase robust methods & solutions To illustrate the path to .correct answers To provide clarity & closure

Search literature to update evidence Clarify knowledge/skills to be imparted Prepare many impactlul slides & illustrations Rehearse key statements for precise delivery Fire oneself up for maximum positive impact

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Strategi":' and Tactics

Preparation

Students' Impetus to Learn

Prime Sources of Useful Knowledge

Instructor Purpose

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Figure 21.1. Prototypical rockstar and ringmaster teaching roles.

Foci of Action

l

Academic theory/research Examples shared by instructor Insights imparted through content delivery Competition to have the most robust ideas Information flow: Instructor- students

Excitem.ent from instructor's performance Instructor's wisdom & wit Exposure to what the instructor knows & can do

Underlying Assumptions

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100%

To convey knowledge & compelling experiences To showcase what the instructor can do To explicate fundamental principles

ROCKSTAR RINGMASTER

To elicit relevant contributions &collaboration To ask insightlulquestions To unearth & build onstudents' insights To invne the generation ofalternatives To stimulate curiosity about possibilities To model engaging with diverse perspectives

Fine-tune methods of eliciting engagement Clarify learning processes & activtty instructions Prepare minimal slides, mainly as signposts . Develop thought-provoking questions Cultivate one's openness to emergent insights

Excttement from lively exchanges Student interaction & peer coaching Students developingwhat theyknow &can do

Instructor

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Students' experiences and insights Examples generated by the class Insights created through concept application Collaboration to discover valid/useful ideas Information flow: Student +-:+ Student

To draw out knowledge and experiences To increase what students can do To foster deep learning

100%

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HESLIN ET AL.

views on it. Deficiencies in student inputs are ideally noted with sensitivity to the status imbalance between instructors and students (Schein, 1969; 2009) by trying to focus and build on the merits of student contributions. Ringmasters not only pose insightful questions, but also invite students to generate alterna tive perspectives regarding the focal topic and engage with each other's perspec tives. Controversies in the field are highlighted in a manner that mirrors the pluralism of management scholarship (Colquitt & Zapata-Phelan, 2007), with the objective of encouraging continued engagement with diverse perspectives and stimulating curiosity about possible solutions that may be applied within the workplace (see Figure 21.1).

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The relative merits of content exposition and process facilitation, as embodied in the rockstar and ringmaster teaching roles, respectively, depend on a range of contextual considerations such as cultural context, institutional context, program culture, facilities, class size, class time, student openness, and student knowledge/experience. It is important to underscore that these contin gencies are presented as relatively stark contrasts for illustrative purposes. Many teaching contexts will undoubtedly represent a blend of these factors. Cultural Context

In relatively high power distance cultural contexts, as typically observed in coun tries such as China and Malaysia (Hofstede, 2001; Taras, Steel, & Kirkman, 2012), instructors are put on a pedestal and students expect to be given "cor rect'' answers. Learning is believed to stem from the transfer of knowledge from a wise teacher - deemed by Confucius to be the most respected role within society (Hofstede, 1986) - to presumably naive students. In higher power dis tance contexts, a ringmaster teaching style could thus be culturally incongru ent. Students' resulting threat rigidity (Staw, Sandelands, & Dutton, 1981) may diminish the effectiveness of ringmaster strategies that work well in relatively low power distance contexts (e.g., Australia and the United States; Hofstede, 2001; Taras et al., 2012). Similarly, Moloney and Xu (2012) discuss how Chinese language learning in Australian schools is impeded by instructors holding culturally incongruent traditional Confucian schema, with assumptions about a hierarchical relation ship between teacher and student, and about education involving knowledge transmission rather than a process in which students actively participate. While a strong focus on exposition of received knowledge tends to be shunned within lower power distance contexts by students who are frustrated by the cultural incongruence of not being actively engaged in shaping the process and con tent of their learning, it may thus play a larger role in effective teaching amidst higher levels of power distance.

Rockstar vs. Ringmaster

evaluating, and refining class plans. For example, instructors might complete Figure 21. 1 in a manner that implies an intention to play a predominantly ring master role, yet still habitually produce so many detailed slides and anecdotes that it takes much of the available class time to adequately work through them, thereby leaving little time for teaching as a ringmaster. Realizing this disconnect could prompt such instructors to substantially prune back their class content and related slides to increase the scope to fully embrace the ringmaster role. During class, if a facilitated segment seems to have drifted toward consen sus around conclusions that are contrary to what robust empirical research has found, a savvy instructor might spontaneously pivot into a rockstar mode to deliver a statement of relevant research findings. Similarly, if students appear relatively disengaged and drowsy in response to an extended rockstar segment of a management class, a ringmaster-like impromptu activity requiring focused input from students may reinvigorate them. Following class, Figure 21.1 could also be used to analyze the teaching role assumptions and strategies that one actually manifested within a class, based on self-assessment from memory, video analysis, peer and/or student feedback. Such postclass debriefs could highlight not only the extent to which one was on target or deviated from one's planned trade-offs between the rockstar- and ringmaster-related assumptions and actions, but also illuminate issues such as: What facets of the rockstar and ringmaster roles were playedparticularly well? Which felt most right? Which seemed to foster the engagement of the class? Which fellfiat? Which rolefacets might have fruitfully been played more often, less often, or differently? We anticipate that answering such questions - ideally working with a peer coach (Parker, Hall, & Kram, 2008)-could provide invigorating jolts of self-appreciation (Spreitzer, 2006) for what is working well in one's classes, as well as highlighting specific opportunities for reflection and improvement. A Potential Reality Check

Self-assessment of one's teaching assumptions and foci of action using Figure 21.1, even aside from a particular management class or workshop, can provide the starting point for profound self-reflection and discussion. For instance, when we had highly experienced executive educator colleagues com plete Figure 21. l during a teaching development workshop, they consistently revealed assumptions highly associated with the ringmaster role. Subsequent peer discussion cued queries about the extent to which these instructors actually manifested those ringmaster-related assumptions in how they led their sessions. Friendly jesting arose about the frequency and zeal with which some of these instructors - who proudly label themselves as "facilitators" - routinely held the limelight with extended periods of exposition and colorful anecdotes. This prompted sobering yet subsequently applauded insights about gaps between their espoused and enacted theories (Argyris, 1990) of effective executive educa tion. A few participants anecdotally reported subsequently reevaluating some of their long-held pedagogical assumptions, identity, and approaches.

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Priming Oneself to Enact and Balance the Rockstar and Ringmaster Roles

A challenge for management instructors, mirroring that of practicing managers (Gosling & Mintzberg, 2003), is to simultaneously work with the contrasting yet complementary rockstar and ringmaster roles. We suspect that stellar instruc tors move flexibly between these roles as the occasion demands. Rather than act ing on the basis of predetermined behavioral recipes, instructors might instead psychologically warm up to an intended blend of rockstar and ringmaster roles, to provide a platform from which they can respond creatively and spontane ously to the teaching and learning needs and opportunities that arise within their class (Brown et al., 2013). Three promising levers for psychologically pre paring to enact and juggle a broader range of teaching repertoires are positivity, mindfulness, and competing commitments. Positivity There is substantial evidence that positive emotions (e.g., joy, gratitude, pride) increase mental agility (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005), recovery from negative emotional experiences (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), and the quality of inter personal interactions (Fredrickson, 2009). Earlier, we discussed how positivity fosters openness to students' ideas, which is an inherent facet of teaching as a ringmaster. Akin to the energy and charisma of great rockstars, positivity also plays an important role in pulling off a rousing rockstar teaching performance, as well as having the flexibility to seamlessly alternate between rockstar and ring master roles. Instructors wanting to cultivate their positivity may thus profit froni experimenting with the extensive array of proven initiatives for generating positive emotions within oneself. These include readily usable protocols to find meaning, relish goodness, count your blessings, connect with others and/or con nect with nature (see Fredrickson, 2009 for details). Mindfulness Transitioning fruitfully between the rockstar and ringmaster roles likely also requires mindfulness (Langer, 1997) - instructors' real-time self-awareness of the assumptions and intentions that influence their teaching practice, as well as nonjudgmental awareness of what transpires within their classrooms and them selves. For instance, it can be easy to be drawn into the rockstar role and present content for too long, when the class would benefit from being actively drawn into the learning process by a ringmaster intervention . In a similar vein, when teaching as a ringmaster, one may focus too much on designing and facilitating activities that create a strong buzz of student interaction, excitement, and enjoy ment, though not provide students with sufficient conceptual scaffolding and connections to relevant empirical research and best practices. Instructors' self-awareness at critical points of choice in designing and con ducting a class might provide the insight and impetus to change gear and move into a different role, or to play a given role differently. For example, mindfulness


legal, information technology, mechanical, safety, design, and operational). Nonetheless, trainers have the same choice between rockstar and ringmaster pedagogies, and the same challenge of selecting the rockstar or ringmaster assumptions and foci of action that best fit the prevailing training context and learning objectives. Imagine a highly experienced trainer who has for many years successfully pro vided safety training to cohorts of new hires using a largely rockstar mode, but is now asked to train future safety trainers who require greater depth in the same safety protocols. The revised teaching purpose (i.e., to prepare the trainees to clarify, explain, demonstrate, and defend safety protocols) involves a shift to the right on Figure 21.1 and calls for more of a ringmaster approach. The related foci of action in Figure 21.1 may guide this trainer to think through the impli cations, opportunities, and challenges - such as regarding prereading, seating arrangements, exercises, discussions, role plays, information flow, and training evaluation criteria - to best meet the new training objectives within their altered training context. Alternatively, a proud, longtime provider of highly facilitated training to groups of 20-30 trainees who was called upon to provide similar training to a group of 300 may productively recognize that the substantially increased "class" size may call for a more rockstar mode. Review of the underlying assumptions and foci of action associated with the rockstar mode might help such a trainer in two ways: first, to avoid the trap of habitually trying to facilitate discussions and activities in a manner that are less suited to the new, larger context; and second, to reimagine how to most effectively conceptualize and deliver their content within this new context. Realizing that sometimes people have attended a session to hear from an expert, rather than talk among themselves, may help motivate diehard ringmasters to more seriously consider stepping into the rock star role in instances when doing so fits with the context. While the objectives of educators and trainers may thus differ on dimensions such as the breadth, focus, and concreteness of what they aim to convey to their students and trainees, respectively, our distinction between the rockstar and ringmaster roles may nonetheless be applied to guide the conceptualization, delivery, and evaluation of effective training within organizations, We thus sug gest that the research avenues outlined next may be productively pursued within both educational and training contexts. 0

Research Implications

Our model suggests three broad avenues for research. First, we have proposed that reflecting on how one has completed Figure 21.1, together with relevant contingencies, might enable improving one's teaching effectiveness. Research is needed regarding whether such initiatives, as well as the other applications we have outlined, do indeed lead to more effective teaching. Such research might examine differences between pre- and postintervention ratings of teach ing effectiveness, as ideally indicated not just by student satisfaction ratings

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In this chapter, we use the term instructors in a generic sense that includes all profes sors, lecturers, adjuncts, and others who assume primary responsibility for teaching. 2 For the sake of explanatory convenience, we subsequently refer to the collection of assumptions and foci of action associated with the rockstar and ringmaster teaching metaphors as simply "roles." 3 The sets of assumptions and foci of action that characterize teaching as a rockstar or ringmaster are not intended to provide a model that could be (mis)used to typecast particular individuals as either a typical rockstar or ringmaster teacher. Doing this would be invalid insofar as all instructors are multifaceted beings who to some extent manifest elements of both teaching roles. In other words, no instructor is - or should strive to be - a pure ringmaster or rockstar. Rather, our intention in developing Figure 21.I is to highlight what we believe is a fairly coherent set of assumptions and foci that instructors might fruitfully trade-off against each other.

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