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tell my students statistics is like fine wine and stinky cheese
– it’s an acquired taste,” says Psychology Professor
Jim Friedrich. “It grows on you over time and you start seeing
that it has its own kind of elegance.”
Friedrich frequently employs such colorfully pungent analogies
because his courses delve into the murky worlds of statistical analysis
and scientific methodology – subjects notorious for swallowing
students’ enthusiasm whole. The key to teaching technical
material, says Friedrich, is knowing the right moment to use a little
levity. “You can’t take yourself too seriously. You
take the subject matter seriously, but you need to be able to relax
a little bit with the material.”
Humor is not the only tool that makes Friedrich’s courses
so palatable. He is also remarkably open with students about seeking
input and course feedback. One third of the way through each semester,
he hands out class evaluation forms and asks students to write about
their impressions of the course and how they feel about their own
class performance. “Early evaluations allow you to adjust
the way you are teaching a course at a time when it can have a meaningful
impact. I also think sometimes students care more about the fact
that you asked them for input than they do about making any recommendations
for the course.”
 Friedrich
feels that one of Willamette’s great strengths is the faculty’s
finely tuned sense for balancing intellectual freedom and academic
rigor. “What I like about Willamette is that there is a lot
of support and encouragement of students to be autonomous and responsible.
The faculty that I know here try very conscientiously to walk that
line between having enough structure to encourage success, but not
having so much that students become passive learners.”
Maintaining the right formula and pacing to keep his courses stimulating,
Friedrich says, is one of the most challenging aspects of being
a professor. That is why open communication with his students is
such an important part of his teaching methodology. “I tell
my students to live up to what Willamette bills itself to be and
promises to you. I need to be held to the highest standard. If I
am not providing a course that gives you more than you could get
at some other school, then I am stealing your money.”
It would be very difficult to find a student who feels shortchanged
by one of Friedrich’s classes. Of course, Friedrich notes,
when you work at a place like Willamette, getting inspired to teach
is the easiest part of his job. “This faculty has some of
the highest morale I’ve ever seen. People feel appreciated
and respected for their work. I think most faculty believe, and
rightly so, that it’s a privilege to work here.”
While many of Friedrich’s students may never develop the
same refined taste that he has for bell curves or regression analysis,
they still find his courses to be a banquet of learning.
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