Connect and Thrive: Perspectives from a Newly Tenured Professor

• Author: Corey A. Ciocchetti
• Date: 01 July 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2011.01095.x
• Published date: 01 July 2011

Connect and Thrive: Perspectives

from a Newly Tenured Professor

Corey A. Ciocchetti

n

I. INTRODUCTION

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different

results.

1

This essay encapsulates my perspective (newly tenured and seven years

into my career) on how average professors can become highly effective

professors. The secret rests in the ability to genuinely connect with

students. Connecting really mattersFeven if it takes some personality ad-

aptation and thrusts academics out of their comfort zones. Many professors

fail to connect with students in a meaningful way. My evidence for this

assertion is simple and straightforward. In addition to teaching, I am

blessed to travel the country and speak on college campuses.

2

After

extensive discussions on these trips, students consistently claim their profes-

sors are boring, nonrelatable, and unable to connect.

3

On the other hand,

professors I speak with sincerely believe they connect in the classroom.

r2011 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education r2011 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

385

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 28, Issue 2, 385–393, Summer/Fall 2011

n

Associate Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies, Daniels College of Business, Uni-

versity of Denver, J.D. DukeUniversity School of L aw, M.A. (Religious Studies) University of

Denver. Contact me with questionsor comments at http://www.portfolio.du.edu/cciocche and

http://www.facebook.com/profc. Thanks to the Journal of Legal Studies Education for consider-

ing the perspective of young professors in the Academy’s most prestigious teaching journal.

[Ed.: Ciocchetti was named winner of the 2006 Academy of Legal Studies in Business Charles M. Hewitt

Master Teacher Competition and is the recipient of numerous other teaching awards.]

1

While this quotation is often attributed to Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, or Benjamin

Franklin, its original source seems to be RITA MAE BROWN,SUDDEN DEATH 68 (1983).

2

Over the past three years, I have spoken in sixty cities and twenty-five states.

3

I must state that students always start by telling me about the ‘‘one great professor’’ they have

each term. Then the conversation moves to their other three or four professorsFnot always

from business schoolsFwhom they find ineffective. A quick search for external information