BT����

Teach a Man to Fish

After 23 years of leading and making life or death decisions as a U.S. Army officer, Dr. Kaye McKinzie, assistant professor of Management Information Systems at the University of Central Arkansas, was looking for her next move. She asked herself what her motivation was, and it tied back to her responsibilities in the service.

As an officer in the Army, McKinzie knew one of her obligations was to mentor and help her subordinates grow, not only in their jobs, but as people. “I tell people my motto is to ‘teach people how to fish.’ I don’t want to give them a fish; I want to teach them how,” she said. Because of this belief, she knew she wanted to teach.

During her service, McKinzie had a teaching assignment at the Army Logistics Management College and enjoyed it. Her military career started at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York where she received her undergraduate degree. She then received her master’s degree in operations analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School and then a doctorate in operations research and industrial engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

After retiring in August 2009, McKinzie began teaching as an adjunct at BT����in January 2010. Now as a tenured professor, she serves as Faculty Senate president for the 2016-17 academic school year.

In her opinion, teaching is both a skill and an art. Helping another person master a subject is skill, but being able to relay information in different ways makes it an art.

Teachers help students grow by developing their critical thinking skills and expanding their knowledge, as well as their ability to seek new knowledge. She calls this the light bulb effect, which is seeing a student grasp an understanding of a concept.

“It’s about making people better, about providing them those tools that are going to make them more successful. That’s teaching,” she said.

According to McKinzie, a great teacher has to be invested in their students, “academically sound” and flexible to the adapting environment. Being “academically sound” means knowing one’s subject and how to apply it.

“Here’s the hard part that students don’t like,” McKinzie said. “It also has to be someone who is going to put the rigor into their course and hold the students accountable.”

McKinzie encourages her students to take personality tests and learning style assessments so she can communicate with them more effectively. “If you just do something one way, you’re going to leave a lot of people behind who can’t relate.”