Look Professional (Dress and Presentation)

I am reviewing some more student feedback for another candidate for the Physics Education Research position in the USU Physics department. I have only made it half way through the class looking at the first question. There are two really great points that I have seen so far:

1. Dress professionally. A student likes to learn from someone who looks professional. If I go to class in jeans and a t-shirt, the class seems to act as if they are jeans and a t-shirt. In other words, they don't feel that you take your work as seriously, so they don't take the material as seriously. Now, professional is different for each person. The candidate happens to wear good jeans, a nice shirt, and a blazer. I know my own father wears a shirt and tie. I have another professor, Dr. Schunk, who wears a sweater every day. Each person has a different way of looking professional. Find yours, and stick with it.

2. Present professionally. By this I mean make your PowerPoint Presentation (if you're using one) simple, straight-forward, and informative. We happened to have this same candidate speak to us in a colloquium last semester about presentations. He showed us that we really don't need to have our talk written in the presentation. If we keep a simple background and key words, then they don't get muddled in the confusion on the screen. They can see the concepts, and then follow what the speaker says. Whereas, if the slides are used too much, then it turns the class into a disaster. Going through the feedback of students, I saw many students on these lecturers who felt that the slides were too distracting, or that they were ineffective. I have only made it half way through the class with this lecture, but more than half of those students commented on his great use of PowerPoint. Simpler really is better.