ICOTS-7, 2006: Berenson 1 TEACHING ACADEMICALLY DIVERSE GROUPS Mark L. Berenson Montclair State University, United States berensonm@mail.montclair.edu Imagine entering the classroom the very first day of the term and realizing how academically diverse a particular student body is. You would likely be caught unprepared for this, as I was this past September, and a first thought might be to quickly evaluate how much the prepared syllabus must be reengineered. Practitioners of the “Management-by-Process” philosophy attributed to Deming would immediately opine that understanding and managing variation is fundamental and then view a heterogeneous classroom as both an opportunity and a challenge to explore and develop pedagogy that enhances overall student performance. Others, perhaps more pragmatic or perhaps less risk assertive in the classroom, might immediately get a sinking feeling, and then try to contemplate how the course might be salvaged. This paper will explore various possibilities for making the best out of a situation in which a difficult constraint has been imposed. INTRODUCTION Heterogeneity takes many forms in academia and our University of Westminster colleagues have clearly articulated the socio-economic diversity observed on their campus (see Porter et al., 2006). Other forms of diversity that impact on the pedagogical approaches we take can be described as either cultural, gender- or ethnic-related, age-related, or dependent upon student capability and/or student major area of interest. Each of these factors is readily observed in undergraduate day session programs. In undergraduate evening session programs there are two more forms of diversity, work-experience-related and family-related. In graduate school programs there is yet another form of diversity and this is related to prior educational preparation. Although the recommendations that will be offered can be applied more generally, this paper will be limited to an assessment of prior educational preparation, i.e., “academic diversity” as the operational definition of heterogeneity. In particular, this paper will outline one effective approach aimed at maximizing the teaching of the required graduate-level statistics core course in a B-school setting. Other approaches may also be valuable. BACKGROUND Dealing with student academic diversity in the form of heterogeneous prior educational preparation presents a challenge to the most gifted and experienced of teachers. One is reminded of a very old cartoon from a statistics journal that shows a person in a kitchen with one hand in the cold ice box and the other hand on the hot oven and the caption says something like, “Well, I feel normal.” But one cannot “feel normal” when facing a graduate B-school class the very first night of the semester last September and learning only through an introductory survey that of the 21 students nearly half of them (10) were enrolled in a statistics course for the very first time while the slight majority (11) had already completed an undergraduate level course. It was clear that I had to make some changes in the way I usually teach. In prior semesters there were typically a few students without previous statistical background and one could argue on Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian principle (1789) to “adapt to the greater number to achieve the greater good.” Graduate level courses at Montclair State University are capped at 25 so the one, two, or perhaps three individuals could always be given extra assistance and this approach provided resolution to a pedagogical dilemma. Based on my experiences I believed two approaches were obviously inappropriate. One should not address academic diversity by teaching to the least prepared or weaker level of the class because it would bore the more accomplished students and, at the same time, one should also not be teaching to the most capable and best prepared students because it would likely lead to catastrophic results among the class’s weaker and least prepared. In assessing the situation, I conjectured that effectively monitored student teamwork and “creative” faculty involvement would help resolve the problems such an academic diverse classroom posed. Neither student teams nor being readily accessible to the students were new to