Bull feels at home in the classroom

The secret is out — Becky Bull loves teaching. More importantly, she’s great at it, a fact reflected by numerous Doctoral Student Teaching Awards and her induction this year into Purdue’s Teaching Academy.

“When I came to Krannert, I knew that I wanted to teach more than anything else, but I didn’t tell anyone because PhD students are supposed to focus on research,” says Bull. “When I started winning teaching awards, that got people’s attention, and now I can be open about it.”

After completing her doctorate in organizational behavior and human resource management this spring, Bull will take her classroom skills to the Illinois State University College of Business as a faculty member in its management and quantitative methods department. Bull’s advisor, Basil S. Turner Distinguished Professor of Management Steve Green, says even more teaching awards are likely to follow.

“Watching Becky’s preparation and delivery, it is easy to understand her award-winning performances,” says Green. “Becky masters any material she is presenting and has the knack of communicating it in a way that is interesting, understandable, and relevant.”

Getting to know her students individually also is a priority for Bull. “I make it a point every semester to memorize everyone’s names,” she says. “I try to learn about their interests and activities so I can relate the course to them on a personal level. I also encourage them to interact with one another and respond to questions and opinions.”

In addition to lectures, group exercises, and discussion, Bull often uses video to connect with students. In one class, for example, she showed clips from the 2007 comedy hit Knocked Up to illustrate various aspects of employment law. “Most people don’t think of the movie in that context, but there are several scenes dealing with gender discrimination as it relates to pregnancy,” she says.

Although Bull had no teaching experience before coming to Krannert, she laid the groundwork for success with eight years of competitive public speaking in high school and college. “I really enjoy being front of an audience,” she says. “There is something very powerful about delivering a line of rhetoric to people and watching their perceptions change.”

Bull began considering an academic career while completing her undergraduate degree in business at Bradley University, but she spent 18 months working in direct sales and marketing before deciding to pursue her doctorate. Because she wanted to attend a top-ranked school near her family in Illinois, Krannert quickly rose to the top of the list. Purdue’s reputation as a leading research institution was also a factor.

“I believe that to be a good teacher, you also have to be a good researcher,” says Bull. “At the same time, I think that my teaching energizes and inspires my research.”

She’s now proven herself in both arenas. In addition to her dissertation, which focuses on leader-member interaction and organizational perception, Bull has three journal publications and a book chapter on her resume. “Becky’s excellence as a teacher is more than balanced by her strengths as a researcher,” says Green.

Still, Bull admits that her heart will always be in the classroom and with the students who inhabit it. “I place a high value on education,” she says. “My teaching philosophy is to change the world — one future capitalist at a time.”

— Eric Nelson

Purdue Teaching Academy inductee and Krannert doctoral student Becky Bull poses with the top students from her OBHR 330 (Introduction to Organizational Behavior) class, (left to right) Nathan Cundiff, Michael Wronski, Soo-Yeon Shin, and Seth Stronger.