Timeline for How can I politely reply and educate students with unreasonable requests?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 10, 2020 at 16:07 | comment | added | computercarguy | @Džuris, I agree that can be a fun way to challenge yourself, but it shouldn't be done on a test. I had physics tests where they would test you about where (in 3D coords) a cannonball would stop rolling, given a weight, size, initial velocity, angle, and height of a cannon and ball, as well as the wind speed and direction, non-Earth gravity, and coefficient of friction and hardness of the ground. And they wanted to know now long it would take to reach that spot, max height, and total bounces. This was 1 of 90 questions on a 2 hr exam. All was taught individually, in a 200 level semester. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 15:27 | comment | added | Buffy | @fqq, your "presumptuous" is actually my fear that too many people are left behind by such a system. It makes too many assumptions about people and how they learn. I've been at this game for a long time. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 15:15 | comment | added | Buffy | @fqq, maybe, but not if they've earned it. Often F grades are given when the recipient hasn't even tried to do better. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 15:04 | comment | added | fqq | @Buffy it's a bit presumptuous to "give an F on education" to the university systems of whole countries. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 13:23 | comment | added | ProfRob | Examination is a perfectly reasonable way of ensuring that students (as opposed to their classmates, or anyone else who might help them with coursework) has learned and understood material. Setting exams that require memorisation of material is poor practice, unless the intended learning outcomes are indeed that students recall something by rote. There are alternatives to examination, that fulfil the same objectives (oral examinations for example), but they are rarely cost-effective. | |
| Apr 10, 2020 at 0:50 | comment | added | Džuris | @computercarguy I had some courses with such tests and I loved those courses. That's your chance to actually try and solve problems instead of reproducing solutions. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 16:21 | comment | added | computercarguy | @JeffE, that has to be done carefully. I had a college physics class that would teach the equivalent of A+B, then on the test would be A-B, A*B, and A/√(B+A^2), as if somehow all of those were obvious derivatives from what was taught. There's a not-so-fine line between testing rote memorization, actual understanding, and cognitive leaps that some people don't understand, since they are beyond the students level of understanding they believe it all to be obvious. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 10:29 | comment | added | Buffy | @JeffE, what you say is true. But, I'm afraid, that what I said is also true. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 1:54 | comment | added | JeffE | exams are a poor way to measure what they have learned, rather than memorized — Only if you write exams that test memorization! | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 0:15 | comment | added | Prof | Most universities impose evaluation formats and even impose quotas on final grades (e.g. the mean should be larger than 60% or so). This being said, students' attitude is also to blame, as they aim for good grades, believing this will dictate their future. However, I am sure nobody gives a corn about my grades in uni. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 0:11 | comment | added | Buffy | Makes me sad. I have no control over such bad practice. I give your university an F on education. Many people have asked why Harvard is such a vast storehouse of knowledge. The answer is that the first-years bring so much with them and the graduates take so little away. Perhaps your university is like that. Not your fault, perhaps, though you are contributing. The questions you get are perfectly predictable and not unreasonable. | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 0:05 | comment | added | Prof | All courses put 100% mark on the exam, this is not something I control, but this is at the university level. Perhaps in your country you have full control, but here the university defines how the final grade is defined. Students have tutorial sessions, with a teaching assistant, also quizzes, class tests, and etcetera. Giving them much more is just focusing on quizzing rather than teaching and learning, which is what you are trying to advocate against? | |
| Apr 9, 2020 at 0:01 | history | answered | Buffy | CC BY-SA 4.0 |