Jedi Mind Tricks

[eigen]

One of my favorite threads from the old boards was the "Jedi mind tricks" thread started by scienceprof in 2008. To quote:

On the attendance thread, Alan said

I allow a bonus for "seat time". While I don't give points for attendance, I do use it for borderline grades. At the end of the term, if they have missed less than x hours of class time, then I add y % to their total percent. ...

It's a Jedi mind trick to change the emphasis from "I have to show up or I'll get docked points" to "I'll get a bonus if I attend regularly".

Alan

Which made me wonder if anyone else had  Jedi mind tricks they would like to share.

My best is: I used to require students to rewrite lab reports that were below a "B" , and I got a lot of whining.  Now I ALLOW students to rewrite, and I get a lot of gratitude.

[sprout]

There are so many good ideas in this thread on the old fora.  Is there a way to port the old posts in?

[eigen]

The best way (likely) is to be going through and quoting each of the ones we think are particularly useful. There's no way to merge wholesale.

[dr_codex]

The best way (likely) is to be going through and quoting each of the ones we think are particularly useful. There's no way to merge wholesale.

Rather than quoting individually, maybe a compiled (selective?) list, possibly pinned to the top? There was certainly some overlap, but the collective wisdom was profound.

[overthejordan]

Well, you beat me to it. My first thought when I registered here was to start this thread back up. It's my favorite thread of all time. I reread it before every semester. I hope this new one unleashes even more great Jedi Mind Tricks.

The old thread will still be available in an archive, right? Or should I go copy all of them and save them on my hard drive?

[eigen]

Theoretically, the current thread will exist. I'm not sure how much I trust that, and am considering trying to find a way to export some things when i get back from a conference next week.

One of the reasons that I was thinking of quoting here was to save attributions easily, but that cuts both ways.

If anyone has time to go through and start making "best of" lists, let's make it happen! I'm also happy to make temporary groups that give permissions for broader edit privileges, to allow those interested to slowly build up and continue to add to some longer posts of past hits- let me know if you want the extra permissions.

[drbrt]

My best Jedi mind trick from over there was to change homework to take-home quizzes. So instead of assigning 20 problems and grading 5, I split the problem set into two assignments

1) a "take home quiz" that was the five homework problems I used to grade

2) 15 "extra credit opportunities". Solutions could be presented during recitation for a completely meaningless amount of extra credit (like 2pts/problem in a 2000 point class)

[mythbuster]

I will be trying out this one this Fall. I will report back if it's Jedi worthy. In our lab class, we have a written set of learning objectives for each lab. Most of these are essentially exam questions in statement form Students have access to these through the LMS in folder labelled "Learning objectives", and we actively urge students to print them out, bring them to class, and work through the objectives as they progress through the lab. Most do not, or at least don't until AFTER bombing at least the first lab exam. The A students are often those that use these from day one.
    This Fall, I plan to relabel the LMS folder as "Study Guide". I will report back on if this increases use of these resources.

[polly_mer]

    This Fall, I plan to relabel the LMS folder as "Study Guide". I will report back on if this increases use of these resources.

Have you considered labeling it "Mythbuster's Secret Planning Notes" and waiting to see if anyone tells you about the "inadvertent" permissions slip on the LMS?

[Scout]

Best tip I learned from that thread (or maybe one on improving student evals) was to use the language of the evals in class.

So if the evals ask "is the professor available outside of the classroom" say often in class "I'm available outside the classroom for help during office hours", instead of just saying "Stop by office hours if you need help". Gets them acclimated to the questions they're going to be asked.

[sprout]

Best tip I learned from that thread (or maybe one on improving student evals) was to use the language of the evals in class.

So if the evals ask "is the professor available outside of the classroom" say often in class "I'm available outside the classroom for help during office hours", instead of just saying "Stop by office hours if you need help". Gets them acclimated to the questions they're going to be asked.

This is gold.  I used it to bring my "instructor gives feedback" rating up.  Just tell them every time you return an exam or assignment or whatever about all the feedback they're getting.

[chemigal]

I'm so glad this was started back up!  It was my favorite thread on the old site. 

[polly_mer]

A technique more than a trick, but I am pasting this here so others can see it and use it because it's so cool:

The thread on throwing out old papers is reminding me of a technique for teaching plagiarism that I've tried recently with some success. (So sorry if I posted this on the old CHE--I've really been excited about it).

I've always considered myself meticulous about citations in my own work, but when I was defending my dissertation, the examiners pointed out a paragraph that summarized an essential book on the topic. I attributed the book in the opening sentence, but didn't clearly indicate that the book provided all the information in the paragraph. (Based on their feedback, I revised the paragraph to include clearer attributions before submission).

This year, when we talked about the importance of attributing sources in every sentence, I pulled up the original paragraph and asked them to tell me which ideas I'd gotten from the book's author, and which were based on my own reading. I got them to tell me why it was hard to be sure, and we discussed why someone who wrote a whole book on the subject deserved to be cited for every separate fact or idea. Then I showed them the revised paragraph, and we talked about how easy it had been to make the changes. (Then they all paraphrased paragraphs of their own for me).

AR.

[polly_mer]

As a compilation of advice from the old thread, I found that offering more choices than students had to do worked well.  For example, we had a problem set due every week with about 20 problems, but someone only needed to make about 80% of the total points to earn an A.  That means a strategic student would do only as many problems every week as necessary to learn the material, but it's also possible for a diligent enough student to skip the occasional assignment when life happens and just work a couple problems to ensure material is learned. 

The same thing on tests worked: do N of N+J items in a given section (N and J being fairly small for some sections like word problems and essays while being much larger for identifications or definitions).  Anyone can blank on any specific item, but it's much harder to argue that one just had a brain blip on all the choices, especially for an open note test one which one could, with planning, have the entire practice test with answers in the notes.

[Conjugate]

My own suggestion on that thread was to observe that my students apologized for "interrupting" my office hours to ask for help. I figured out that they somehow thought "office hours" were times I spent doing paperwork, so they were interrupting something important.  I have from time to time used the phrase "student hours" to describe the times I'm available outside of class.  It hasn't been a clear success for me, but it has not made things worse, either. So I'll go back to trying it again. Some of my colleagues report that it seems to have made a difference for them.