Course observations question

[kaysixteen]

The interactive stuff has some merit, provider the students are mature enough to trust them in such an exercise.  It's my judgment that they are not, and, in any case, the course frontloaded much information to be lectured on and learned, which I did.

As to phone use, are you being deliberately obtuse?  I would have suppressed phone use the first week if I thought I could get away with that action.  But sadly, nothing my supervisor said gives me any notion that she would accept such action, rather than backing up student complaints if I took it.  Indeed, I trolled around a bit when speaking to her Thursday, after her observation, trying to make it clear to her that phone use is indeed a big problem and let her tell me to do just what you suggest.  That she emphatically did not do so should be as telling to you as it is to me.  Like it or not.

[polly_mer]

Did you directly ask what actions are supported to get concrete yes/no answers or did you just state that phones are a problem?

Being ignored for yes/no questions is bad.  Being given discretion of being a professional is good, as long as one rises to the occasion and owns the room.

[Hegemony]

There's no reason to pussyfoot around the subject.  Just say to her, "Phones are a big problem in this class, and I got the impression from you that I should not be banning the use of phones outright. Is that so, or have I misunderstood?  My colleagues at other universities tell me that banning phones is essential for good classroom engagement, so I am confused as to the right course of action here.  Would you object to my banning phones in the classroom?"  Then she can tell you yes or no.  I myself would be astonished if she said that phones were allowed to be used in the classroom.  I mean, why ever would that be?  You're not requiring any work that needs a phone to check it.  Who ever would say, "Sure, let students surf the webs on their phones while you're teaching, why not?"  I simply would be astounded if she felt that were necessary.  And I think inferring that she would allow them, on the basis that she didn't say this or that when you brought it up, is greatly unnecessary.  Nobody does well trying to guess what other people are thinking — that's why we give specific assignments to students instead of having them intuit the homework.  And in the extremely unlikely event that she thinks students being on their phones is fine, you can argue against it, so that you're on the same page if a student goes to complain.  (But I would imagine the students are used to having phones forbidden in other classes, and think they are in a wonderland of lawlessness in yours, where anything goes and phone use is fine by you.)

[polly_mer]

I like concrete examples.  Let's do a scene.

K16: Phone use is a problem in my class.  Would you support my collecting all student phones at the door to prevent use?

Supervisor Karen: Oh, don't do that!  That's a huge liability issue.

K16: Would you support my starting every class with a group exercise of turning off phones and putting them away?

Karen: No.  We have too many caretakers who need to be reached.  You can, though, require people to put the phones on vibrate.

K16:  OK.  Would you support me having students leave the room to take an emergency text/call?

Karen: Yes, that's the way the rest of us do it.  It's far less disruptive, although a quick glance usually isn't a problem.

K16: That's probably only a tiny fraction of the problem I'm seeing.  Would you support me calling out students for their cellphone use?

Karen: We really prefer structuring classes so that students don't have an opportunity or feel a need to consult their phones.  Especially for the student-readiness courses, we much prefer a good mix of active learning that includes getting people out of their seats.  These are folks for whom five minutes of explanation is about the limit before it's time to start practicing or discussing the ideas.  A long lecture seems like it should be efficient, but smaller bites interspersed with activities tends to be more effective.  Oh, and there's my soapbox.

Anyway, a good practice is to keep walking the room, stand next to anyone who is checking that phone, and direct the next question to that person by name.  That's supportive of our students, preserves everyone's dignity, and yet keeps the cellphone distractions to a minimum.

K16: Will do.  Thanks for the talk.

When I was supervising adjuncts, I would much prefer that my professionals come to me with typical suggestions on addressing common problems than wait for me to tell them exactly what to do.  There's a reason I hire professionals instead of just any old warm body off the street.  I would also much rather support my faculty against silly student complaints*  than deal with the valid student complaints** resulting from someone too timid to do the job out of fear of student complaints. 

Students complain; the question is whether those complaints are easily dismissed as indicating that students don't want to engage in their own education or valid complaints indicating a professor who isn't meeting expectations.

* Silly student complaint that seldom happens
Student: Dr. K16 told me to put away my phone! 

Karen: Good for him!  Remember, class time is for engaging with the group, not your phone.  Would you like to discuss strategies to make the phone less tempting during class?

** Typical student complaints that lead to people never being asked to teach again unless we're at an institution so far down the food chain that we are literally hiring any warm body willing to work for the pittance
Reading the written complaints:

Everyone just plays on their phones all class.  Why did I have to take this class that's just the same as high school, but with no mean Mrs. Smith this time making people try to pay attention?

I'm angry that everyone is goofing around on their phones, so I can hardly focus on Dr. K16's lecture.  That's ok, though, because the lecture was just like the reading and the assignments were absurdly confusing with no resemblance to the lecture/reading.

I never understood what I needed to do in this class so I'm failing, but Dr. K16 seemed mad a lot over nothing.

I liked this class because Dr. K16 is a nice guy who didn't yell or call on me all the time like the other teachers.  It's not Dr. K16's fault that I didn't pass.

[Hegemony]

In my view, if there are students who need their phones out because they might get an emergency call (a real chance for a real emergency call, not just "Who knows, anything could happen from anyone"), invite them to talk to you about it so you can make an exception to your rule against phones.  Then those people are allowed to have their phones out on their desks. 

Or maybe you want to allow everyone to have their phones out on their desks if they want.  (It sounds like a potential to distraction to me, but it's an option.)  If so, they still should not be on their phones.  They should only attend to their phone if the phone vibrates (no ringing allowed). And if it's the babysitter with an urgent question, they quietly step outside the class to attend to it, then come back in.  No surfing the phone, no texting.  They have to not be on their phones unless they're taking an emergency call.  They know and you know and I know that an emergency call will happen rarely, and is not a pretext for a good portion of the class to be surfing their phones during class time.

[polly_mer]

In my view, if there are students who need their phones out because they might get an emergency call (a real chance for a real emergency call, not just "Who knows, anything could happen from anyone"), invite them to talk to you about it so you can make an exception to your rule against phones.  Then those people are allowed to have their phones out on their desks. 

Student demographics matter.  When 70+% of the population have complicated lives such that true emergencies occur multiple times per month, then requiring special permission for every individual is unreasonable. 

I was much less sympathetic until I ended up with essentially no back-up net and multiple trips to the emergency room in a month for my dependents.

[Hegemony]

But polly_mer, I bet you still had no reason to sit there scrolling through your phone when class was underway — and I imagine you never would have thought of doing so. 

[polly_mer]

But polly_mer, I bet you still had no reason to sit there scrolling through your phone when class was underway — and I imagine you never would have thought of doing so.

Correct, however I definitely pulled out the phone for a quick glance to ensure that vibrate notice wasn't the day care, hospital, school, or home.  One spectacular day, I ran out of a meeting with 20 people including the chair of the board of trustees and the provost to take an emergency call from the day care and made my apologies for leaving via email six hours later.  I also walked out of a one-on-one meeting with the provost in which I had no phone at all, but the secretary broke in saying, "The school has been looking for you and needs you right now!"

I've never had a scrolling type phone and still don't now.  Thus, I don't know the temptation of scrolling at all.  I do, though, know exactly why someone who thinks their class is more important than everyone else's child/husband/grandmother being able to reach the responsible member of the family is perhaps teaching at the wrong institution. 

Even that relative youngster in class may be the most responsible person in the family/neighborhood and thus needs to be available to ensure the emergency doesn't become worse than it has to be by virtue of letting the underresponsible take care of it.

I'm not at all defending fooling around on the phone instead of paying attention in class.  However, I do now know why a rule of "no phones at all in the classroom" is unworkable for very responsible people who also need to get an education.

[Caracal]

But polly_mer, I bet you still had no reason to sit there scrolling through your phone when class was underway — and I imagine you never would have thought of doing so.

Correct, however I definitely pulled out the phone for a quick glance to ensure that vibrate notice wasn't the day care, hospital, school, or home.  One spectacular day, I ran out of a meeting with 20 people including the chair of the board of trustees and the provost to take an emergency call from the day care and made my apologies for leaving via email six hours later.  I also walked out of a one-on-one meeting with the provost in which I had no phone at all, but the secretary broke in saying, "The school has been looking for you and needs you right now!"

I've never had a scrolling type phone and still don't now.  Thus, I don't know the temptation of scrolling at all.  I do, though, know exactly why someone who thinks their class is more important than everyone else's child/husband/grandmother being able to reach the responsible member of the family is perhaps teaching at the wrong institution. 

Even that relative youngster in class may be the most responsible person in the family/neighborhood and thus needs to be available to ensure the emergency doesn't become worse than it has to be by virtue of letting the underresponsible take care of it.

I'm not at all defending fooling around on the phone instead of paying attention in class.  However, I do now know why a rule of "no phones at all in the classroom" is unworkable for very responsible people who also need to get an education.

I agree. To some extent the technology has some solutions to this stuff. For example, I put my phone on "do not disturb" in class, but I've checked a setting that overrides that if someone calls twice and told my spouse that, so if there was a true emergency and she needed to reach me, my phone would start vibrating in my pocket. Students having their phones out on their desks and then seeing when messages come in isn't really ideal, because it does seem distracting, but it isn't the same as writing people back, or just sitting there and playing with your phone.

[polly_mer]

I'll see your 500 quatloos and raise you 500 more.

So, am I paying out 1000 quatloos for your students' fabulous presentations or do you want more discussion regarding teaching classes where students need a lot of support, often much more support than high schoolers at good schools?

[kaysixteen]

Yes.  I'll get back to it asap.  What I want to say will take time to do rightly and intelligently, but I do thank you kindly for being willing to interact with me on this topic, as always.

[polly_mer]

When I first encountered it, I was very surprised as well about how much worse prepared high school graduates can be than diligent and interested middle schoolers.  Add in student complicated lives so that school isn't anywhere near the top priority and teaching at this level is really hard for reasons that have nothing to do with faculty content knowledge.

[marshwiggle]

When I first encountered it, I was very surprised as well about how much worse prepared high school graduates can be than diligent and interested middle schoolers. 

I saw that years ago when I worked with a program for interested students in Grade 9. I did a few hour workshop with them where they did something more complicated then I would do with first year university students in a term of labs. Lack of subject background is much easier to remediate than lack of interest and/or motivation.

[kaysixteen]

Sorry I did not get back to this one sooner.  My tablet crapped out last month and I still have not gotten internet service at home, am working on it.   I just wanted to send something today from the library, and will more fully reengage when I get back on line at home.

Random thoughts, now that I have just today submitted final grades for the course:

1) even after well over a month, I am still dealing with the astonishing claim by my supervisor, that I was at fault for the students' cell phone use because I was boring them, and the accompanying even more astonishing remark that college students need to be getting up and walking around.  I am struggling mightily against the thinking that this woman, late 30-ish, and without a doctorate, is just not competent to be supervising college teachers, and indeed sees herself as the defense attorney for struggling students in need of her 'student success program' efforts.

2) she also told me in August, when she hired me, that the students would be given the same diagnostic exam that landed them in the class, again in Dec., to see how they progressed.  Seemed very logical, esp. wrt the objective of improving the reading class, but in Nov., when I asked her when they would be doing so, she told me that they would not be able to be given the test again at this time, because the school cannot now afford to buy access to it from their vendor.

3) WRT criticism of me for being 'timid', I just do not want to hear any such criticism from someone who is not an adjunct professor, and esp from a tenured person.  It is just not rational to expect someone who is essentially a glorified k12 sub teacher, and who can and likely will be fired/ not rehired at any time, for any reason, to be un-timid, esp. when his prior experience (admittedly at other schools) suggests that 'customer first' appeasement is the norm, something which is all the more magnified owing to the financial struggles of this school

More later.

[downer]

1) even after well over a month, I am still dealing with the astonishing claim by my supervisor, that I was at fault for the students' cell phone use because I was boring them, and the accompanying even more astonishing remark that college students need to be getting up and walking around.

I totally agree with you about the preposterous nature of the supervisor's remarks. Good luck to you in dealing with the nonsense.

The part about getting up and walking around is interesting though. I encourage my students to do that sometimes, and they are reluctant. In one class I got them to do some star jumps to get their circulation going again. I like the idea of classrooms being more dynamic places. Sitting down for long periods of time is really bad for people.

Still, it is a perfectly normal convention these days that sudents should sit and concentrate for long periods of time.