Topic: Bang Your Head on Your Desk - the thread of teaching despair!

[the_geneticist]

No, the exam wrapper is not to fix mistakes.  It's to contemplate why you made these mistakes and plan out a better study strategy.
For example, a lot of our students say they "misunderstood" the questions because they didn't read the entire question.  Now, they know they need to slow down, read carefully, underline key terms, etc.

[kaysixteen]

Good explanation-- does this wrapper thingee actually work effectively at getting students to ascertain the answers to these questions, and does any such self-discovery seem to actually improve students' academic performance going forward?

[the_geneticist]

That's the hope!
As the saying goes, 'individual results may vary'.  My students are mostly freshmen so they are still figuring out good learning strategies.

[kaysixteen]

Do you see these freshmen as more or less prepared than their predecessors were, say, in 2004?

[marshwiggle]

Do you see these freshmen as more or less prepared than their predecessors were, say, in 2004?

My personal sense is that it has always been common for first year students to just want "the answer", rather than be told how to figure out the answer. What I feel has changed is that students are hanging on to that mentality much later in their education than before. Hearing it from someone fresh out of high school is one thing; hearing it from someone a year from graduation is quite another. I put it down to an increased reliance on The Internets(TM) for "the answer" to any and every question, so they don't really believe they should have to figure anything out for themselves.


Anyone else feel this way, or am I just getting old and jaded?

[the_geneticist]

Do you see these freshmen as more or less prepared than their predecessors were, say, in 2004?

I wouldn't know, I wasn't teaching that long ago.

But we teach the students we have, not the ones we can imagine.

[Parasaurolophus]

Despite all my precautions, one student who wrote a make-up midterm wrote the exam for the wrong class. Sigh. You'd think they'd notice the difference in content.

[Liquidambar]

My students were supposed to analyze the reliability of various sources.  One student concluded that all the scholarly articles are reliable because they are well formatted.

[sinenomine]

My students were supposed to analyze the reliability of various sources.  One student concluded that all the scholarly articles are reliable because they are well formatted.

If only my freshman writing students held formatting in such high regard!

[EdnaMode]

My students were supposed to analyze the reliability of various sources.  One student concluded that all the scholarly articles are reliable because they are well formatted.

Well, I'd have to give them at least partial credit on that because so much of the bad information out there is filled with typos and grammatical errors and/or has no references to other sources. At least they noticed the formatting, some of my colleagues seem to think that comic sans is an okay font for their email **looks over at open email in my inbox**

[darkstarrynight]

Despite all my precautions, one student who wrote a make-up midterm wrote the exam for the wrong class. Sigh. You'd think they'd notice the difference in content.

Oh my! That is a lot of work for both of you.

[Puget]

Week 10 of the semester and a student just asked me "Do you have office hours?". The ones prominently displayed on the course page that you must scroll past at least twice a week? Why yes, I do. No one will be surprised to hear this student is struggling in the course.

[the_geneticist]

If you post a set of "practice questions" for students, please make sure that they are on materials that you have already covered.
The students are *freaking out* that there are questions on topics that were covered in a previous version of the course, but not this current Fall.

[sinenomine]

One of my students just told me they couldn't find anything in the library about Pearl Harbor. I think they didn't look very hard.

[Sea_Ice]

One of my students just told me they couldn't find anything in the library about Pearl Harbor. I think they didn't look very hard.

Time to assign a "learn how to use the library" refresher - I assume that librarians are still happy to offer those?