Coming to class naked (Part 2)
The idea behind last year’s “Coming to class naked” blog post was to stimulate discussion of about what to do when students come to class unprepared. And boy, was I unprepared for the intensity of the responses. We heard from both faculty and students. Many people agreed with the idea of giving quizzes to encourage students to prepare, and many did not, citing that quizzes don’t help students become interested in the course content.
I’ve included a few of my "favorite" comments here, in hopes of re-stimulating the discussion.
“Students coming into the class who have just had another class or work will not be capable of using their brain to its full potential, because they have used up their “brain power” elsewhere already. This is why class time should be reserved strictly for listening, taking notes, and light participation, and not for squeezing the brain.”
“Whether or not I would prefer to learn your material over writing a graded paper for another class, the grade on my transcript is what follows me for the rest of my life. If you want to increase participation and learning in college, eliminate the entire concept of grades . . .”
“Everybody knows that college is a place to have fun in between mind numbing classes that are exercises in indoctrination rather than processes of growth. Those who do not share this sad and cynical view upon entry to school quickly discover the error of their ways.”
I’ve included a few of my "favorite" comments here, in hopes of re-stimulating the discussion.
“Students coming into the class who have just had another class or work will not be capable of using their brain to its full potential, because they have used up their “brain power” elsewhere already. This is why class time should be reserved strictly for listening, taking notes, and light participation, and not for squeezing the brain.”
“Whether or not I would prefer to learn your material over writing a graded paper for another class, the grade on my transcript is what follows me for the rest of my life. If you want to increase participation and learning in college, eliminate the entire concept of grades . . .”
“Everybody knows that college is a place to have fun in between mind numbing classes that are exercises in indoctrination rather than processes of growth. Those who do not share this sad and cynical view upon entry to school quickly discover the error of their ways.”
posted by Gayle Stein at
6:00 AM
3 Comments:
I think the best option is to make college cheaper so that we students can focus primarily on class and their own development. I love learning, and I would love to sit down and read my material and study if I only had that to worry about, and maybe my 3 extracurricular activities which really don't require that much of a time commitment and are relatively 'optional'. But no - I have to plan out my weeks with only an hour here an hour there, class blocks, and then by the weekends I'm wiped and spend most of the time sleeping or have no energy to do work. And dare I even say I am not someone who goes out and parties on the weekends. I barely see how it is possible for those people.
If I could not have a job, and commit that time to focusing more on school work or resting so that I'd have energy to focus on my school work at other times, I would. I KNOW I would because I have done this before, but I fell into a need for money, so I had to start working again. As for the other people who are just lazy and spend basically 70% of their time socializing, maybe they deserve to fail. But those of us out here who are overloaded with crap to do not deserve to suffer the same consequences of failing pop quizzes because we didn't have time to read something, especially when we have MULTIPLE classes giving us 30-40 pages of reading per week.
Quizzes are a good thing. They help the instructor to understand what the students have learned and what might need to be retaught.
I feel that, while it might seem counterintuitive, keeping track of grades and giving pop quizzes encourages students to act to hit minimal standards and stifles original thought and creativity. Many students love learning new things, love engaging with new ideas, but feel so constrained by having to do busy work or meet narrowly defined rubrics that they just get tired of all the boundaries and slop together whatever will get them the grade. Sadly for most classes a good grade is quite possible without engaging the material. Frankly, the incentives are perverse - figure out what motivates the teacher to give you an 'A' and don't focus on what you find personally motivating.
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