So the Fall semesters are revving up, and many of us are either in our first two weeks or so, or are imminent.
My first day has evolved into an intensive pedagogical seminar. Much of the context and subtext that was infrastructure in my undergraduate days now seems to require explicit instruction. At first, I did so begrudgingly, but now I just get it done.
My students actually appreciate the effort, and explaining the reasoning and assumptions that drive my course helps with compliance. At a minimum, it gives the viable students a basis for a productive term.
From my end, planning the pedagogical first day forces me to think about the student end of things, and for me the revelation was that I can do so without losing my standards.
It has, for the most part, been a positive use of my time, and helps start the course on a good basis.
My students actually appreciate the effort, and explaining the reasoning and assumptions that drive my course helps with compliance.
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous. I taught a class we could call The Basics of Weaving, a required class for the major. In the end-of-semester evaluations, several students complained they learned "nothing about Basket Weaving" in the course. Teaching them basket weaving was not a course objective on the syllabus discussed on day 1. There was no chapter on basket weaving in the textbook. So, you know what, they are right! I didn't touch one wit on basket weaving.
Guess why? My course was a prerequisite for Basket Weaving 101. They had no idea that was the next course in their major. The major they chose. And they should have already signed up for Basket Weaving 101 for the following semester by evaluation time. Did they? They seemed completely unaware of what I was supposed to teach and what I (repeatedly reminded them) the course was about.
So, again, jealous your snowflakes pay attention enough to not slam you for not teaching them stuff that has nothing to do with the course. Compliance is nine-tenths of my problem with my flakes.
A snowflake will rarely do that - complain about you not teaching the course that they either wanted or expected you to teach. I'm very explicit about the scope of the course, and even though it is a gen ed course, people will sometimes expect it to do more. The key is to lay out the scope. At this point, I give them brief explanations of what the gen ed is about, and how it is different from the "real" courses.
ReplyDeleteA good chunk of them can be oriented correctly, but you'll still get the flakiness.
Compliance is always an issue, though.