The major Intro to History of Hamster Fur Weaving exam is an in-class essay exam. They know the topics on which they may be asked to write, and I go over them in class, give them a few pointers on the sort of information they might want to include in their answer, suggest they consult their notes and the relevant assigned readings for each question as they study, and give them a some tips on how to organize their answer for maximum effect (i.e. points). I could hardly be more helpful without writing it for them, or so I have always thought.Or, apparently, not, judging from the email I got this evening:
"Hello Prof. Academic,
will you be telling us EXACTLY where in our notes and the assigned readings we should be getting the answers for each question?"
I mean, you're joking, right? You're not? Okay, uh, no. That would be a no. I am not.
Got the same email except with EXPLICITLY instead of EXACTLY
ReplyDeleteYes, somewhere between the beginnings of the notes and the readings, and the ends of them. This is exactly: it's not precisely, but most people don't know the difference between exact and precise.
ReplyDeleteSure I'll tell you precisely (^^) where to find to look: wherever in your notes you find material that answers the questions.
ReplyDeletePossibly tangential reminiscence: I remember my grade nine science teacher - a truly great teacher - on our first homework of the year aksed us to read the introduction of the textbook and answer a very general question. After reading the chapter:
ReplyDeleteJunior R/G: "But Mr. Ross, the answer isn't given in the reading!"
Mr. Ross: [Tapping a forefinger to his temple] "Ah so... You must think grasshopper"
Message received and understood. "Boss Ross" was a kind and wise man who understood kids. Today, he'd probably get called out for hurting our precious self of steam, which is why we're dealing with this crap in universities.
Ah, grasshopper ... I spent a couple of years substituting in a local school system upon relocating to the region.
DeleteMr. Ross would have been run out on a rail, I suspect.
This group of 8th graders was asked to read a chapter from their text and answer a dozen or so fill-in-the-blank question. This group of snowflakes in training actually stopped working when I would not tell them precisely where to find the answers in the reading.
They went about their pre-teen business until one of the smart kids finished and they then Bogarted the completed assignment and passed it around.
"Absolutely I will tell you exactly where in your notes the answers are to be found -- nowhere. Cuz I don't believe you actually took notes and if you did I bet they suck. Oh, and by the way, if I study for you, I will award myself the A I earn. You'll get bupkus."
ReplyDeleteI gave a fill in the blank lit exam that had answers in the margin. Listed alphabetically, there were three times more possible answers than blanks and some possible answers were meant as a joke. It turns out, as one student said, that Romeo and Brittany lived in New York where Romeo killed his sister with a snake. I was accused by that student of giving a "deceptive" test because the answer list was confusing.
ReplyDeleteMy undergraduate memories don't even contain the word "study guide." It was just assumed that the exam could and would test us on anything that had been covered in the course. And I'm not talking about multiple choice or even short answers here. The humanities freshman survey course that I took required us to write four essay answers in three hours. We were given about a dozen different questions, covering the whole breadth of the course, and we had to choose four. That's it. Get writing, and don't come up for air until you've got four essays in your book.
ReplyDeleteNow, my students freak out if there's no study guide, and they also often freak out when I tell them that the exam will be essay only, with no multiple choice, no definitions, no short answers.
A problem that I believe relates to this need to be spoonfed everything is that many of my students seem incapable of extracting important information and key arguments from a text by themselves. Just a few weeks back, we read an article about a very important court case related to the topic we're studying, and despite the fact that it was the central focus on the article, half the students in the class couldn't tell me which side had won the case, or why, or what the main issues were.
I realize that some of them simply hadn't opened the reading; there were others, though, who clearly had read the piece, but just hadn't actually absorbed or retained any of it. When I asked them what their notes said about the article, I got a look that said, "We're supposed to take notes when we read?" This is an upper level course, and these students are almost all juniors and seniors.
I understand that sometimes the texts we read contain some difficult concepts, and I'm happy to go over those in class, and to explain things that the students don't understand, but it's often the case that they don't grasp the most basic aspects of the reading. I think, in many cases, it's because they read scholarly material the same way they read Facebook or other websites; they scan and skim, rather than concentrating and focusing on the arguments and the connections and the comparisons made by the author.
I refer you all to Nick Carr's book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" for your future reference, re: skimming and spoonfeeding.
ReplyDeleteI have a stack of in-class essay exams for a lit course sitting on my desk. The test was open book, and open note, which they thought was great--right up until they realized that, shit, they hadn't taken any notes and oh fuck I haven't read the whole thing through... My deepest desire is to go Malcolm Tucker on these people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LugJd6uGJqI
To say that I am not looking forward to reading these things is an understatement (though I do have 4 or 5 who will have done pretty well, because they're the only ones who are consistently engaged in class discussion).
Ah well. Fuckity-bye.
Defunct Adjunct, I had the exact same experience as an undergrad: lots of information, no study guides. Likewise, the syllabi I received had general remarks about the course but rarely a day-by-day schedule of events. I had to show up to class to find out what was due the next day (large projects, the exception, of course). I do not know when I started giving out study guides in my own professional life, nor why I thought it was a good idea. Did I attend a professional development meeting that suggested this was good pedagogy? Did I get told "but Professor X does this for us"? Did I think I was being helpful? I honestly don't know anymore. But every year I dream of ditching them and forcing my snowflakes into really studying.
ReplyDeleteI have a colleague who gives study guides. It makes the rest of us look terrible in the students eyes (a large group taught by multiple faculty). They think I am a B**** because I hold them to standards. My evals reflect it too.
DeleteI have thought about giving study guides just so that I don't looks evil in comparison.
...and while you're at it, could you throw in the geographic coordinates for my ass? Because I can't seem to find it with two hands...
ReplyDeleteLOLZ.
DeleteCan I nominate this for "Comment of the Week"? Because it is full of winning.
Tell 'em that you covered that on the day they missed, and they should try to get the notes from a classmate.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, I think the first study guide I ever got was as a graduate student. The instructor of "Early Gerbil Thinkers" distributed a set of questions for us to consider ahead of the test: seven pages or so of questions, covering every section of every lecture, every reading, every possible combination of readings, and broad comprehensive questions requiring mastery of the entire semester's material plus a Master's degree.
It wasn't intended to be helpful, as such. It was intended to be frightening, and it worked like a vaccine (for most of us, in other words, as long as we didn't refuse to use it on principle).
At our "Teaching and Learning Institute," the so-called experts actually told us that study guides were a great technique and we should all be using them. That's one of those line in the sand moments for me. If I give students an essay exam, provide them with the prompt choices in advance, allow them to bring one page of notes/outline to class with them, and use open book, they don't need a damned study guide. They need to actually take good notes and then read them, which, back in Old School Days, WERE the study guide. We offer a mandatory student success class that even teaches them how to do active listening and take effective notes in lecture and group discussions. Do I have to put the food on the spoon, stick it in their mouths, and then rub their necks to make them swallow too?
ReplyDeleteColleagues in departments with objective tests also don't need study guides, word banks, or any other such nonsense. Is the nurse in the OR going to say to the doctor, "I'm not sure which instrument you need; could I please have a word bank?" or "I don't think that body part was covered in the study guide, so it's not fair that I should have to know where it is"?