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Re: reviewing for Students



Tina Fanetti wrote:

That's great for mid semester. But today is the last day.

I said:

Students aren't responsible for the syllabus and lesson
plan. The teacher is.

That's true the first day and the last day and every day
in between.

I know all the material.

You're being paid to teach. Teaching includes
-- motivating the students.
-- communicating the material
... Knowing the material is necessary but far from sufficient.

At some level they need to be responsible for their learning.

Ah, yes ... but inculcating a sense of responsibility is
part of the syllabus. The sink-or-swim approach is not a
particularly good way to motivate people. It will cause
them to think you don't care whether they sink or not.

I don't think it is too much to ask them if they there was
something on the test they wanted me to go over.

ASKING is a good thing. Always ask. But be prepared for the
possibility that they aren't "with it" enough to know what
you should be going over. After 9 months you should have
figured out that these students have severe motivation problems.

The students complained to me last week that I dont give
them any time to ask questions and discuss. So here I give
them time and they don't want it.

That conclusion is not convincingly supported by the observations.
Alternative hypotheses include:

-- Maybe their expectations about the format of the last class
differed from your plans, so they weren't prepared.

-- "time to ask questions and discuss" doesn't mean that
students must ask questions as a pre-requisite for having
a discussion.

-- Sometimes the teacher needs to "break the ice" to "jump-
start" the discussion. The more open-ended the topic the
more necessary this is. If the students are not well
motivated this becomes even more necessary.

-- Maybe they had a million questions just below the surface of
consciousness, and didn't know how to articulate them. Or
were too shy to speak up. Asking questions is in some sense
tantamount to flaunting one's ignorance, so we shouldn't be
surprised of most students are reluctant to do it. They
might warm up to it, gradually, if/when they feel that they
are in a supportive environment where asking questions
brings rewards.

-- Saving all the questions for the last day is not the optimal
approach. Rather than famine followed by one big feast, it
might be better to solicit questions all through the year.

To summarize: The conclusion that "they don't want it" seems
unwarranted and implausible.