Re: In-class Examples

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 13:50 -0500 8/19/02, Tina Fanetti wrote:
> When you give lectures, do you do the examples problems already done
> in the book for the students?
>
> Usually I have been taking examples from different books that way
> the students have 2x the worked out examples but some of my former
> students complained.
>
> What I was thinking this time around was to do end of the chapter
> problems.  The book has like 60 problems.  I can only feasibly
> assign 10 or so leaving plenty of problems, some of them which are
> interesting.
>
> I was thinking about doing the ones that are interesting and the
> ones that I consider very good but too hard for my students as in
> class examples along with ones that look remarkably like homework
> problems.
>
> I want to try and make this semester go better.
> Ideas?

My experience was that the students got almost nothing from the
already worked examples in the text. They never try to work them
before looking at the solution, they just skip directly to the
solution--if they even read the text. Many just read the problems and
then go back and try to find a worked example that is similar to the
problem and then try to apply that method. Sometimes it works.

I like the idea of doing class examples of problems that are harder
than what they will see on the homework. Too often the worked
examples are just plug & chug drills and not of much value. Try the
harder problems on them, but do your best to get them involved in the
solutions in class. Ask lots of questions and force them as much as
you can to come up with the approaches for solving the problems. If
you do all the work, it becomes just like the worked examples in the
book, so try not to do the work--get them to make the effort, with
your guidance.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
******************************************************