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Re: Lazy?



I think we should think about assignments in terms of RESPONSIBILITY. When
one is a student, that is one's 'job' at that point in time. In taking on
the role of student, one has responsibilities much akin to that of an
employee in almost any job or profession. One of those responsibilities
includes doing the assignments in courses. If, as a student, I don't do the
assignment, then I must face the consequences--lower grade and perhaps
failure in the course. It's that simple.

It is really counter-productive (IMO) to start second-guessing our
responsibilities as instructors if students don't turn in assignments.
Trusting that we assign work to further the educational process, then the
failure to do the work IS the student's problem. OK--we all know of cases
where an instructor gets carried away--assigning much too much work, but I'm
not talking about that.

So, if you feel the assignments are essential to the course, be sure to make
the consequences of not doing them substantial. If the assignments are more
of a supplementary nature, then don't grade them or allocate only a small
portion of the grade to them and don't be surprised when students don't do
them. In the end, though, it is the student's RESPONSIBILITY to do the work
assigned.

Rick

*************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

FREE PHYSICS INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
MacIntosh versions of the Laboratory Simulations
are now available.
**********************************************************


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Edmiston" <edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU>

Isn't this the everyday plight of the teacher? None of our assignments
are life/death assignments. How do we get students to do
them? If I think there is a valuable lesson in having the students go to
the library and find/read the hard copy of something, it
doesn't matter whether this physics list agrees or the students agree. We
could never come up with a list of activities that we as
professors and they as students would agree is the "absolutely required
list of activities" for the subject at hand. Each teacher
has the freedom to come up with her own list. After having done that, and
finding students don't like it, must we discard the
assignments that yield the lowest compliance? If so, don't we eventually
discard all assignments?


This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.