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[Phys-L] Re: homework lookup

I think John _somewhat_ underestimates the problem here if we think along
the following lines:

1) Homework problems are really not about learning physics concepts.
2) Homework problems really are about learning problem solving skills.

While not the greatest backer of all the PER stuff, I can readily agree with
the research that says solving lots of problems does not
_guarantee_in_any_way_ that the student has mastery of the underlying
concepts.

However, we all know that to be a good scientist or engineer one needs to be
a good critical thinker and problem solver. Most of us also have
aspirations that our other students might benefit in their lives from being
better critical thinkers and problem solvers. We also tend to recognize
that very few of our students come out of their math classes with the
ability to problem solve practical problems with all the fancy math they
'know'. Consequently, we continue to include (as we should) large doses of
problem solving in our courses for science/engineering majors and at least a
moderate amount of problem solving in many other classes (sometimes
disguised in 'liberal arts' classes).

While the process of literature searching solutions SHOULD actually be a
part of such a curriculum, John's 'level playing field' of the internet has
greatly complicated the ability of many instructors to pursue goals of
teaching problem solving and critical thinking. Of course, it can be done,
just as the savvy professors of the past knew that the Frats had all the old
tests and homeworks, we must now be aware that solution manuals for almost
any text are 'out there'. Just writing your own TESTS however, won't solve
the problem IF those tests permit the kind of algorithmic solution style
that has been found to be common in the learning process (and which I
suspect many of us would have to admit we ourselves used--at least at
times.) So, in fact there is a greater burden on us now to rethink both our
homework problems and our test problems. And all this just when some
authors have started including much better problems (those that are not so
amenable to algorithmic solutions) in their texts.

Of course there are some other recourses---the solution manuals are
copywrited material and the publishers could move to get sites shut down
that offer them illegally (yes, knowing that they will likely respawn). In
the end though, I think the only real solution is yet more work for us.
Write your own problem sets, write your own tests, don't follow textbook
problems and examples too closely--look at the Heller work from Minnesota
for some alternatives.

Rick

*********************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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----- Original Message -----
From: "John Denker" <jsd@AV8N.COM>
To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 12:22 PM
Subject: homework lookup


On 04/15/05 09:37, RAUBER, JOEL wrote:
I was totally amazed by the number of solution manuals
available for purchase on-line.
...
we will need to adjust our teaching methods in recognition of the new
reality.

There's nothing fundamentally new about this reality. Only
the details have changed.
-- For decades, frat-houses have kept files of previous
years' homework and tests. The web just evens the
playing field, by making this stuff available to
everybody, not just frat members. (Level is better
than unlevel, if you ask me.)
-- The problem isn't restricted to intro-level courses.
It turns out that in the whole world there are only a
limited number of quantum mechanics exercises that are
suitable for homework in a first-year graduate level
course. If you go to the university library and look
through enough texts, you will find a very high
proportion of these problems appears as a worked example
in one text or another. I know some students who IMHO
abused this.

unethical

I agree that homework lookup has a very serious downside.
But the ethical issue is less clear-cut than one might
have expected.

Let's move out of the classroom to a real-world situation.
Suppose you are asked to solve a hard problem. You *should*
start by searching the literature for an already-published
solution. Otherwise you're just re-inventing the wheel,
which is not a widely-admired activity.

For handwritten problems I am now writing my own. (Stealing from
other books mostly, ....)

That proves my point. How can it be ethical for teachers
to look up questions, but unethical for students to look
up answers?

======

When it comes to homework, I'm not arguing for either
extreme. Indeed I'm arguing against both extremes.
Oftentimes, yes, it is good exercise for the student
to re-invent a wheel or two. But at the other
extreme, it's somewhere between counterproductive
and utterly impossible to require that homework be
done "closed book", without looking anything up.

Teachers and students need to keep their eyes on
the prize: The goal is to _learn the material_!!!
Looking something up is not necessarily incompatible
with learning the material ... depending on the
attitude the student brings to the process.
a) Looking it up and mindlessly copying it
verbatim onto the answer sheet ... that's bad.
b) Looking it up, thinking about it, figuring
out what the method is, and internalizing the
method so it can be applied to a wide class of
similar problems ... that's fine.

I can preach about the distinction between (a) and (b)
... but I don't know any way of making it an enforceable
rule. I can't legislate attitude.

My policy on homework has two parts:
*) Unless otherwise stated, you may solve the problem
by any means at your disposal. This includes searching
the web, scouring the library, and talking to people.
(But remember, you remain responsible for understanding
the material. Homework is assigned for a reason. It's
not just a scavenger hunt.)
*) In all cases, you must cite your sources. Otherwise
it's plagiarism, which is not tolerated. Example:
-- "Following the method in Jackson, integrate
by parts."
-- "Joint work with my friend Pat."


a) I downgraded the weighting of the HW in the course grade.

I've seen lots of courses where the HW counts for
zero. The course grade is based on the exams.

And I emphasize that fundamentally the exams
and the course grade count for nothing. What
matters is whether the students know the material
and can use it two years or twenty years down the
road.

For handwritten problems I am now writing my own. (Stealing from
other books mostly, but rewriting them.)

Rejiggering the problems is an excellent defense
against mindless copying.

(But you have to be a little bit careful. I had
one prof in grad school who liked to change the
problems, but often he accidentally made them insanely
hard or even impossible, e.g. by removing a crucial
symmetry.)

For me it is a miserable situation, as I think it may
force me to go
to some teaching practices that are less than optimal.

What practices, and in what ways are they less
than optimal?
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