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[Phys-L] Re: homework lookup



On Friday, April 15, 2005 1:22 PM, John Denker wrote:
<snip>
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.
<snip>

I agree that the task is to get the students away from (a) and
toward (b). But how?

<snip>
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."
<snip>

Sounds like a good policy. Does it work? It didn't for me.

For a couple of years, I trying SUPPLYING the homework solutions
to my students. I told them to FIRST try the homework
BEFORE looking at the solutions and THEN use the solutions to identify
their problem. My only requirement was that they MUST use a different
color before and after looking at the solutions and they had to tell me
which color corresponded to which. Some semesters I even had them
write a statement to that effect and then SIGN it.

I'm sad to say it never worked quite as well as I had envisioned it.
Not only were people too quick to look at the solutions (after all,
that certainly seems a much quicker method than THINKING about it
first) but I always had people who COPIED the solutions (even the
errors) then wrote a statement to the effect that they had done it
themselves. I couldn't believe it. I tried giving them zero credit
for homework, talking with them, explaining the difference...nothing
worked.

I believe the students honestly don't know what plagiarism is because
they don't know what it means to "understand" something. They
feel if THEY wrote it down, it wasn't plagiarism. They feel this way
because solutions are not "original". You either know the solution
or not. So, if you see someone else's solution and it "makes sense",
you write it down. They feel a good book would give you the answer
before asking you for it.

If I clamp down on this practice and drop them from the class, students
end up just not doing the homework because they don't understand the
policy and don't want to be dropped. I now think they are better off
not having access to the solutions.

FWIW.

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301
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