I've wanted to ask for opinions on a certain question for some time, but
have never gotten around to it. The following statement by Robert Cohen
has finally prompted me to ask it.
Robert said, "In my experience, there are several things that can be
used to increase the gain and they always have to do with increasing
inquiry. Sequencing ideas in (what I think is) an intuitive way,
interesting lectures, appropriate demos, and such, have had
insignificant impact (as far as I can tell)."
And later he said, "You would think that it would be possible, given the
sloppy experimental setups that are tolerated, that someone, somewhere,
could show a very high gain using traditional methods."
Here is my question... To what extent has inquiry (during regular class
period) become the way to achieve high gains due to the fact that the
traditional method relies on (1) attending class, i.e. lectures, (2)
reading the textbook, (3) doing problems, (4) performing labs, (5)
writing lab reports... BUT... today students almost en masse stop with
(1)?
In my old-school way of thinking, if inquiry is going one during reading
the text, doing problem sets, in the lab actually taking data, analyzing
the data, writing the reports... Then class can be spent talking about
these things, answering questions, pointing out pitfalls, etc.
I still "mostly lecture" as far as students are concerned because during
lecture, as I point out major things in the textbook, go over problems,
talk about pitfalls in this week's lab experiment, show how to do the
analyis of the lab data, comment on good things and bad things I saw in
last weeks lab reports, etc. I continually ask for questions or ideas,
but no one responds. Why, because they haven't done any of those
out-of-class things I am expecting they have done or currently are
working on.
Thirty years ago I got high gains with "traditional method" as measured
by pre-tests/post-tests, GRE scores, etc. Today, not only are the gains
much lower, students say they wish class would more participatory
because this whole course consists of me standing up in front lecturing.
What? How can they say that? Almost unbelievable to me is the fact
they can say that because that, (1), is almost all they do.
(2) They don't read the book. They don't even buy the book. We did a
campus-wide study three years ago and found that only 25% of the
students claimed they purchase required textbooks for their courses, and
only 5% purchase recommended books.
(3) If the problem sets are a small portion of the grade, students don't
do the problems at all. They simply take zero grades on problem sets
"because it doesn't affect the grade very much." (Of course it does
affect the grade because they do a poor job on the exams, but they don't
admit that.) On the other hand, if problem sets are a significant
portion of the grade, they do them together, copying from each other.
Doing them together wouldn't be all that bad if they really all worked
on them, but generally five or six people (or more) copy from one or two
who actually do them. I suspect that if I based the grade totally on
problem sets everyone would get a grade of A, but only one or two would
learn anything. If the grade is only 10% problem sets, most students
don't even hand anything in.
(4) Students do the labs and (5) write the reports because this is 25%
of the grade, but in my lab setting (students come during a wide range
of open hours to perform the lab on a limited number of experimental
setups) students generally take data the day before the lab is due, (or
even the same day it is due). There is no interaction with me, no
questions during class, poor writing, no grappling with analysis or
funny data, because they are trying to take data, get results, write a
report, all within a 5 to 10-hour block of time right at the last
minute. Indeed, I now get 50% of my lab reports turned in a day or two
late even though it's a 15% penalty for being late within one week.
[It's a 100% penalty (lab not accepted) if it is more than one week
late, and I actually get some of these also.]
Although some of my students are not pleasant people, and a few are
dishonest, most are honest and pleasant and willing to talk about this.
When I sit down and talk to some of the better and more pleasant
students who I believe will be frank and honest, they say they never had
to do homework or lab reports in high school. They also never took
their textbooks home. Their books spent 100% of the time in their
lockers unless the teacher required that the books be brought to class.
Even in those cases, they rarely opened their books. Many did not do
labs at all. If they did do labs, they were highly "canned" and they
completed a work sheet, as a group, prior to the end of lab, and that
was the end of their lab involvement.
When I ask them about their college experience so far, they say it is
about the same. Most profs don't require regular homework or written
assignments. If there are papers to write, it doesn't take much
Googling and cutting/pasting to end up with an A-minus/B-plus paper.
Students complain I am one of the few profs that actually expect them to
do something outside of class time.
I have a lot of friends who teach in grades K through 12, including my
wife. They tell me that if they assign homework that has to be done at
home, and it does not affect the grade, the homework simply is not
completed. If the homework does affect the grade, then the parents are
the ones complaining to the teacher, or the principal, or the
superintendent, or even school board members. After all, Johnny has
football practice, is active in his church youth group, is a member of
a couple clubs, and sometimes even has a part-time job. Oh... Don't
forget the girlfriend and the social life... We don't want Johnny to be
a nerd, you know. So, please stop the homework. If you can't get the
lesson across during the regular class period, you must be a lousy
teacher.
Good grief. Is this what it has come to? Is it true that all
"learning" has to take place in the 50-minute period students are "in
class," because nothing else happens outside of that time period. If
that is true, then what happens in that time period obviously becomes
crucial. However, to think we can get reasonably educated people who do
nothing outside of the scheduled class period seems ludicrous to me.
There is no doubt this is happening in northwest Ohio. Is it happening
everywhere? What can we do about it?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu