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When I began teaching in the fall of 1978, I could assign problems, and most
students would work them. They would work them whether I graded them or
not. There were groups that would work together, but students knew they
would need to know how to work the problems on the exams, so even those who
worked in groups would make sure they understood the problems. Those who
failed to do this knew it was their fault when they failed.
Those days are over. Today, many students won't work the problems even if I
count them as part of the grade. Those who hand them in generally use
solutions manuals, or online resources, or they copy from other students.
Therefore they will hand in "work" for which they have no understanding. I
eventually quit collecting problem sets. They were meaningless. Those few
who did the problems and therefore understood the problems did well on exams
and didn't need credit for the problems. Those who handed in someone else's
work had such low exam grades that the credit for the problems (which was
false credit anyway) wasn't enough to make up for the low exam scores.
I repeat... collected and graded problem sets became meaningless. Students
who do not work and figure out problems for themselves will fail the course.
They will claim it is my fault because I didn't engage them. The
administration is not happy because our retention is falling.
Administrators are not asking me to change grades or grading policies, but
they are asking if there might be additional things I can do to help
students succeed. I have tried. I give up.
John Denker's advice is exactly my advice. Tell students to work problems.
Suggest representative problems if you wish. Don't grade problems; don't
collect them; don't give any credit for them... just make sure your exams
establish (as early as possible) that passing the exams will require
learning how to work the problems. Those who work the problems and figure
them out will survive; those who don't won't.
I see no alternative. If we don't make this reality of life obvious to our
students, we have probably failed in teaching them the most important lesson
we can teach them.
* * * * slight change of subject occurs here * * * *
When I began teaching in the fall of 1978, most students wrote their own lab
reports using their own words. If they quoted material they did it
properly. I seldom had to charge a student with plagiarism.
Those days are over. Students today seem to have learned that writing a
paper is something done by finding the right sources and cutting and
pasting. In a university of about 1200 students, our dean of students says
that in the last two or three weeks of each semester she gets 3 to 5 reports
of plagiarism per day. Unfortunately, even though professors are required
to report all cases of academic dishonesty, most do not. That means a
student can plagiarize in every course, but the professor is likely to view
it as an isolated case, not realizing this student is plagiarizing across
the board.
In this case, the administration is still concerned about retention, but
much more resolved to stop the plagiarism since it occurs in all areas
(unlike problem sets that mostly occur in science and math). Therefore the
administration has reinforced the policy that professors are supposed to
report all cases of academic dishonesty. And, for flagrant plagiarism the
first offense in any course gets the student on academic probation, and the
second offense in any course gets the student suspended.
I see no alternative. If we don't make this reality of life obvious to our
students, we have probably failed in teaching them the most important lesson
we can teach them.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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