Re: [Phys-l] lab safety rules +- time on task +- symbolism

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 09/12/2011 07:18 AM, Edmiston, Mike wrote:
> I hope I haven't come across as supporting 3-hours per week on task
> for each hour of credit just because that's "the rule", or because it
> will make all my students scholars, or that all students need it.
> Rather, I try to give reasonable assignments that provide reasonable
> practice without becoming time wasters.  When it becomes obvious that
> a student is not getting it, I don't care whether they spent 15
> minutes on the assignment or two hours on the assignment.  Whatever
> it was that they did clearly did not work.  If they report to me that
> they only spent 15 minutes on my course outside of class in a given
> week, then I am inclined to believe that lack of sufficient
> time-on-task was the primary culprit of their lack of learning.  I
> may be wrong, but that is the obvious first guess.  If they report
> that they spent 20 hours studying/working for my course, then I am
> inclined to believe there is a different problem.  My first
> inclination in this case to see how they are spending those 20 hours
> and see if we can make them more efficient.  Although it still could
> be that this particular student needs more time on task, they
> probably don't have the time, and higher efficiency is probably the
> goal.

I agree with all that.  I don't have much to add, except for some
minor points:
   We agree that although time on task is not the goal, sometimes
   it is a step along the road to that goal.  I would add that it
   isn't necessarily the /first/ step, because there are often some
   important things farther upstream.  That is to say, if the student 
   is spending only 15 minutes on something that is traditionally a 
   3-hour task, you have to ask *why* that is.
   -- Is there a lack of background that makes the student unable 
    to get any traction on the assignment?
   -- Is there a lack of motivation for this assignment, for this 
    course as whole, or for college in general?   There are lots of
    possibilities, and deciding what to do next depends on the details.
   -- Is there some personal disaster that needs to be dealt with?
   -- et cetera.

  Medicine has terminology to describe the point I am making:  There
  is a disease, there are various factors that contribute to causing
  the disease, and then there are various symptoms of the disease.  In
  our case, IMHO, time on task should not be thought of as the disease.  
  Sometimes it is a contributory factor, sometimes it is only a symptom,
  and sometimes not even that.  My point all along is that we should 
  never get wrapped up in treating a mere symptom.

  Measuring time on task is easy.  Measuring the things we actually
  care about is very very hard ... but it needs to be done.

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See also next note.