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[Phys-l] Lack of respect & student cheating (was: Response to Mike Edmiston)



As you pointed out there is a general lack of respect for education and
educators. At present I think this an American problem. Our society has
had a "frontier" mentality that values action and "common sense" over
education. It is particularly strong where making money, and having plain
talking politicians is very popular. The last election was a case in point.
(Yes this is a political statement) Palin tried to appeal to being a common
person, the opposite of Obama who is by all accounts and intellectual.
Being intellectual and well spoken was a benefit to FDR, and to other
presidents of either party, but now they try to disguise their intellectual
bent.

The other factor which comes in here is that now we must educate all rather
than letting a large number drop out in 8th grade. Also now education is
seen as the gateway to $$$$. So students and parents think that good grades
will get the children into a "good" school and then into a $$$$ job. Also
educated parents do not seem to understand regression to the mean. In
general children tend to be more average than their parents, so the sons and
daughters of doctors are less likely to be doctors. So they are outraged
when their children get "average" grades.

Even in the 1950s many people expressed disdain for teachers because they
graduated from "normal" schools. But the level of disrespect is higher now.
Europeans and Asians seem to have much more respect for teachers, but that
does not stop the Viennese students from cheating outrageously according to
my wife who attended a university there.

So what do you do about it? One way is to put a higher weight on tests and
use those to evaluate the learning. But this may increase the failure rate
which administrators do not like. I know some teachers who only collect in
class problems, and do not collect assigned (optional?) homework. The
Modeling program has various accounts on their website about how students
are doing homework more enthusiastically. Each group of students must then
present a problem on a white board, and justify the answer. They will be
publicly questioned to see if their answers make sense. This is supposed to
be done by the other students, and can also be done by the teacher.

Part of the problem is that much homework involves simple drudge work which
neither contributes to learning nor is interesting. Students have been
trained to memorize things they don't understand, so why should they do
homework when they have been getting by with memorization just before the
test. Generally PER inspired homework is somewhat more difficult, and the
number of problems is decreased. This way students do not do 5 identical
problems, but each one has something different. I also do not recall that
homework was as heavy when I went to school. Also I never had to do long
term papers or projects in HS. So not doing homework can be a reaction to
overload. Remember in Europe students do not spend as much time in class as
they do in the US.

Another way to enforce homework is to use an online homework service where
each student gets a problem with different numbers. But just problem
solving is not as helpful for learning as has been commonly thought. The
Modeling method of making students immediately justify their answers does
help them, even though the number of problems is not that great.

But I do not think that things are all that different from when I was
growing up. I can remember being shocked by a classmate who said she had
never read a whole book in her life. I was isolated on a farm with a family
that read a lot and valued education. I was reading 5 to 7 books a week.
But in a farming community in that era people were isolated and did not know
much about the world. But farm boys and girls learned the value of work
because if they shirked they knew the farm would fail. Suburban children
have never had that experience, perhaps until now!!!

In some schools the students don't even bother to pretend they are doing
homework, and they just don't hand it in. And administrators do not look
kindly on very low grades that might result. So some districts mandate the
lowest grade is 50. Students know there is grade inflation and pressure to
pass them, so this also contributes to the malaise.

You have everyone's sympathy, and hopefully the situation can get better.
But I would strongly urge anyone feeling frustrated with physics teaching to
take an extended Modeling workshop. The "graduates" from these workshops
who apply the method are generally very positive and feel invigorated. One
sees comments like "I was ready to quit teaching until I took this workshop.
But now I am enjoying it much more and the students are learning more" This
is not an actual quote, but is typical of many of the quotes that I have
seen. You can go to their website:
www.Modeling.asu.edu
But if you live in the NW the McDermott workshops also probably have the
same effect.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



I am writing in response to Mike Edmiston's contribution
written
several days ago (the 4th, I believe). His frustration resonates with me.
I
am constantly amazed at the lack of integrity I find in some of my
students,
even those who will be very pleasant to my face. I am sure that if I knew
what percentage of homework I see on a daily basis was copied, I would be
even more disillusioned. I have brainstormed over the years, trying to
put
the right methods and procedures in place that would minimize this trend,
but have come to realize that for every trick I use, the students will
find
their way around it.

In my district there is a general lack of value placed on
education, and lack of respect for educators. I am not sure how this
developed, but some of it seems to be proportional to the poverty level
locally. Even among parents that do supposedly care about their child's
education, I find that the reality is that they care more about the
student
acing physics than knowing physics. This has effectively given their
child
unspoken permission to do whatever it takes.
We need cultural change, but I have no idea where to start. I
just try to keep on doing my job, with the hopes that maybe in the midst
of
teaching physics I can somehow also inspire honesty, a good work ethic,
and
a love for actual learning. The maybe the generation that follows will
have
a couple more parents who see the value in the pursuit of knowledge and
pass
that attitude on to their children.

-Lindsay Baker
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
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