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Re: [Phys-l] Cramster et al.



An how do your students fare when they run into someone like me, who doesn't use self-assessment?
regards,
Jack

"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley




On Sun, 9 May 2010, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

I believe strongly in self assesment. I give no homework or exams. At the end of the semester I give a sheet with all the class names to each student. They grade everyone in the class including themselves. I gather the data and base the semester grade 75% on a student's assesment of themselves and 25% on what average grade the rest of the class gave them. Seems to work well, almost everyone gets an A - indicating they must be getting a lot out of the class.

Bob at PC

________________________________________
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of John Clement [clement@hal-pc.org]
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 2:45 PM
To: 'Forum for Physics Educators'
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Cramster et al.

The circular explanation is one of the basis for what is done in Modeling.
Students in groups of 3 each prepare an individual white board at the
beginning, and then each group explains their solution. Each student must
do some explaining in each group. And the next group up asks questions. If
they don't have good questions, then it is opened to the floor, but the
instructor is supposed to avoid intervening as much as possible. This
circular white boarding is very effective.

As to problems the problems from the Hellers at Minn are very good and to my
knowledge do not have solutions on the web. But the problems are available
freely from their website. These are much better than the garden variety
problems, but there is also a required solution template.

One way of fixing part of the problem has been to use online grading
services where each student gets an individual problem with different
numbers. This still does not prevent them from looking up the solution
method, but it does require each student to submit individual solutions.
Unfortuantely it does not have any better track record than conventional
problem solving according to some research.

The circular whiteboarding does work better, but you must give up lecture
time to do it, unless it is done in recitation. However lecture time is the
least profitable time for students, so reducing it is not a deficit.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


.. so let's not shirk our duties on assignments and grades and give them
more ammunition for criticizing our profession. If you want the students
to do the work you must do your work as well.

While I appreciate the thoughts folks are contributing, I can do without
the cheap shots. With all due respect, you have no idea how hard I work
at what I do. Let's focus on the ideas, strategies and tactics without
assuming I am lazy or incompetent. The intent of my question was to learn
about approaches others take.

I constantly work at improving how I teach, doing my level best to be as
effective as I can be. Learning physics in upper level occurs through
working problems. Whatever incentive structure one designs, that aspect
won't change. While I have historically been a fan of rewarding the
hard work the best students put in to problem sets, that's becoming more
complicated.

(As far as looking examples up in books, while true -- I remember this as
a student as well -- this generation of student barely knows what a book,
let alone a library, is. Or rather, they know what they are, but they
seem totally unwilling to actually use them. Cramster has brought the
problem to a whole new level -- giving complete solutions book by book,
problem by problem. They don't have to spend hours poring through books -
- a process that might actually teach them something, I might add --
everything is just a couple of clicks away.)

One reasonably effective approach is a kind of seminar-style problem
workshop where students are responsible for preparing solutions to
problems and then presenting them to the rest of the class, thus forcing
them to _explain_ what they may (or may not) have copied. There usually
isn't time to cover everything, but if students know that they can be
called on to present any of the problems on any given day, and that if
they are called on and aren't prepared, they don't receive credit, that's
pretty effective incentive. I've not in the past relied on this model to
the exclusion of problem sets, but I may give it a try this coming year.
I'd be interested in the wisdom and experience of those who implement
something like this approach.


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Forum for Physics Educators
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l