Re: [Phys-L] students in charge of ....., or not

[stefan jeglinski <jeglin@4pi.com>]

Hello all,

I went into lurk mode here about 4 years ago, when I transitioned from a 
career in industry to teaching university physics. At the time, I 
ventured to briefly write about a new experiment (for us that is, at the 
time) in transforming our classrooms from a "pure lecture + disconnected 
lab" to an integrated "lecture-studio" environment that emphasizes 
(inter)active engagement. At the time, I came to think better about 
whether to discuss it much, and that remains true now, although now I 
have 4 years of experience and volumes of thoughts about why this is a 
good idea in general but can suffer from a multitude of flaws in 
implementation. At any rate, now that I've completed my 4th end-of-year 
ritual, I figured this summer might be a good time to contribute random 
thoughts.


On 5/7/16 6:33 PM, John Denker wrote:
> In the Gomorrah Post from a few days ago: Shannon Reed "The 7 things 
> new college students don’t know that drive professors crazy" 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/05/03/7-things-new-college-students-need-to-know-so-they-dont-drive-professors-crazy/ 
> The #1 thing is ... wait for it ...
> > “You’re not in charge.” 
> That is open to multiple interpretations, most of them unwise, some of 
> them disastrously unwise IMHO. a) If we interpret it as "You're not in 
> charge of everything" that would be true, although a bit trivial. b) 
> If we interpret it as "You're not in change of anything" that would be 
> terrible. In any case, this is the wrong conversation to be having. 
> It's the wrong way to frame the issue.

After reading the Wapo article, I feel like most of the author's 
complaints, indeed many complaints about students in general (although 
certainly not all), can be resolved in large ways with one suggestion 
that was buried in the middle and but given no more emphasis than 
anything else: go see your professor. I'd be preaching to the choir on 
this one, so I'll spare you. The real question is: how to get students 
to come to office hours?

I have students who in retrospect readily admit that coming to office 
hours easily made a difference of a letter grade for them, or more. I 
suggest to them that they advertise that fact far and wide. I cajole 
students in any way I can to stop in, but many claim to have no time and 
many are also intimidated because they can no longer hide from the 
professor when they're but a few sitting there. I've taken to stressing 
that they need not have a question to come to office hours – I'll probe 
their mind to find out what they don't know. This usually works although 
I've seen one or two students take advantage of it (unprepared to even 
think about physics). But to be honest, one of the ways I've found is to 
offer them candy. So I keep a bowl of it on the desk. I can get up to 5% 
of my students to respond to this (my definition of success).

How do you all get students to come see you?



Stefan Jeglinski