Re: [MATHEDCC] Philosophical discussion

Wayne F. Mackey (wmackey@comp.uark.edu)
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:56:22 -0600

>A few faculty memebers were sitting around our lounge late one afternoon
>waiting to either go home or to a night class and we started waxing
>philosophical. (I guess we are administrators at heart. :-) )
>
>We came up with two observations.
>
>1. It seems like there is more and more prevalent a philosophy that a
>student should be able to take one of two paths in order to pass a class:
>learn the material or "jump through hoops." By the latter I mean do work
>that is related to the course but not necessarily indicative of learning the
>material. Examples: Keep a homework notebook; class attendance; time spent
>in the computer lab; time spent in the tutorial center; correct exams and
>turn them back in. All of those activities *should* increase learning, but
>do not guarantee an increase. But, it seems like there is more and more
>prevalent a philosophy "in education" that those activities should count a
>larger and larger percent of a grade.
>
>2. Colleges tend to grade "success" by asking, "Did the student pass this
>course?" rather than by asking, "Is the student prepared to pass the next
>course?" (When our school presents data on "student success" it is always
>measured in grades in a particular course. Example: We had a 55% success
>rate in Algebra.)
>
>Anybody else notice either of these phenomena?
Bret,

You bet I have noticed both of these. The first point because of student
evaluations. Especially in honors classes the students have a very
definite expectation that their grade will be based on the hoops rather
than the material learned. They are indignant when I tell them that
homework and projects are intended to increase learning, not establish a
grade. The notion that they should do problems as preparation for a test
instead of for a grade completely escapes them.

As to the second point, we are in the middle of a 2 year tracking study to
determine how students who take our algebra courses do in subsequent
courses. We undertook this study only after determining that our success
rate was much higher than before adopting our new methods for teaching and
learning algebra but we did undertake it before reporting success. So not
everyone is doing like point 2.

I'm glad you brought this up Bret and I hope everyone thinks about it. I
would only add that many of the innovations I've seen touted in the last
couple of years didn't even consider success rate, just student
satisfaction. Example: 95% of the students reported that they had a good
time in this class.

wayne

Wayne F. Mackey
Director, Math Resource Center
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
501-575-7661
wmackey@comp.uark.edu

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