TEACHSOC: RE: about midterm holidays

[Roberts, Keith]

-----Original Message----- I am writing to ask for advice about how to deal with students who expand vacation time, leaving before the break starts and sometimes returning after it ends.  ...  I had scheduled the midterm exam ...   ...I am wondering whether it should also be appropriate to take points from those who decide to leave before the break officially starts.  What would you do if you had to face the same situation?  While taking points off might seem arbitrary, it seems to me that something needs to be done to stress the need to be a responsible student.   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   * It seems to me that we have to be very clear in our own minds why this is an issue, and the responses have to be appropriate to the issue.  The issue, as I understand it, is that we want to create a culture of learning at our universalities...a culture where learning and scholarship is valued and prioritized.  Students leaving the campus early violate our own sense of priority and we are afraid (rightfully, I think) that if we just cave into a culture that sees parties and vacations as higher priority, those values of scholarship and learning will continue to deteriorate.    This must not be confused with a different issue—that the student has somehow violated me or my authority by choosing something else over my class. That is an issue of authority.  Do you want to punish people for a secondary issue (the authority of the professor) in the evaluation of learning?  I would not want to do so. I would think that heavy-handed punitive action—-points reduced for not sticking to my rules—would miss the point and not really teach anything but authoritarianism.    My inclination would be to create options, and let student make a rationale choice.  I would tell them that the course was structured in a way that made sense for the curriculum, and that this was an appropriate place in the course for the examination.  It would be unfair for some students to have extra time to prepare for the exam by taking it when they get back.  Thus, I would allow a late exam, but with 10 points (or five or eight) taken off for lateness.  They would then have a choice—lose those points and the risk of a lower grade in the class or stay and take the exam.  The vast majority of students will choose not to loose the points.  For those who do, you have treated them as adults who have choices to make.  “Punishment” tends to infantilize and to create hierarchy and authoritarianism.  Providing a natural consequence for certain actions and then allowing students to choose leaves them in the driver’s seat, respects their choices, and enhances the culture of learning.  There is no resentment toward the teacher which can destroy rapport and morale that are so important to the classroom.  (At least I have never had resentment form this kind of policy.  They are pleased to be given a choice, even if one side of the choice has a high cost.)  So my advice is to create logical consequences for those things that undermine a culture of learning, explain the rationale for the consequences, and then allow choices with the consequences in place.  At all costs, avoid anything that looks like “punishment” -- which is always a power play by an “authority.” Power plays do not enhance learning, and they often create resistance and hostility. Consequences are perceived very differently. They are rooted in the goals of the classroom, not the power of authority.   That is my take on classroom management.   Keith     *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *      Keith A. Roberts, Ph.D.     Dept of Sociology & Anthropology     Hanover College     Hanover, IN  47243       [EMAIL PROTECTED]     Office: 812/ 866-7353