Hi Folks,
Have any of you experienced the problem of students trying to write
hypotheses? It seems that this little task - which appears so clear
and simple to me - throws quite a few students for a big loop. They
(granted, most of those having troubles are getting C grades or
worse) just don't seem to catch on to what makes a prediction, and
what counts as a prediction in the field we're studying. (They also
have problems making proper, falsifiable hypotheses, but the trouble
they have that leads me to TIPS is deeper than that. They simply
don't get what a hypothesis is, or how to start making them.) I
routinely assign them a paper where they're asked to write some
hypotheses and the reasoning behind them, which we use to build on
for later papers in the term, but when they get so completely stuck
at the start, it's hard to build.
Is it the big word ("hypothesis")? (We discuss it at length in class,
and the assignment instructions reviews it again.) Is it the writing?
(Like I said, the problem is more pronounced in students who don't do
as well generally in class.) Is it kind of like Rip's students who
just want to be told what's true and don't have (or don't bother
using) the mental habits to create logical predictions?
I need some insight into the problems these students are having so I
might be able to get through to them.
And Rip wrote,
>Once, I was telling a class that with pollution, and mismanagement
>of the planet, its possible that humans may not be a viable species
>in the future. Ten seconds later, a voice asks, "Do we have to know
>this for test 3?"
And, did they? Don't keep us in suspense like that!
--> Mike O.
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Michael S. Ofsowitz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Maryland - European Division
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit
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