> > I just had one of my favorite classes of the semester this morning. We > have an exam on Friday. I walk in as say "Who wants a study guide for > the exam?". Invariably many of the students perk-up and say "Yeah, I > do"! I tell them that I don't have one and that we're going to put one > together as a class. To which they look puzzled. I say "Any teacher > who gives you a study guide is an enabler and is insulting your > intelligence" (I'll get in trouble for that one of these days... but I > don't care about that). I remind them that they are not in college to > accumulate a bunch of factual information only (the "canon of facts"). > I remind them in no uncertain terms that they are suppose to be > accumulating SKILLS! (especially if their primary goal is to "get a > job". "I can't wait to get out of college and start making MONEY!!!" > Hell, we were never in that much of a hurry to leave college... at > least I wasn't ;-) > So anyway, I go on to inform them that one of the most important > skills that they can develop is the skill of looking at a volume of > information (e.g., their notes from class) and trying to decide what > is the most important information and what is likely to be on an exam > to test whether they "know the material". I also tell them that going > through a bunch of information and trying to distill it IS AN INTEGRAL > PART OF STUDYING, and a SKILL they should be developing and something > that they are capable of doing (that should be a compliment to them). > If the teacher does that for you, he/she is robbing you not only of > that important component of studying, but of developing that specific > SKILL! And to what end? Students are happier because they don't have > to work as hard; teachers are happy because they are "heros" (and > their evaluations go up) and the kids do better on the regurgitation > tests. But here's the dirty little secret... YOU pay $80K to get a > piece of paper that represents a "game" rather than an accumulation of > skills (and long-term knowledge). > So then we (me and my students) create a "study guide" as a class. WE > COLLECTIVELY create a study guide that would be EXACTLY like one I > would create FOR THEM. The difference is that I hope to have empowered > them. If they "get it", they feel empowered and realize, like Dorothy > in the Wizard of Oz (Oswego!), that they had the power to do it all > along. "There's no place like home, There's no place like home... I > can create a study guide for any class I want, I can create a study > guide for any class I want". > And so, I may have empowered one or two of my students. And I may have > gotten one or two or three of them to think about what they should be > getting out of their time "in college". And that's what I'M here for. > $80K is way to expensive to simply play a game. > "What skills do you have in your wallet"? >
======================================================== Steven M. Specht, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Utica College Utica, NY 13502 (315) 792-3171 "Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958) ---
