Annette- Count your blessings. In our community more than 50% of the people speak a language other than English at home. On a recent exam I had a question that read in part, "Susan was reaching under a fence for a squash when she hit her head on a post." One of the students didn't know what "squash" meant, but what was worse was that she also didn't know what "post" meant either! I'm real glad that I'm only two years away from retirement.
-Don. Don Allen Dept. of Psychology Langara College 100 W. 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5Y 2Z6 Phone: 604-323-5871 ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sunday, November 18, 2007 2:12 pm Subject: [tips] Am I expecting too much? To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > Perhaps times are changing and my students know different > vocabulary than mine, but I have had some laughers on the last two > tests, except it has me concerned that I may be getting so old > that I am losing touch; or the students are truly ill-prepared for > life in general. I would except students to be knowledgeable about > life in general just from reading. Maybe these students, whose > *average* GPA in high school (these are incoming freshmen in intro > psych and I have all of their admissions data) EXCEEDED 3.8 > because of honors and AP classes are getting short-changed? > > I used a standard item on the learning test and asked for the > schedule of reinforcement for various behaviors. I used fly > fishing as one item. I got the most outrageous answers: the fish > will learn to fly to get fed; you can catch more flying fish; fish > will go faster if they fly than if they swim, etc. And then there > were at least a dozen students who gave simply incorrect answers > without embarassing themselves (probably didn't understand > schedules of rf anyway) and another dozen who flat out came up and > asked me what 'fly fishing' is. > > Ok, I let that slide. So now we have another exam, now over the > developmental chapter: M A N Y students came up to ask me the > meaning of the words "innate" and "longevity" and many more missed > an item on Head Start. We talked about Head Start in class, but I > didn't go into explaining what it is all about. I guess I'm > teaching kids whose families would never have qualified and they > never heard of it because the exam item required them to go a bit > beyond what we talked about and very many of my students couldn't > because they had no context for what they had memorized by rote. > One of the foils on the multiple choice item referred to "middle- > class" and was clearly incorrect because middle-class children > wouldn't qualify for Head Start. Many selected that foil as > correct, and wrote in the margin their explanation (I allow this > on items the student wants to challenge) and I got all kinds of > answers about middle this and middle that. > > Wow, what's up with all this? I'm feeling either very very old or > exceptionally well educated in a broad way. > > Annette > > > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology > University of San Diego > 5998 Alcala Park > San Diego, CA 92110 > 619-260-4006 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > ---
