But doesn't this "enable" non-responding? Some of my colleagues use the same argument when justifying on-line discussion groups. I would rather work on students' abilities to be confident in themselves so that being "wrong" is not so "socially traumatic". It's difficult to say the emperor has no clothes when you're afraid to respond. Of course, I have the luxury of having small classes (usually under 25) and spend some valuable class time talking about why students feel uncomfortable raising their hands. It relates to availability heuristic in a way I suppose too, when related to asking questions in class. I ask them to think back on all the times they were thankful that someone else raised his/her hand to ask a reasonable question compared to the times when they thought someone asked a "stupid" question. We talk about the fact that there seems to be less "stupid" questions asked, by far. And I assure them that as a professional educator, I will handle politely rare "stupid" question (which, imho, are very rare). Just my 7.5 percent (adjusting for this year's CPI). -S
On Feb 19, 2008, at 9:22 PM, FRANTZ, SUE wrote: > I can't help with the cointoss -- although for some students > calculating 50% may be a problem. I've seen students take out > calculators (or cell phones) to add up 5 single digit numbers. > > For other things where there is a right or wrong answer, like the > penny, some students would probably prefer to not participate rather > than be wrong in front of their peers. > > I'm a proponent of clickers for the latter reason -- they won't help > with the math issue. For instance, I do a demo for the availability > heuristic. Students are asked to estimate the number of shooting > deaths in our county (large metro area), and then they are asked to > estimate what percentage were homicides, suicides, and accidents. > When I used to ask for a raise of hands or for students to volunteer > what they thought, I got very little response. With clickers, I get > 100% response -- and after the correct answer is revealed, students > can see that they weren't alone with their wrong answers -- AND > they're willing, en masse, to talk about why they were wrong. > > -- > Sue Frantz Highline Community College > Psychology Des Moines, WA > 206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/ > -- > APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology > http://teachpsych.org/ <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> > Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology > Associate Director > Project Syllabus > http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php > <http://www.apadiv2.org/otrp/index.php> > > ________________________________ > > From: William Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tue 2/19/2008 5:45 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: [tips] Students who attend class but are not there > > > > In an intro class today I did a demonstration meant to show them the > absence of psychic abilities. I had them predict a coin toss on 20 > throws. I had planned to have those who succeeded by more than 50% > then predict on another series of coin tosses and show the effect of > the normal curve. After the first round, I asked how many got less > than 50% right. About one quarter of the class raised their hands. > Then I asked how many got more than 50% right and another quarter of > the class raised their hands. What the ...!! I have concluded that the > current students have found a way to send 3dimensional holographic > avatars to class so that they can appear to be there, but they > actually are still back in their dorm rooms sleeping. > > The same sort of thing happened a few years ago when I did a classic > demonstration of choosing the face of a one cent piece. I asked the > students to raise their hands regarding which of the different > representations of a penny they chose. As I went through the options, > I ended up with about 50% of the class still not claiming one as I got > to the last one, which none of them admitted to choosing at the end. > > Perhaps these new clicker systems that allow us to do anonymous class > polls might help, but I really would like to know why students come to > class but don't take part in it. > > Bill Scott > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])<winmail.dat> ======================================================== 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) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
