Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thoughts about assignments - Its all about you
When I prepare assignments, I think about what I would like the student to be able to do or know. I want to involve the student in some task or activity that would allow the student to think deeply about the subject matter, engage with it and come out of the experience enriched. My idea is that as a student you choose to engage in learning because you want to develop in your area. That's my focus - on the student as someone who wants to learn. I imagine you want to come out enriched. I am therefore always partial to the student who may not have quite grasped the issue but who is willing to work at it until he/she gets it.
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I think you have achieved your goal Dr D, with the storyboard assignment certainly for me. While I am certainly still a work in progress, I feel it was a worthwhile exercise. It made me review a lot of myself as a teacher, my planning activities etc.
ReplyDeleteWhen I give an assignment, I am hoping that the exercise gives a highlight of the most important issues that are essential basic knowledge that the student will use in their future academic and professional careers. I create assignments that are problem based and require the students to apply basic knowledge to real life situations hence making them see the relevance of the knowledge.
I always get that “AHA” moment when students that have passed through the department and are now in their seniour years, come up to me and say “Dr V, today we were asked this and that during a ward round, and I was able to answer based on the assignment we did that time…..”
Assignments are generally stressful and demanding because of deadlines, work load, etc. One challenge we have as university teachers is that we now encounter many students who are not here primarily to learn: there is a focus on certification / qualifications rather than on education / learning. We have the added task of encouraging students to love learning. The semesterization of the academic year has also exacerbated students' indulgence in surface rather than on deep learning. Therefore, as Drs. Dianne and Sacha have indicated, we need to make assignments enriching and relevant to students. This includes the Literature student who engages with fictional material that is nonetheless true to real life. Assignments I give, and have given, at the undergraduate level help to foster group and interpersonal skills (project), to allow students to give personal responses to texts (journal, forum, book review), to let students see the overlap between fiction and real events (history) that affect their own Caribbean reality (essay topic), etc, etc. However, these are not separate and discrete learning outcomes because one assignment will variously impact students' learning. As fewer students apply to be Literature Majors, the Literatures in English section has begun reviewing the LIE program - the kinds of assessments we give will also and necessarily have to be considered as courses are revised.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Geraldine, you are hitting the nail on the head and there is a lot of truth in your comment. Nevertheless I don't think that it is always that many students aren't there to learn. I believe that all students learn something. They know sometimes what they aren't getting from the teacher and most of the time they don't want to express this to the teacher. Quite a few of them yearn for some sort of guidance to achieve their goals, albeit, a job, a promotion, self fulfillment or granting wishes of parents who are living vicariously through their children. Students don't always make the connection because sometime we don't assist to make that connection. Tasks are given to the student by teachers without trying to get some sort of focus and motivation. I am glad that Dr. Thurab has done this for her classes. It makes the struggle through the storyboard a little easier. I am glad to be enrolled in the program to give kind consideration to all of these factors.
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify. Note what I said Dbest1983 (that's why I don't like blogs - people use aliases and are anonymous and I don't know who I'm "talking" to). I said that many students aren't here 'primarily' (key word) to learn. For many it's not their main (key word) focus. It is something I've noted myself and even yesterday I heard a retired professor saying a similar thing and he was talking about postgraduate students who weren't showing a curiosity for new and independent learning - even our Deputy Principal made the point recently in a newspaper article about the focus now being on getting certified and not on being educated. It's not a case for lots of them that they're here doing a discipline because they love it so much that they wanted to pursue it at university level (w/ getting a job in the field, etc, being a secondary reason). For many, being here is a means to a financial or material end. Of course all students learn something; I never suggested otherwise. They'd have to literally be blocks of stone - which they're not - not to learn anything. And, yes, we as teachers have to take responsibility for their learning as well. That's a given - if any of us don't know that we shouldn't be teaching. I reiterate and restate that the focus of many of them, our students - I never said all of them - is to earn a degree/certificate/diploma to get a job and all the other reasons you've outlined. I'm not saying this is entirely their fault either, but I've encountered lots of Level 1 students in their first semester - fresh out of secondary school and CAPE - who display indifference and mediocrity. Is it tiredness, bad habits (like plagiarism) inculcated at primary & secondary levels? I think it's a myriad number of contributing factors. Note, too, Dbest1983 that I said 'many students' and not 'most students' - there's a stark distinction - since what I really mean when I use the words 'lots of' and 'many' is that for me there's an unacceptable number of students who are like this. And then I've taught many, many students who were doing their best, trying to fulfill their potential, excelling, curious to learn and loving learning.
ReplyDeleteI uploaded my assignment today. I had questions, all of which were promptly answered. I had a small problem while uploading my assignment and it was quickly fixed. As a student now, I really can appreciate when a teacher/lecturer goes the whole mile, it makes learning both enjoyable and easy. I would say that Dr. D. has acheived her objective. When I started I did not even know what a storyboard was (obviously us Economists are not with it), but I after the experience I am certainly much better off.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also want to say that for me it is frightening when the Level 3 student displays an apathy for learning. I have encountered lazy, weak, failing students in their final year - 'slackers' we call them in Trini parlance - who come begging to pass a course they've failed through their own fault (not because there were extenuating factors) simply because they want to graduate. And they tell you this outright - they just want to graduate. So, there they are only concerned about being left behind and not graduating with their friends (or because they absolutely must finish now because they have to find a job) so that they can cross the stage and say that they have a degree. They don't care to get a good grade in the course or a good class of degree. Those are the students Dbest1983 to whom I also refer. There are too many of them and it's always a pity to see.
ReplyDeleteGeraldine and Dion I can say with certainty that there are some students who are not really interested in working for a degree. They want the certification and they want it the easiest way possible. Its a sad state of affairs but true. This is very frustrating for the teacher because how do you motivate someone who is just riding out the semester trying to get by? My philosophy is I try to be available and I let you know what is expected. I try to motivate as best as I can because I want everyone to leave the course having gained. Ultimately its up to the student to accept all that is on offer.
ReplyDeleteI have expressed frustration to one of my past colleagues about trying to motivate the students you referred to: who are “just riding out the semester”. He told me (I’m rephrasing here): Students have the right to fail if they really want to fail and...Sometimes we have to watch them exercise that right.” In my experience these are a select few and the majority of students want to learn but sometimes there are factors that distract/demotivate them from learning. However by creating a learning environment as you do and preparing the assignments with such care, it is really all about me...and I like that very much. :)
ReplyDeleteI like the part of your comment about being 'partial to the student who may not have quite grasped the issue but who is willing to work at it until he/she gets it.'
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how some teachers/lecturers are so against giving students another chance at an assignment so that they can improve. I do it and, yes, it takes time and is more work, but if that student is now closer to mastering the concept, then it is worth the effort. Isn't this what teaching/learning is all about? As Nirmala's student pointed out, some students will not make the effort to improve so we have to allow them to fail. It was their choice. But at least we gave them the opportunity.
Thank you Dr. Dianne for the opportunities you provide for us to improve.
I agree with your views on assignment Dr. Dianne.
ReplyDeleteJust now I have completed the big process of evaluating project assignment of my students for my course (Plant Biotechnology). This kept me really busy for these 2 weeks. In the past it used to be like that students were given some topics right from the syllabus (do it yourself) and the draft was exchanged among themselves. When I looked at the past year's work I found that students were simply copying text books and other contents gathered from the web (cut and paste) and they were ridiculously redundant. This year when the course came to my fold (not full but I'm responsible for one half of the course), I followed a different strategy. Ofcourse this is not new but practicing in the earlier places where I've worked. I gave them group project assignments (3 -person groups)in topics related to the curriculum (and not with the curriculum). For this I gave them 2 full length research articles (from high visibility journals like , Nature, Science and PNAS)/group. I asked them to read them word by word, go for the root articles and critically analyze and develop a write up for the project assignment. We had online discussions by email, one-one discussion with groups during practical hrs thru' which I was constantly tracking their progress. Everything went on well. We had our final presentations by April 19th before the Dept. amidst students and invited staff. Each group was given 20 min for presentation + 5 min for discussion. I was impressed to see the active participation, level of enthusiasm and competitive spirit among students. It was peer evaluated by the panel (graduate students, staff). Finally every student got good points. Though initially students were murmuring that I'm giving more work (than the other member), I was stubborn and did not yield but keep them pushing, finally gone thru' well and they themselves realized that this is good and they learned something new. I want to continue this in the coming sem. but would increase the weightage (from the current 5%). The only challenge here is to bring consensus and some cooperation from the fellow staff (cause I'm not the main course teacher for some baseless rules)to get these big changes done. But I'm optimistic that I could get these done soon. I know very well that, nothing happens spontaneously. We have to start the experiment boldly and gradually bring a change. We have to grind students and demand enough work to justify the grade. We are here to inculcate this kinda work culture but not to simply inherit the routine read and write habits.
-Jaya
I agree with your views on assignment Dr. Dianne.
ReplyDeleteJust now I have completed the big process of evaluating project assignment of my students for my course (Plant Biotechnology). This kept me really busy for these 2 weeks. In the past it used to be like that students were given some topics right from the syllabus (do it yourself) and the draft was exchanged among themselves. When I looked at the past year's work I found that students were simply copying text books and other contents gathered from the web (cut and paste) and they were ridiculously redundant. This year when the course came to my fold (not full but I'm responsible for one half of the course), I followed a different strategy. Ofcourse this is not new but practicing in the earlier places where I've worked. I gave them group project assignments (3 -person groups)in topics related to the curriculum (and not with the curriculum). For this I gave them 2 full length research articles (from high visibility journals like , Nature, Science and PNAS)/group. I asked them to read them word by word, go for the root articles and critically analyze and develop a write up for the project assignment. We had online discussions by email, one-one discussion with groups during practical hrs thru' which I was constantly tracking their progress. Everything went on well. We had our final presentations by April 19th before the Dept. amidst students and invited staff. Each group was given 20 min for presentation + 5 min for discussion. I was impressed to see the active participation, level of enthusiasm and competitive spirit among students. It was peer evaluated by the panel (graduate students, staff). Finally every student got good points. Though initially students were murmuring that I'm giving more work (than the other member), I was stubborn and did not yield but keep them pushing, finally gone thru' well and they themselves realized that this is good and they learned something new. I want to continue this in the coming sem. but would increase the weightage (from the current 5%). The only challenge here is to bring consensus and some cooperation from the fellow staff (cause I'm not the main course teacher for some baseless rules)to get these big changes done. But I'm optimistic that I could get these done soon. I know very well that, nothing happens spontaneously. We have to start the experiment boldly and gradually bring a change. We have to grind students and demand enough work to justify the grade. We are here to inculcate this kinda work culture but not to simply inherit the routine read and write habits.
-Jaya