I also fall into the ‘mean-b**tard’ category of teachers, nice to meet another!
I wouldn’t (and don’t) feel bad about these kinds of situations; learning from your mistakes is one of the most efficient learning methods available. I have several undergraduate technicians working for me, and each pay-period they must submit a timesheet with all of the hours that they worked that month. It is amazing how difficult some find this task. If I try to be a nice guy, week after week some students don’t bother turning anything in, some hand me a sheet with more mistakes than seems physically possible, etc. However, don’t pay them for one pay period, and for the rest of eternity they submit their hours on time with no errors. Go figure.
Author: brooks92
Comment on When my students leave the classroom, I wish they can … by brooks92
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with the ‘self-teaching skill’ as a desired outcome. Even though we have discussed the idea that education should not stop when you finish your degree, a student’s time in formal education is finite. If we do want our students to carry on learning post-graduation, we must prioritize self-teaching and explicitly tell students that this is our long-term goal, regardless of major.
Comment on The kind of teacher I do not want to be by brooks92
Great post! My presenting style (more conference talks as opposed to classrooms) has been shaped almost exclusively by the litany of abysmal talks I have been subjected to. Each time I make a mental note never to make that particular mistake in my own work. I believe it is a much more efficient practice when compared with the struggle of trying to define the rather vague ‘effective communication’.
Comment on Grades shutting down student interests by brooks92
Great post! I have recently written about this myself, comparing and contrasting the US and UK (my own) systems. This problem is largely avoided in the UK because there are no electives. My undergraduate degree was in zoology, so I didn’t even take classes in other fields of biology (botany, biochemistry, etc.). I would’ve killed to take some classes outside of my field, perhaps classics or art history, but it wasn’t an option. So the UK system is too specialized. The US system in contrast errs in the other direction: too diffuse. Undergraduates have to take so many classes outside of their field that 1) an extra year is required in both undergraduate and masters degrees compared with the UK to catch up, and 2) some undergraduates do not have time for an independent research project, arguably the most important component of a science education.
I think the solution is a halfway house. Undergrads should be free (and encouraged) to explore classes outside of their discipline, but they should only be able to take them as pass/fail perhaps, or just as an audit.
Comment on What, Why… ok! but How? by brooks92
Tough questions! No easy answers I fear.
I shall address just the one: How to get rid of grades?
We can only do this if we have all potential employers on board. As long as hiring processes still use grades/qualifications to rank applications, we don’t stand a hope in hell of changing anything. My radical solution would be to put grades in the same category as Age, Sex, Religion, etc. and make it illegal to discriminate against. Ideally it wouldn’t even be visible on the resume or job application. Similar to what they are doing with names (no names on CVs) to remove any implicit bias.
Unlikely to happen, but it would work!
Comment on I hope I get a good grade on this post by brooks92
Great post!
I must admit, as an undergraduate, I often succumbed to the temptation of doing the minimum amount of work necessary. Happy to read that it wasn’t entirely my own idleness to blame! I think the grade culture does indeed foster that ‘just enough to pass’ mentality.
I would like to add however, that the reverse is also true; hard-working students can become obsessed with maintaining a 4.0 GPA or whatever when so much emphasis is placed on letter grades. I would further argue that desperately trying to get all A+s is as detrimental to the student’s learning as the ‘bare minimum’ mindset.
Comment on Defending the old schools by brooks92
Very interesting. I am no economist, but I am a biologist, so I do understand competition theory.
In nature if there are limited resources, something inevitably goes extinct. It still baffles me that a lot of people (particularly in the US) think that this ruthless free market ‘survival of the fittest’ strategy is appropriate for human affairs. The free market has led to the demise of the high street, a wealth gap that would make Caligula double take, and economic collapse. We shouldn’t apply it to our economy, and we certainly shouldn’t apply it to our schools. We need a lot more checks and balances!
Don’t get me wrong, I think competition is useful and even necessary for development.
Coming back to nature, competition drives evolution; it is responsible for all of the fine-tuning we see in animals that seem perfectly adapted to their environment. Hence I advocate regulated, as opposed to cut-throat, competition.
Comment on Mind Gym by brooks92
I agree with everything in this blog post, especially the point highlighted by Chang. I feel like my undergraduate education provided me with all of the tools to effectively learn and then released me on the real world!
The only thing I disagree on is the name Mind Gym; to me it seems to reflect all of the things you denounce!
A gym designates an insular location in which to do work, as if exercise cannot take place anywhere else. This was precisely your gripe against universities, and how learning stops as soon as you leave. Exercise stops as soon as you leave a gym.
Also, ‘repetition’ (ie monotony) seems to be the byword for the gyms that I have frequented, which you acknowledge as a problem for higher education.
Perhaps I am missing something.
Comment on To have dessert or to not have dessert by brooks92
Definitely eat the cake.
Some studies from this year on the ‘marshmallow test’ have made some interesting finds.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/african-farmers-kids-conquer-marshmallow-test
It seems that your decision to defer gratification is largely determined by your upbringing. Whether you eat the marshmallow depends on the culture that you live in and the mentality that you inherit from your parents. If it is not the fault of the test subject for their impatience, then we probably shouldn’t criticize them (ie. call them mindless) when they eat the treat.
Comment on Be Knowledgeable Before Being Creative by brooks92
I must be a terrible drinker, I could only afford 8 beers…
I agree that you need some understanding of a system before your creativity can make any reasonable imaginings. NASA are not going to be interested in my ‘novel’ idea of walking to the moon.
However, I do think the converse is just as counterproductive. People who are so ingrained in their field that they cant (or wont) look at things from different perspectives. A Goldilocks situation exists; perhaps this is the real reason why most important contributions to mathematics (or any of the sciences) come from people in their 20s. Older than that, your brain still works, you are just too set in your ways to do anything truly novel.
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