Student Guide Corner

In my previous blog entry, I responded to a student from Florida who wrote in about the potentially devastating results of a bad first test.    As often happens with me, I have spent a lot of time since then thinking about how I could better prevent my own students from being trapped by the results of that first test.    I do not want my students to come to accept that they are just C or D students and have no possible way to improve.    I too often hear �well, I made a low C on that first test; I guess I�m destined to do poorly in this class.�    That�s nonsense.    I want them to fight back.    One test grade is just one test grade.    But, we are all human and much of our self-image is based on what happens to us right now.   A lot of success in life comes from having confidence and a bad first test grade can kill anyone�s confidence.    How do you avoid ruining a student�s confidence as a result...

I think college education would improve rather quickly if students would start asking more questions about the process. For most of them, it is their one and only shot at a college education. What they learn and then know for the rest of their lives is dependent on how well that process works. It is not something that they should take lightly. The efficiency of the process might be important to the teacher but it is essential to the lives of the students. Personally, I believe transparency is a good idea. Plus, what a teacher does should be able to withstand a little scrutiny from the students that are involved. If I cannot explain why I am doing something, I probably need to rethink it. However, we tend to train our young people to be very obedient � to do what their elders tell them to do without asking any questions. I have often speculated that I could walk into a college class and start giving nonsense assignments about Martians and the North Pole and most students...