Student Guide Corner

Over the years, I have argued often on this blog that one of the really weak spots in education was the failure of students to close the holes on what I call �Swiss Cheese Knowledge.�   Thus, on the first day of class last week, I drew a block on the board and put holes in it.  I then explained the drawing to my students. When you leave class every day, your knowledge looks like a block of Swiss cheese.   It appears entirely solid.  However, it is full of holes�things you missed, things you misunderstood, things you did not quite catch.  I know the knowledge feels solid, but it really is not.   If you do not take action, those holes just get bigger as time passes and your memory begins to fade.   Having taught for nearly 50 years, I know where the holes are likely to be.   I can and will write test questions to expose those holes.  In many ways, testing is just an attempt to measure the quantity and size of the holes ...

(If you would like for me to send you an email whenever I post a new blog entry, just drop me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu and I'll add you to my list.) On October 1, 2017, I posted the first of a two-part blog entry on the importance of the 2-4 days after the first test of the semester.  This initial essay included an email that I sent to my current students immediately after their first test.   My assumption has long been that students are most interested in how to do well in a course as they leave the first test.   The email encouraged them to consider two specific aspects of their post-test assessment.  First, if they felt they had not done well, I made three suggestions about what might have gone wrong.   It is hard to improve without some identification of the problem.  Students who do not do as well as they had hoped should come up with an honest ending to this sentence prompt, �I did not do well on the first test because . . .� ...

I have long asserted that the most important days of any semester are the 2-4 days immediately after the first test.  So many good things and so many bad things can happen in this short period of time. They can make the semester more wonderful or they can ruin the semester.  It is the point where the group is of no importance but the individuals are of maximum importance. Because of the importance of this period, I have started (as of this semester) doing two things.   I sent my students the following email immediately after their first test with the subject line �Please Read.�   I want to get their attention.   Then, a couple of days later when I get ready to return the graded exams, I take the first 5-10 minutes of class time to talk with them about my view of the learning process.   I will describe that talk in my next blog posting in a few days. Email to my students: I have not looked at the test yet but I will try to get an answer s...

A few days ago, I posted some advice that I had given to my students about the amount of true study time they needed to invest to succeed in my class.  In that essay, I made the point that students need someone to give them some direction now and then.   That is one of the reasons many of them come to college.   I doubt that anyone disagrees with the idea that a college teacher can provide guidance to students about their study habits.  You might not do it but I do not suspect that anyone thinks it is a problem. Today, I want to talk more about sharing advice with students.  This might be a bit more controversial.   I never take class time to give advice outside of subject matter.  Never.  However, I do use email to do so.   If I see or read something that I think students should consider, I put it in an email and send it to them.  Most of the time it is about a book or a movie that I think is worthwhile.  Is tha...

I suspect none of us who teach probably appreciates fully how much guidance students need.   Every class is unique and has its own keys to success.  To us, who have been doing this forever, the way forward looks as clear as the yellow brick road that Dorothy was told to follow by the munchkins.  To the students, the path looks like an overgrown mile of swampland with no visible markers.   I realize that they look like adults but most students probably need guidance almost every step of the way. I think one of the biggest challenges in college education (and I have said this often on this blog) is that students are under-prepared when they walk into class.   They are just are not ready for the depth of conversation that I want.  So, we teachers wind up guiding them using a long, boring lecture.   If they are not prepared, what else are we going to do? I often accuse them of being prepared for a high school class.  The response i...

My first class of the new semester will begin this Monday morning at 9 a.m.   It is a junior level class and I have sent those students about 12 emails throughout the summer to get them ready.   I imagine they are either intrigued by all the emails or terrified.   Nevertheless, I do suspect that they will be ready to go to work. One of the first things I will do on Monday morning is provide the students with seven pieces of advice that I think can be helpful.   I want to help them understand how to do well in my class, and I believe these seven pieces of advice can be very instructive.  Every teacher is unique and students need to know what works for you and your style of teaching.  Students certainly learn during the semester how to adapt to a teacher and do well.   However, I would prefer to get them headed in the right direction on the first day.  Plus, if they do better, my life is easier.  Definitely a win-win si...

I appreciate that many professors do not feel comfortable pushing their students beyond the subject matter of a college course.  I have no problem with that decision.   I have simply made a different choice.  I want to be more involved in the growth of my students.  That is why I got into this profession.  If I read a book, see a movie, or watch a television show that I think is worthwhile, I often email my students with a quick review, �I found this interesting for the following reasons.   You might want to check it out.  No points.  No requirement.  Just a suggestion.�  I am especially likely to send that type message if the thing that caught my eye is outside the sphere of my subject matter.  As a friend of mine recently said to me, �I want my students to be successful in living their lives, not just in accounting.�  I could probably write 100 pages on that one sentence.  What is within the responsibility of a...

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I try to use the summer to get the students ready for the fall semester.   I want everyone to be ready on the first day to take off and fly.  Time is short.  I want to use it all and use it effectively.  Consequently, I send periodic emails to my new students from May through August although I am never sure whether they pay close attention or not.  However, one email does seem to catch their attention.    Last week, I cut and pasted one of the questions included on the final exam last spring into an email.   I then sent it to the new students to give them a feel for what they are going to learn this fall.  Most students do not understand in advance the purpose of a course.  A final exam problem gives them an illustration of what they will be able to do after we spend the semester working together.   The reality of seeing a question that the previous class had t...

During a semester, teachers do not always have enough free time available to make radical class improvements.  Consequently, as I have said often in these blog postings over the years, the summer is a fabulous time to work on the upcoming learning process.  Frequently, this advice has focused on the students.  How can you get them especially well motivated for an outstanding class in the fall?  Today, however, I want to address you as the teacher.   I want to make a suggestion for a simple experiment that I hope you will try between now and the first week of class. Creating a great educational experience is impossible unless you have a clear idea as to what success should look like.  What do you really want to happen?   �By the last day of the fall semester, I want to have a great class but I really do not know what that will look like,� is a ludicrous statement.  However, many teachers really do not know what that great class would look...

Last week, I sent an email to my students about making good use of their summer.  I suggested that they read a book that Bill Gates had recommended in Time magazine, Business Adventures by John Brooks.  I was clearly trying to serve in a mentoring capacity by recommending an activity that was never going to be on the students' test.  I hope some of them take me up on the assignment. I liked that idea so I posted a short discussion of it on this blog (May 28, 2017).   We seem to have difficulty in getting everything covered in a four-year education.  We need to find ways to increase what a student can learn during the college experience.  Making good use of summer is one place to start. My friend Bob Jensen (retired teaching legend from Trinity University) sent me a note about his own version of this summer assignment.   In all honesty, I liked his idea better than I liked my idea.   We live in a time when things evolve so rapidly that our student...