Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!princeton!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching
Message-ID: <126@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 88 18:31:34 GMT
References: <2144@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> <115@mccc.UUCP> <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <1759@rayssd.RAY.COM>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Organization: Mercer College, Trenton, NJ
Lines: 46

In article <1759@rayssd.RAY.COM> hxe@rayssd.RAY.COM (Heather Emanuel) writes:
>
>With all due respect to M. Moreno, who is speaking from an idealized
>point of view:  Bull.  The salient point in the above paragraph is
>that instructors should create an environment that encourages
>intellectual curiousity.  If that is accomplished, maybe the rest
>will follow.  However, it is THE INSTRUCTOR'S RESPONSIBILITY to
>ensure that the students are learning, not the the students'
>responsibility to dig whatever useful information they can glean
>from what the instructor is throwing their way.
>

With all due respect to Ms. Emanuel -- you are also speaking from an
idealistic point of view.  In the best of all possible learning
situations, students "should" do this and that, and instructors "should"
do this and that, and learning "should" be the result.  There is nothing
I can do to reach a student who is worried about his next period exam,
his
traffic ticket, the fight she had last night with her boyfriend, etc.
Even if I create an ideal situation for stimulating intellectual
curiosity, I cannot guarantee that learning will take place.  It's a
partnership: BOTH student and instructor need to fulfill their roles for
learning to take place.

>I don't know how many times I have talked with an instructor who
>says something like, "But they just won't ask questions!"  Of
>*course* they won't ask questions if they haven't got the foggiest
>notion what's going on!  If the students in your class are not
>asking questions, are not curious or excited about the subject
>matter, that's your problem, not theirs.  After all, it's exactly
>what you're getting paid to do.
>
Or perhaps they are afraid to ask questions because their peers seem to
understand the material.  I'm reminded of an experience I had in
industry (I was manager of an educ & training dept for a small computer
company, oncer).  Two fellows from GE came to a course: the engineer
responsible for the computer and his immediate supervisor.  Neither
asked a question the entire week.  But the following week, they both --
independently -- burned up the phone lines with questions!

It ain't that simple!
-- 
Peter Holsberg                  UUCP: {rutgers!}princeton!mccc!pjh
Technology Division             CompuServe: 70240,334
Mercer College                  GEnie: PJHOLSBERG
Trenton, NJ 08690               Voice: 1-609-586-4800