Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!princeton!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching
Message-ID: <143@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jan 88 16:27:01 GMT
References: <2144@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> <115@mccc.UUCP> <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <429@sdcc15.UUCP> <261@tmsoft.UUCP> <135@mccc.UUCP> <2063@pdn.UUCP>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg)
Organization: Mercer College, Trenton, NJ
Lines: 41

In article <2063@pdn.UUCP> reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach) writes:
>In article <135@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Peter J. Holsberg) writes:
>
>>Another thing you might do is pick a student and ask him a question about
>>something you mentioned in the simplest part of the class meeting.
>
>     I never like this as a student and felt that it was not appropriate to
>put people on the spot in a classroom setting.  Some people just are not that
>comfortable when they are arbitrarily picked out of a class to answer a 
>question in front of the entire class.  The only thing this technique will
>succeed in is driving students out of the class to the registrar's office to
>fill out a drop/add form.  

I guess I wasn't clear.  The type of question I had in mind was one that's 
easy to answer.  The purpose is to get the ball rolling, not to embarrass
anyone.  If I ask a student a question and he/she hesitates, I usually ask
if anyone can help.  If no one volunteers, I ask someone specifically.

Despite what you say, this technique leads to students feeling better about
asking questions and doesn;t send them scurrying to the registrar's office
for "drop" slips.

Of course, there are too many (one is "too many") instructors with weak
egos who must show off at their students' expense, or perhaps they are
not that interested in teaching.  I'm reminded of an experience I had at
a Large Ivy League University about 20 years ago.  My company had developed
a small analog computer with a display plotter meant to be used in the
lecture hall for demostration "dynamic behavior of systems".  You know,
"what happens to the frequency of a pendulum if we increase the mass of
the ball?" stuff.  We did this because it seemed obvious that a real-time
demo was a more effective teaching tool than a simple statement of the
relationship.  However, the Head of Freshman Physics at LILU said, "If
they can't learn the concept from the simple statement, they don't belong
at LILU."!!!  Not my kind of teacher.  (I work at a Medium-size Comprehensive
Junior College, not far from "LILU".)

-- 
Peter Holsberg                  UUCP: {rutgers!}princeton!mccc!pjh
Technology Division             CompuServe: 70240,334
Mercer College                  GEnie: PJHOLSBERG
Trenton, NJ 08690               Voice: 1-609-586-4800