Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!geppetto!duncan
From: duncan@geppetto.ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Message-ID: <13160@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 3 Jan 89 21:53:45 GMT
References: <4893@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <6435@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <5237@pdn.UUCP> <2145@faline.bellcore.com>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Organization: Computer Technology Transfer, Bellcore
Lines: 45

In article <2145@faline.bellcore.com> dph@faline.bellcore.com (Daniel P. Heyman) writes:
>
>An instructor need not look bad if he can't answer a question. Some
>questions require a lot of thought or additional research to answer.

What do people think about the issue of teachers not being able to answer
student questions?  I think the 'image' of a teacher -- which students even
seem to want to maintain -- is that teachers have the answers.  Indeed, if
they don't have them, why are they up there talking -- get somebody in who
does!  (And for a student to have the answer when the teacher does not is
often a real shock.)

I think this is most prevalent in more introductory courses where the an-
swers (and questions) are assumed to be elementary, e.g., anyone who stands
up in front of a class better know the answer.  I think this tends to maintain
the level of some introductory classes as rather low to be sure this occurs.
(I do not suggest teachers/students do this consciously; it seems to be part of
the culture of adademic relationships in many cases.)

Also, the time and grading system involved in 15 week (or less) courses --
college or a public school semester that's slightly longer -- make it hard
to get very involved in anything that doesn't have a fairly clear, easily
found answer.  (My own experience is that pursuing a question too much in
a class situation is often not appreciated by those students who expect 'to
get through the material'.  This is more the case when tests are NOT admin-
istered or developed by the teacher but by a department -- in an understandable
effort to be 'fair' across the board.)

I have tried starting out a class by reversing the idea I will have all the
answers and expecting the students to dig for more of them -- even when I DID
have the answers.  It was very disconcerting for many students who expected me
to be supplying them with answers regularly.  (I was NOT purposely dense nor
did I put the main burden on them.  However, I DID expect them to have read
the material assigned and lectured based on their questions.  I saw this as
trying to answer REAL questions, borne of their actual study of and thought
about the material.)

What techniques do people use to produce an atmosphere where questions that do
not have immediate answers get asked and pursued?


Speaking only for myself, of course, I am...
Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan)
                (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane  RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ  08854)
                (201-699-3910 (w)   201-463-3683 (h))