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From: matloff@bizet.Berkeley.EDU (Norman Matloff)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness
Message-ID: <19179@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Jan 89 02:11:29 GMT
References: <19147@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <6817@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: matloff@iris.ucdavis.edu (Norm Matloff)
Organization: EECS, UC Davis
Lines: 27

In article <6817@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) writes:
>in article <19147@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, matloff@bizet.Berkeley.EDU (Norman Matloff) says:
*> other from a top school in China.  After a few days, this team asked 
*> me during lecture, "What do you want the output to consist of?"  
*> I answered by repeating what I had said before, i.e. this problem 
*> is free-form, use your own creativity for both posing the problem and 
*> studying it, it's all up to you, etc., etc.  The team replied, "Sure, 
*> we understand that, but what do you want the output to consist of?"  :-)
*> [The rest of the class laughed, though some of those who laughed suffered
*> from a similar problem.]

>Note that in most undergrad classes at the freshman-sophomore levels,
>you don't get points for creativity. You get points for putting the
>answer that the professor expects.

>Is it any wonder that the same attitude carries over to upper-level
>courses?

Actually, it doesn't.  I have making free-form assignments like this 
quite a bit in my grad courses recently, usually with projects instead 
of homework problems, and the projects are VERY free-form.  I agree 
with Eric's point, but the better students (i.e. MOST of those in
grad school) tend not to have this follow-the-instructions-step-by-step
point of view, and they do some really nice, creative and insightful work 
on their projects.  And even more surprisingly, they enjoy it!

   Norm