Re: Shelby 5/1/11

How can teachers encourage students to do their work well, without patronizingly rewarding or punishing them?

I can understand where Shelby is coming from, yet I find myself feeling guilty when I do not hand in work. Just yesterday I had a paper due that I did not do, and when the professor asked if we had it to turn in I said, "Don't hate me..." Out of fear and embarrassment, students sometimes do not to go to class if they do not have an assignment finished that is due. Students especially at the college level care a lot about what their professors think. We are conditioned to do our work and this guilt spawns from past punishment/reinforcement but also the idea of future goals. When future goals are kept in mind it is not so ridiculous to hear someone say that they hope their professor is not mad at them. In college you have to find those professors who you enjoy learning from, take a lot of classes with them, and really get on their good side because when it comes time for graduate school, it is those teachers who you will ask for a letter of recommendation. If you are constantly late or neglect to do your work for that professor, chances are they will not write that letter for you. Also since you are close to a select few of teachers, when you preform inadequately you feel like you have disappointed them.

I have a couple of suggestions for teachers to get their students to do their work without ridiculing, punishing or rewarding. The first is setting high, but realistic goals. If a teacher babies their students that is not going to make them do work because they know that the teacher will not punish them and that makes the teachers more susceptible to be walked over. Students will find excuses to not do their work and find a way to waste class time. By setting high and realistic goals, the students will value and respect the teacher for testing them and being bold enough for setting such standards. Although when the standards are too high students may avoid taking classes with that teacher. the second suggestion is make assignments internally rewarding. By making a fun assignment or having the student choose a topic, they are more likely to complete it.

Question: Is it ridiculous to feel guilty or worry that a professor will be mad at you if you do not do an assignment?

Mathematical Pedagogy

In the article from Lesser & Blake (2007), they bring up the problems with mathematic pedagogy. Their arguments are that mathematic teaching lacks political, social/cultural, and historical connections. Early in the article they also highlight how the idea that students are unable to learn math is a self fulfilling prophesy. Although the connection to cultural ideas (like the disproportional Barbie) and political issues (like the death penalty) are a helpful ways for children to learn, I do not think that the lack of these real-life examples are the only reason why math is stereotyped as incomprehensible.

The reason why students have such a hard time learning math is because of the teachers themselves. I'm not saying that all math teachers are bad at teaching but I have two theories in addition to Lesser & Blake (2007). First, the masters of the field go on to becoming nuclear engineers, physicist, governmental statistical analysts, ect. Secondly, math teachers think that some students are incapable of learning math because they do not understand the way that they think. Since they love math and it comes easy to them they just assume that you are the same and if you aren't than their is something wrong with you and you do not have the mental capacity for it. They do not understand that the things that they think are common sense are not common sense to everyone who is not primarily left brained.

Why do you think math is hard for students to learn?