Grading Tests part 2
My wife doesn't like to be in the same room with me while I'm grading tests. It's tedious, time-consuming work. And the less understanding a student has, the more time it takes to grade the test. By the time I'm finished, I'm usually in a very bad mood (as you can see by the cantankerousness of my previous post on Grading Tests).
But then, after a couple of days, I regain a degree of equanimity and I begin to think about the students. Is apathy really so rampant? Or could there be some other condition that makes it seem as if the students just don't care? My best guess is that most of these students who don't seem to care are just silent victims of ineffective, abusive or burned-out math teachers, and the parade of educational theories that are really more about helping PhD's get tenure than in helping students who need to learn math. I mean, can it really be the case that more than half of the students that are taking time out of their summer, as well as money out of their bank accounts, don't care about the course they're sacrificing so much to take? It seems more likely to me that most of these students have a bad case of learned helplessness, or something like it. It's as if they're thinking, "I never understand much of what goes on in math class. And the more I study, the more frustrated I get. So I'll limit my emotional involvement so that when I get a poor grade I won't want to open a vein."
When a student realizes that they've got half a dozen more math classes before they can get their degree, they've got much more motivation to try to change their attitudes, to pay attention to the fundamentals, to unlearn their helplessness. For that reason, it seems to me that I'll still want to teach developmental math even after I finish my master's degree. I know how to reach those students. But I'm not sure if there even is a way to influence students that are in their last math class required for their degree. What's their motivation?
But then, after a couple of days, I regain a degree of equanimity and I begin to think about the students. Is apathy really so rampant? Or could there be some other condition that makes it seem as if the students just don't care? My best guess is that most of these students who don't seem to care are just silent victims of ineffective, abusive or burned-out math teachers, and the parade of educational theories that are really more about helping PhD's get tenure than in helping students who need to learn math. I mean, can it really be the case that more than half of the students that are taking time out of their summer, as well as money out of their bank accounts, don't care about the course they're sacrificing so much to take? It seems more likely to me that most of these students have a bad case of learned helplessness, or something like it. It's as if they're thinking, "I never understand much of what goes on in math class. And the more I study, the more frustrated I get. So I'll limit my emotional involvement so that when I get a poor grade I won't want to open a vein."
When a student realizes that they've got half a dozen more math classes before they can get their degree, they've got much more motivation to try to change their attitudes, to pay attention to the fundamentals, to unlearn their helplessness. For that reason, it seems to me that I'll still want to teach developmental math even after I finish my master's degree. I know how to reach those students. But I'm not sure if there even is a way to influence students that are in their last math class required for their degree. What's their motivation?
Labels: teaching
posted by Rich @ 03:54
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