We all remember being in elementary school and being told by our teachers to ask anything we like, even if we think it's stupid, because there are no stupid questions. Anyone who has actually taught knows this simply isn't true and that students ask stupid questions all the time. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh. I don't have any problem when a student genuinely doesn't understand a concept and needs to solicit further explanation. What really bothers me is when I have taught something, the student has learned it, but has taken no care to apply it. I wouldn't call that person stupid, but I'd like it if they put a little bit of thought into their problems before consulting me. Here's an example of what I mean from a conversation I had today. A student came up to me with a draft of the essay she was writing.
Student: Can you read my conclusion?
Me: Why?
Student: I don't think it's good.
Me: Why not?
Student: I don't know.
See, here I feel like the student simply views me as an editor, not as an instructor. She wanted me to read it and tell her if it was good or not without giving it any thought herself. In other words, it wasn't that she didn't understand the concept, but that she hadn't thought to apply what she had learned before coming to me. Though to be fair, I've found that this is fairly typical of education in the Middle East. Students do not see themselves as having access to answers or knowledge, only teachers have answers to questions. So again, maybe I don't think the question is stupid as much as I dislike the attitude that teachers are the only source of knowledge and that students can't think for themselves. All hail teachers!
I have really tried to discourage students from asking me these kinds of questions when they're writing. I've told them that if they come to me with a specific question, I'll gladly answer it, but that I am not there to proofread their work. So in the case of this student, I had to ask a few more questions to figure out what her actual concern was.
Me: Do you know what makes a conclusion good? Do you know what elements you need to put in it?
Student: No.
Me: (glancing over her paragraph) What is this first sentence here? What is it doing?
Student: It's a summary.
Me: That's good. You knew that your conclusion is supposed to start with a summary. What's supposed to come after the summary?
Student: A recommendation.
Me: Right, or it could be a prediction or a call to action. There needs to be some sort of final thought. Did you write one of those in your paragraph?
Student: Yes, I did.
Me: Okay then, you have everything you're supposed to have in the paragraph. So why then do you think it isn't good?
Student: It's very short.
Now at this point I should say that I always find it very interesting what students consider to be "good" writing, and it invariably has something to do with length. Good writing, they think, is long. How long you ask? As long as you can make it. I personally disagree. Good writing is concise. My 8th grade English teacher put it this way: good writing is like a woman's skirt. It should be long enough to cover the topic, but short enough to keep us interested. Of course, I can't use this metaphor here in ultra-conservative Qatar, so I instead pointed out to her that length isn't the issue. If she has covered all the points in the paragraph, then it doesn't matter if it looks a little bit short.
She said thank you and went back to her seat to work. I'm genuinely not trying to be mean, but I still hope this way of questioning students doesn't make them feel stupid. I have had some get annoyed at times and tell me, "Stop trying to make me think!" But that's my job. I'm not here to fix your paper so that you can get a good grade. I'm here to help you think about what you're doing and learn how to do it yourself.
Student: Can you read my conclusion?
Me: Why?
Student: I don't think it's good.
Me: Why not?
Student: I don't know.
See, here I feel like the student simply views me as an editor, not as an instructor. She wanted me to read it and tell her if it was good or not without giving it any thought herself. In other words, it wasn't that she didn't understand the concept, but that she hadn't thought to apply what she had learned before coming to me. Though to be fair, I've found that this is fairly typical of education in the Middle East. Students do not see themselves as having access to answers or knowledge, only teachers have answers to questions. So again, maybe I don't think the question is stupid as much as I dislike the attitude that teachers are the only source of knowledge and that students can't think for themselves. All hail teachers!
I have really tried to discourage students from asking me these kinds of questions when they're writing. I've told them that if they come to me with a specific question, I'll gladly answer it, but that I am not there to proofread their work. So in the case of this student, I had to ask a few more questions to figure out what her actual concern was.
Me: Do you know what makes a conclusion good? Do you know what elements you need to put in it?
Student: No.
Me: (glancing over her paragraph) What is this first sentence here? What is it doing?
Student: It's a summary.
Me: That's good. You knew that your conclusion is supposed to start with a summary. What's supposed to come after the summary?
Student: A recommendation.
Me: Right, or it could be a prediction or a call to action. There needs to be some sort of final thought. Did you write one of those in your paragraph?
Student: Yes, I did.
Me: Okay then, you have everything you're supposed to have in the paragraph. So why then do you think it isn't good?
Student: It's very short.
Now at this point I should say that I always find it very interesting what students consider to be "good" writing, and it invariably has something to do with length. Good writing, they think, is long. How long you ask? As long as you can make it. I personally disagree. Good writing is concise. My 8th grade English teacher put it this way: good writing is like a woman's skirt. It should be long enough to cover the topic, but short enough to keep us interested. Of course, I can't use this metaphor here in ultra-conservative Qatar, so I instead pointed out to her that length isn't the issue. If she has covered all the points in the paragraph, then it doesn't matter if it looks a little bit short.
She said thank you and went back to her seat to work. I'm genuinely not trying to be mean, but I still hope this way of questioning students doesn't make them feel stupid. I have had some get annoyed at times and tell me, "Stop trying to make me think!" But that's my job. I'm not here to fix your paper so that you can get a good grade. I'm here to help you think about what you're doing and learn how to do it yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment