duncan@geppetto.ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) (12/07/88)
There has been some discussion of various forms of 'disclosure' of course contents and material as well as open book testing. Have been a student and instructor at the college level, I thought I'd share my perspectives. I remember a class in economics (freshman year) when the professor actually handed out a list of 100 questions and said that the tests that year -- the final in particular -- would be based on those questions. I suppose I could have gone off and never attended class if I thought I could learn enough on my own. At least in this subject area, I did not think that. But the idea has stuck with me. Why not tell people at the start of the class/year what knowledge is actually going to be expected of them? (The questions were not so simple that short answers were possible, avoiding studying large parts of the material that was discussed in class in favor of "just answering the questions" without learning the subject matter better.) I think the way in which the questions were worded helped direct the study patterns of the class -- at least mine and a few others who discussed it. It even got me to read ahead. Now, I have not used that information since those days some 25 years ago, but I remember that class! I felt good about the class -- never missed it I think. In article <1053@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes: > >I also do not read the textbook in class. I expect the students to read the >relevant parts, and they do not like this. Yes, my students didn't like this either. Whatever *hard* material is handed out seems to represent the course to them. However, I did spend a lot of time talking about the book and it's examples, etc. I just did not do through the book line by line in many cases. I was an English composition teacher, not math/science, so line-by-line is the way lots of literature was handled, of course. In article <1053@l.cc.purdue.edu> cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes: > >The only reason that I do not customarily allow open book, and limit the >amount of notes, is that otherwise students unaccustomed to this approach >will spend all the time looking things up. I favored open book for this very reason: it forced people to learn HOW to use reference materials properly. If you have ALL testing be this way and point out the pitfalls, offering some advice on study habits and how to avoid wasting all your exam time looking things up, I think it has a good effect on the education that takes place. As an English Composition teacher, I felt the biggest study problem was the memorize facts vs learning concepts dilemma. I always felt this could be overcome by letting people look-up facts to support concepts they had learned or developed on their own. The facts are undoubtedly important. I would not wish to suggest I feel they are not needed or trivial in some way. But I believe education is about teaching people to think, to be able to create coherent presentations of facts, to have ideas of their own and be able to defend them. I think proper prepara- rion for an open book/notes approach could help the educational process. It would certainly take some of thew quiz-show contest atmosphere out of education. 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))
gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner) (12/09/88)
In article <12393@bellcore.bellcore.com> duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan) writes: >But the idea has stuck with me. Why not tell people at the start of >the class/year what knowledge is actually going to be expected of >them? An interesting twist to this concept: I took a class called Social Psychology in my senior year. The class is reputedly "gut", in that it is believed easy to get an A in it if all you do is show up. Anyway, at the first class meeting, the professor passed a sheet around that you could sign which would guarantee you an A if you did not attend any more classes. However, you forfeited your guaranteed A (you had to take the final and earn it instead) if you returned to class. >Now, I have not used that information since those days some 25 years >ago, but I remember that class! I felt good about the class -- never >missed it I think. I don't think I missed it either. It was very interesting. There were lots of group projects and stimulating class discussions. >I favored open book for this very reason: it forced people to learn >HOW to use reference materials properly. I think our final was a take-home. We were allowed to use whatever reference materials we wished. The only stipulation was that we were forbidden to discuss our finals with another student in the class. As it turned out, you did not need to use reference materials too much to answer the essays. --gregbo