“This stuff is starting to make sense.”
Published on Sep 27, 2006 at 12:50 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under college teaching.
Here’s a question for the other faculty out there. Do your students give up too easily?
My physics classes are already looking decimated. I am shocked at how many have already dropped or quit coming. It isn’t just my class, the other physics faculty here are saying the same thing. I’m also hearing that from the biology and chemistry faculty. So, what gives?
One of the students commented to day that he had mentioned to the person sitting next to him the first week that by mid semester half the class would be gone. Well, it’s almost that bad already, and we are only up to our first exam! In fact, they didn’t even wait for the first test to drop! My student was waying that he can’t understand this, because the things that we are covering now seem so much easier than what came before, and things are starting to make sense to him. We launched right in the first week, but we’ve been doing pretty much the same thing ever since. All the material just builds on what came before, and it reinforces earlier concepts. So, what was tough at the beginning is now getting easier for those students who are sticking it out. Actually, another one had said something very similar just before class began. He said that he really didn’t understand Chapters 1 and 2 when we went over them, but after doing the homework and paying attention to my lectures on Chapter 3, Chapters 1 and 2 made sense, but he still had trouble with Chapter 3 until he’d done homework and gotten into Chapter 4. Now, suddenly Chapter 4 was making sense! We just started Chapter 5 today in lecture. Last night, I got similar comments. So, the students are learning, if they will only stick it out.
The problem is that this material is tough at first. Repetition helps make in easier and more understandable. Many never get to that point. They don’t see what is going on. If they don’t understand it right away after a quick read of the textbook, then they quit.
So, how do we keep them in class long enough to start to understand the material? Unfortunately, my college has a very liberal drop policy. Students can drop just about anytime, for any reason at all, until near the end of the semester without instructor approval or even notification. At least at some universities that I’ve taught at, the student had to get the instructor to sign a drop slip. Here, I think that they can just drop online, without talking to anyone. They get a grade on one thing that they don’t like, and they drop, without finding out what that grade really means in the overall scheme of things. But, physics doesn’t get easier, and they find that taking it with someone else doesn’t make the class go any easier. Sticking it out makes it easier, as most of the students who are left are starting to now realize.Â
Part of the problem is that the students are coming to us from high school without the proper math background to handle first semester physics. Also, they don’t seem to be taught any problem solving skills in high school. All they do is plug and chug in equations. So, when they get to real physics in college, they don’t know what to do. There is a steep learning curve. But, once they get past that initial jump, things get easier.
But, it still gets to me, and I hate to see so many students drop. This always happens in this class, and not just to me, so I don’t really take it personally. Well, I do take it personally, but I tell myself that it isn’t personal. They are doing the same in everyone else’s class, too. Still, it makes me feel badly, and this is why I hate teaching first semester physics for non-majors. I actually like the class, but I don’t like seeing students drop by the wayside like this. Worse, I know that most who drop are doing OK, and if they’d just come by and talk to me then they’d see that they are not as bad off as they think that they are. Most of the ones that don’t quite get it, are really very close to getting it, and they just need a little bit of work.
So, again, do your students give up too easily?
-Astroprof
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Flygirl on September 27, 2006 at 2:52 pm: 1
Unfortunately no matter how wonderful a teacher you are, there’s only so much you can do to help motivate a student but the decision to WANT to learn ultimately has to come from within themselves.
Astroprof on September 27, 2006 at 6:16 pm: 2
Yeah, I know. They have to want to learn. But, it is still rather frustrating.
Seeking Solace on September 27, 2006 at 8:31 pm: 3
Your timing on this subject is perfect. My students in my Critical Thinking class will just roll over in defeat when I challenge their opinion or assertion. One said today, “Why should I even bother to try.” Truly said.
Part of me wonders if this is a result of our educational institutions doing away with having winners and losers and the like. If students don’t have some challenge or something to push them, they won’t want to engage.
Astroprof on September 28, 2006 at 5:14 pm: 4
I think that you are on to something, SS. Students now don\’t know how to deal with challenges. They don\’t know how to deal with not being the best at something, so they just quit.