Williamson-like critique

After reading your post from your Lanny on Learning blog about teaching introverted students, I found it gave additional insight into why the class is structured the way it is. I appreciated reading your post and wish you could have suggested other posts to read throughout the semester in the comments of my posts. I understand that it would take a lot of time and bit of a ridiculous request, but I did enjoy reading that post on the related subject.

Attendance was not required for the live class and I found this to be true in most of my other classes after sophomore year. Attendance tends to be optional is higher lever classes and the only class I have mandatory attendance for is my ECON 198 class where attendance makes up most of the points. It is a satisfy/unsatisfied class and focuses on careers in economics, which is not an academic related course.  

The class surveys that were offered for a bonus of 5 point to students who attended class for most of the semester. However, this did not affect my attendance. I attended every live class and found it helpful throughout the semester learning the concepts, writing the blog posts, completing the excel homework, and completing the class project. In terms of the rest of the class, attendance started to diminish about halfway through the semester and most classes were made up of regular students who always showed up and a few students that would occasionally come.

If a strict attendance system was in place and attendance was part of the grade for the class I know more students would come more often depending on how much percent attendance made up our final grade. If it was 5% I imagine students that rarely came to class would not show up as often even with the strict attendance in place. If it was closer to 10% I believe more students would show up more frequently. However, even with the strict system in place I am not confident it would generate more voices in class discussion. Of course, a discussion could spark a student’s interest and have something to add to the discussion, but these students could feel forced to come to class and purposely not participate or have nothing to add to the discussion. Because of this, I do not think this practice would be consistent with teaching ab/out gift exchange. There is no reciprocation between the students and the professor in this example and gift exchange cannot exist without it.

Now, looking at the electronic devices rules of lecture and discussion. Even though we could have them out during lecture mode of class I did not have my laptop out. I did not use any electronics during class because I did not feel it was necessary for the class to need them during the live class portion. However, some classmates did use their laptops and phones throughout class. These rules were loosely regulated and I noticed that students would freely go on their phones or laptops disregarding the rules of the class. If these rules were more strictly enforced, I think it would benefit the all students. I sat in the back corner of the class and could see what other students were doing on their laptops. Most of the time, if not all of it, the students were working on nonrelated class stuff or open to Facebook, ect. This was distracting for the students behind them. I did not see a use for electronic in the live class and I think the rule should be changed to not allowing them when class is happening.


From the perspective of the class, it depends on which group of students you look at. Most of the regular students that always attended rarely used electronics during class at all. It was usually the students that would occasionally show up that would abuse the electronic rule. So, with that in mind I do not think changing the rule would have a huge impact on the class because the students that are normally there do not break it. I would probably just change seats so that other students laptops were not distracting me during class, but I was comfortable in the back corner and did not want to change my seat after most of the semester was over.  

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanDecember 8, 2017 at 9:07 AM

    Note - where you wrote satisfy/unsatisfied, I believe it should be satisfactory/unsatisfactory, a fancy way of saying pass/fail.

    I'm glad you liked that post about teaching quiet student. As you suggested, it is tricky for me to suggest students read my old blog posts that are not specifically course related. But if you want to read another one called I was not a sheep. Were you? you might find it relevant. Note that while the focus of the book on which that post was based is Ivy League students, I think the argument pertains to many of the students in our class. They put grades before their own learning. That actually hamstrings them, so they don't get as much out of the courses they take as they might.

    What you said about attendance and electronic devices is what I've been hearing from the other students who have posted on this. While I definitely didn't track this for the whole semester, it seems that this week there is a strong correlation between attending class regularly and getting the blog post in early. I'm guessing there are an entire mosaic of school behaviors of this sort, where students are on one side of the fence or the other. If that's right, the question is what determines which side of the fence any particular student is on. I wish I knew that.

    You said you were comfortable sitting in the back corner. I also liked to sit in the back of the classroom when I was a student, but maybe for different reasons. I wonder what yours are.

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    Replies
    1. Joan RobinsonDecember 9, 2017 at 11:59 AM

      I usually noticed that when I posted a blog post for the week, the same people usually posted around the same time as me. I agree that they seem to correlate. It would be enlightening to know what determines which side of the fence someone is on.

      I like to sit in the back corner for a few reasons.
      1. I like to have one side to the wall: This is less distracting for me and I don't think about other students or what they are doing.
      2. I also feel like I have less eyes on me (even though I'm sure I think people are looking at me when they actually are not, it just calms my mind)
      3. I like to be close to the exit, but not right next to it

      The back corner is the best in a classroom because it has everything I'm looking for and it makes me feel content for some reason. I don't know exactly, but there is something calming about being partly protected by walls while in a room of people. Im not sure that makes sense.

      Delete
  2. Robert Giffen Econ 490 fall 2017December 12, 2017 at 10:29 AM

    I think you brought up a lot of great points. I agree that more people definitely would have come if the attendance were closer to 10%. However, I think you're also right about people feeling forced and opting out of the discussion.
    I always sat in the back behind you as well as for the exact same reasons you listed, I also like to sit in the back corner. I also found the laptops particularly distracting. Once in awhile I would go on my laptop for a second to check something but I would usually put it away very quickly. Some students would constantly do other things on their laptop and it was within our vision so I found that pretty annoying as well. I think that if they were coming to a class that does not require attendance, they might as well just go home and do what they please instead of coming to class and distracting others and not pay attention.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dale MortensenDecember 12, 2017 at 2:41 PM

    I do not completely agree with you with students feeling forced to discuss. After all, it doesn't necessarily mean discussion would be mandatory. If attendance was closer to 10 percent of the grade more students would attend class and some of those students would be inclined to participate for the sole reason of simply being in lecture. This along with the rule of having no electronics out during discussion. Overall, I think it would lead to a more involved, diversified discussion. The times I did attend lecture, I really enjoyed participating and did not feel forced to do so.

    ReplyDelete

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