Rambling thoughts triggered by some comments on the below linky:
Rambling thoughts triggered by some comments on the below linky:
I don't buy the not good at it bit. I've had a broad enough range of experiences being taught and teaching and being taught how to teach (specifically in science) that I firmly believe it can be taught and people can learn it.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of situations in which people are not interested in or are not facile at teaching and that's really not valued in a lot of places, either. You do what you need to to keep your job, get paid/promoted/tenure, etc. There's also a lot of figure it out for yourself approaches, which is fine if there's time for that, in fact, it's very useful in science, but there's often a very finite span of time available, and that's all you've got. If you don't figure it out by then, tough.
There's also an attitude I've come across that I guess I'll describe as the assumption that if you should be doing it, you'll be good at it, and if you're not good at it, you shouldn't be doing it. Somehow, that leads to it not being a teaching issue, but a natural ability issue. Nobody would be ok with that and, say, reading. Oh, well, you have a hard time reading; I guess you just shouldn't.
We have a cultural bias that everyone should read (for example), but hardly anyone should do science (or math or whatever). Therefore, our system finds it acceptable to not recreate itself in a way that supports, encourages, and facilitates educating people who really are interested and motivated in science. It's very good at driving people away, though.
Before you mention the whiners, the grubbers, and so forth, I'm not talking about the students, who appear in every discipline, who have come to believe that nothing is more important than their grade. Therefore, they are willing to do anything, except possibly the work, to get the grade. The work and education means less to them than the grade. This is frustrating to deal with as an instructor, or, frankly, as a peer. It's a whole 'nother issue, though.
Thanks for listening.
#tldr
Originally shared by Chad Orzel
Why do students drop out of science majors? According to a paper that got cited a bunch yesterday, it's because they get bad grades in science classes.
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2013/07/03/science-is-hard-a-major-in-science-initial-beliefs-and-final-outcomes-for-college-major-and-dropout/
I don't buy the not good at it bit. I've had a broad enough range of experiences being taught and teaching and being taught how to teach (specifically in science) that I firmly believe it can be taught and people can learn it.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of situations in which people are not interested in or are not facile at teaching and that's really not valued in a lot of places, either. You do what you need to to keep your job, get paid/promoted/tenure, etc. There's also a lot of figure it out for yourself approaches, which is fine if there's time for that, in fact, it's very useful in science, but there's often a very finite span of time available, and that's all you've got. If you don't figure it out by then, tough.
There's also an attitude I've come across that I guess I'll describe as the assumption that if you should be doing it, you'll be good at it, and if you're not good at it, you shouldn't be doing it. Somehow, that leads to it not being a teaching issue, but a natural ability issue. Nobody would be ok with that and, say, reading. Oh, well, you have a hard time reading; I guess you just shouldn't.
We have a cultural bias that everyone should read (for example), but hardly anyone should do science (or math or whatever). Therefore, our system finds it acceptable to not recreate itself in a way that supports, encourages, and facilitates educating people who really are interested and motivated in science. It's very good at driving people away, though.
Before you mention the whiners, the grubbers, and so forth, I'm not talking about the students, who appear in every discipline, who have come to believe that nothing is more important than their grade. Therefore, they are willing to do anything, except possibly the work, to get the grade. The work and education means less to them than the grade. This is frustrating to deal with as an instructor, or, frankly, as a peer. It's a whole 'nother issue, though.
Thanks for listening.
#tldr
Originally shared by Chad Orzel
Why do students drop out of science majors? According to a paper that got cited a bunch yesterday, it's because they get bad grades in science classes.
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2013/07/03/science-is-hard-a-major-in-science-initial-beliefs-and-final-outcomes-for-college-major-and-dropout/
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