What students take from our classes

Just reading a piece of science on the web (background microwave radiation) and then happened to glance at the comments section and was struck at how random the comments often appear to be. Leaving out the obvious spam ("Hi, I have a large collection of meteorites I'd like to sell") there are those who debate the implications of the finding (fine!) and then there are those who just go off on wild tangents -- "well, that proves there is/isn't a god", that "it explains why it rains so much", or "is the Earth conscious"?

And it occurred to me that the comment section of online columns, news reports etc., give me a bit of insight into what my students are actually thinking as I lecture -- that what I think I'm talking about and what is actually going through their brains at any given moment are probably largely unrelated. That while I'm lecturing, what they are taking in as initial input is then filtered through a kind of free association with the stuff already in there, and what they consequently take away from my lectures probably has very little overlap with the objectives listed on my lesson plan. Given what I see on their exam answers, I've always known that what I said and what they recall may not correspond all that well, but I've never really been able to open their heads and see the squirrel's nest of random associations that leads them from what I said to what they got. Unmoderated comment sections give us a Kind of view inside what the average citizen is thinking...well, I use the term 'thinking' somewhat loosely.

One thing that might help: actually telling our students what the lesson objective is for today. A lot of teachers seem to feel this should be "teacher-only" secret information. Which is bizarre. As my mentor used to regularly say to me, students can hit any target they're shown and that holds still for them. If their is a point to today's class, probably best to tell them that at the outset, but certainly by the conclusion of the class.

Taking Student Questions

An important and often overlooked component of good assessment practice is monitoring and responding to the class' reactions while one teaches. Nothing is more frustrating to students than having a question that an instructor will not pause to answer, and nothing is more useful to instructors than knowing if the students are 'getting it' while one is still teaching the concept, rather than weeks later on an exam (when it is too late to easily correct misunderstandings). Successful instructors are the ones who watch for signs they may be losing the class' attention or comprehension, and immediately adapting the lesson to get it back. Asking students questions is a good way to get a sense of their level of understanding, but one must always be prepared to take questions from students as soon as they come up. If a student misses some point early on, their confusion may quickly spiral out of control, whereas a simple and timely clarification can resolve such difficulties.

Not that I have always followed my own advice.

Possibly my worst teaching moment was when a student in the front row started searching through her purse, eventually pulling out a pen and yellow sticky note. I found her lack of attention distracting but managed to carry on lecturing...but then she scribbled a note on the sticky pad and pushed it towards me. I said something like, "Just hold your questions for a moment, until I get through the next few slides" but she persisted in pushing the note at me, even lifting it off the desk and waving it a bit. Highly annoyed at her impatience, I snatched the note and read out, "Your fly is open."

Moral: It really pays to take student questions as soon as possible.

Meme: Assesment is about Instruction 1st

Problem I sometimes have with first-round student teachers: if you do your lesson plan, and the kids don't get it, you have to come up with another way to teach that concept. And if they still don't get it, you try a third way, and when some of them still don't get it, you go to strategy #4, etc. Thinking that you taught it because you went through your lesson plan is not the same as students learning it. The primary purpose of assessment is to inform instruction: know where the students are today to decide what to teach tomorrow.