I have a question for every person who attends OSU: What is one thing you would change to make this university a better institution? It can be anything from athletics, to infrastructure, to education, etc. I hope this post gets many responses because I am curious to know. To keep people from trolling by saying that this post is not a confession, Ill include mine: I want instructors to essentially change the way they teach by not exactly changing the way they present material, but by the way they mentor kids. We all have different teaching styles, whether its presenting information on slides, or writing a concept on the board, etc. The true learning, however, comes from being able to spark an interest within the student pertaining to the subject. I have been in many classes where the grade is based solely off of quiz and test scores, and Im not sure that instructors fully understand the implications of these scores on a persons future job, career, social status, etc. Individuals in charge of businesses look at grades and judge solely on that, and I think they miss out on talented, creative graduates that may have struggled in school but could contribute greatly to the industry. I do realize that testing is important, and getting the correct answer is crucial for working in an industry nowadays, but teaching students for a test definitely has an effect on the students interest pertaining to the subject which, ultimately, affects their performance. My suggestion is this: restructure the grading system by eliminating the points and percentage system, and have more mandatory student-instructor conferences to discuss strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas to improve in. The final grade that shows up on a transcript should be a complete evaluation of the students work and progress within the class. For example, in a math class, an instructor should look at every quiz, every homework problem, and exams, and base their grades upon the students level of improvement and mastery throughout the course. If a student improves in mathematical calculations, organization, validity of the argument, etc. then the instructor should give a grade that reflects whether or not the student is ready for the next course in the series. The grade should not be based solely on whether the person got the question right or wrong, because that happens to much in industry and incidents occur because of confusion and misunderstanding. Kids need to realize that being successful in life takes more than just getting the correct answer, and instructors should reinforce that idea through mentorship. To sum things up, a teacher needs to improve the student more than just their intuition, or academia. An instructor should try to help a student improve their chances essentially at succeeding in life. Impersonal instructors who focus solely on their research and neglect interpersonal communication with individual students do not deserve to teach at any school. Oregon State is an institution of learning, not an institution of presenting information and hoping things stick. There are drawbacks to this plan, including how to implement this in a classes of 50+. Thats a whole other issue I dont want to touch on, I just wanted to share my thoughts about this since it bothers me almost every day. Go Beavs!
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 22:01:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015