tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post8740086493672275179..comments2024-03-28T17:13:01.117+10:00Comments on Condensed concepts: The value and cost of student reading quizzesRoss H. McKenziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09950455939572097456noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-22547797668990570812012-05-21T17:01:37.059+10:002012-05-21T17:01:37.059+10:00Hi David,
The idea of "surprise" quizzes...Hi David,<br />The idea of "surprise" quizzes sounds like a good idea, particularly for motivating students to actually attend lectures. I know Vladimir Dobrosavljevic (Florida State) once told me that he found this quite effective.<br />I have not had topics that were only covered by reading. However, for Solid State Physics (4th year condensed matter) I sometimes do not do all the details of a derivation (e.g. Hartree-Fock theory) but refer students to the book (Ashcroft + Mermin). Exam questions will occassionally require students to be familiar with the derivation.<br /><br />Thanks also for the anecdote about students being surprised that they should read the book. I think that even at good universities there are significant numbers of students who get by without reading books or using the library. This is an important life skill they need to learn and so it is good if we can encourage/force them to.<br /><br />In all my lectures I always give the relevant reading.Ross H. McKenziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09950455939572097456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439168179960787195.post-78948722570078901242012-05-20T03:30:41.623+10:002012-05-20T03:30:41.623+10:00This is an interesting idea Ross.
When teaching u...This is an interesting idea Ross.<br /><br />When teaching undergrad courses, I typically give regular unannounced quizzes that tally up to about 10% of the total course grade. The aim is to motivate students to stay on top of the material and also come to class. I give several more quizzes than are needed to get the 10% grade and always drop the lowest quiz score, so there are no issues with having to make adjustments for people being away from class for illness/family illness/pet illness etc etc. The quizzes also give me a useful way of seeing what the students actually understand. <br /><br />Have you experimented with covering some material in your couse by only have it in the reading (and not touching on it at all in lectures except to point out that the topic is covered in the reading?). I do this to a small extent and have been surprised how effective it is. <br /><br />One more anecdote: I have talked with undergrads who seemed genuinely surprised that they should read the textbook for their course. These are students in a demanding discipline in a very selective US university. So at the risk of babysitting, there seems to be some value in telling students "obvious" things like "you need to read these sections in the book".Prof. Shollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01478272124748674635noreply@blogger.com