Antoni Brzoska
9/9/12
Math 5000
Reflection #1
In my opinion, the first part of the assigned reading that pertained to cheating did not
present anything new. It is clear that cheating is a growing problem in universities across the
country. As a TA, I know that I need to play a part in trying to stop cheating. I really liked the
list of tips to prevent cheating, which included: clearing calculator memories; having a
designated TA to answer questions and another to watch for cheating when proctoring exams;
and looking for various creative ways students hide "cheat sheets". Personally, I hate cheating
because it deflates the values of the grades that honest students earn. I can rant further about the
bad effects of cheating, but I think the article does that better. I have one last thing to say about
this part of the article. The article mentions that the people who are most likely to cheat are bad
students: alcoholics, fraternity members, etc. I also know that there is a substantial portion of
honors students that cheat as well. I was an honors student as an undergraduate, and I saw many
honors students cheat because they needed that good grade. In short, cheating is not the domain
of bad students alone, and I think the article should have touched upon this topic.
The part of the article that pertains to reflective teaching is very useful. I plan on getting
a fellow TA to sit in one of my classes and give me some advice now, when the semester is only
beginning. That way I can improve upon my teaching before it is too late. The video recording
idea is also a good idea. I would like to try that. I think that there is a saying that says that one's
best critic is himself/herself.
Much of the reading had to do with "active teaching." Supposedly, active teaching is
supposed to be better than traditional lecturing, because active teaching gets the student more
involved and wanting to learn. I agree that active teaching is better, but to a certain extent. It
really depends on the class of students. The example of the organic chemistry professor who
taught her class actively and was able to get half of her class in the lecture hall even when she
was not teaching, is a nice example. But the class the professor taught was organic chemistry,
which is not taken by a feint-hearted student. Classes that have more motivated students, like
junior or senior level classes, are better suited for that active teaching model. These students are
more likely to do work outside of class and come to class prepared. I think this makes the active
learning model possible. However, for a class like Calculus 1 where work outside of the
classroom is typically limited to homework and cramming for exams, students come to class
much less well prepared. For such classes, I think it is better to have at least some structure. I
also feel like office hours or time outside of the classroom with students is a good substitute for
the active learning model. In these cases, the student comes to the TA with questions and
interacts with him in order to learn something. But of course, the obvious drawback to office
hours is that not everyone wants to go to office hours.
Much of the rest of the article, at least to me, was rather boring. It contained a lot of stuff
that to me seems like common sense, especially for a teacher. I think that it is better to actually
talk about this material. I plan on talking with other TA's and asking them how they prepare and
structure their discussion sections as well as how they deal with other nuances that comes with
being a TA. I have done this with the few TA's that I know better. But I'd like to talk with the
rest of the TA's and see what their teaching style is like.