02/01/2016
Parents,
This past week’s snow storm was one of those rare times when the University
cancelled classes. Each faculty member will have different strategies for making up
work that was missed. Students really enjoy these rare days when classes are cancelled.
I remember sled riding down North High Street on cafeteria trays when I was a
freshman in January 1963. Huge snow storms tend to stay in our memories longer than
most events.
Soon students should know the results of the first round of tests especially in
math and science classes. If these results aren’t particularly good, please have your
student see his/her advisor. Now is when students need to take corrective actions.
Unfortunately, a common trait of the engineering personality is to try to “gut it out”
without help.
For the past few weeks, I have been meeting regularly with students who are on
probation. I have been giving students very specific advice, and I have been insistent
that they follow that advice. I am very encouraged by the progress that I see. If your
student is on probation, he/she should be taking a course that helps develop study
skills. There are a number of students in ENGR 150, the course that I teach. The
students that are doing what is expected in this course are doing very well.
Unfortunately, there are about 20 percent of the students who are in the course who
have done nothing and will receive an F in a course where they should have received an
A. Here are questions you can ask your student if he/she is on probation. For each
class your student is taking, ask:
■ What topics have you covered in class?
■ What types of assignments have you done?
If your student seems not to be able to answer these questions, please make sure
that they start doing what is required. It’s hard to help a student who you never see.
In this email, I would like to give you my sense of this current generation of
students. I’m often asked by our alumni and by business people about my impressions
of the students I have in classes. You can tell by the tone of the questions that they have
concerns. These concerns are a national phenomena.
My reply to them is not to worry. This generation of students will do fine. This
is my sixth decade of teaching (I started in the 60’s). I have to say that I enjoy this
generation of students as much as any I have taught. I am a big fan of our young
people.
Here are some of my impressions of what I observe. I would love to hear from
you about your own observations.
Students today are interactive learners. They don’t like highly scripted lessons where
there is very limited opportunity for them to connect with what is being taught. They
learn best when the teacher shows them the concept and then gives them the
opportunity in class to try out the concept on a problem. When the class is just a
lecture, students tend to zone out and end up having to teach themselves.
Students today are collaborative learners. They do best when they work with each
other. If you were to walk down the halls of our building at any time you will see
students helping each other on their homework. Classes work best when the structure
of the class encourages collaborative learning.
Students are hands on learners, especially in engineering. They do best when they
connect the content of the course with some physical activity. I’ll often ask students to
read a paragraph in a book. Then I’ll ask them a question about what they read. They
don’t remember anything. Their eyes passed over the words but very little information
was retained. Then I ask them to write down key points of what they are reading. They
will remember what they read because they made reading a hands on activity. The
same applies in math/science/engineering. Concepts mean very little to them until
they translate the concepts into something tangible.
Students don’t respond well to bullying. The old style of teaching which used threats
and fear to motivate students just doesn’t work. You will see this on the side line of a
sporting event. Our students don’t respond well to a teacher who tries to bully them
into performing better.
Students respond very well to direct and specific feedback. They want to be told how
they are doing, and they also want guidance on how to do better. They respond best to
feedback from those they respect and trust. They receive the feedback and guidance
well, but often, they need constant attention to help them act on the guidance.
Our students lead very public lives and they are remarkably open about things that
other generations keep personal. They are willing to discuss their problems with you
when you have gained their trust. I would expect this generation will have less of the
“bottled up” problems of previous generations.
This generation probably has a harder time connecting their goals with the work it will
take to achieve these goals. I see a stronger disconnect on this with our current students
then with past students. The good news is that the connection between goals and effort
required is made fairly quickly by most students.
I hope this was useful to you. Unfortunately, I see our teaching approaches at all
of our universities going in opposite directions from these trends. We are increasingly
relying upon scripted presentations in large classrooms with limited opportunity for
student interaction. We still rely primarily on lectures with minimal hands-on
opportunities for applying what was learned during class time. We largely ignore the
collaborative aspects of learning in our course design. The National Science Foundation
(NSF) has funded numerous studies that support what I describe here as a way to
improve performance in math/science/engineering. NSF has also concluded that there
has been very limited follow through on their research in universities across the
country.
I am a big believer in this generation. I just wish we thought more about how we
are teaching them before we criticized their education performance.
Let me close with the story of two students. David suffers from Crohn’s disease.
He came to me for advice. He was suffering from his disease. He was trying to get
through the semester, but didn’t know if he would make it. We discussed what he
should do in the event that surgery became necessary.
David didn’t make it through the semester. He had to have immediate surgery
to remove a major part of his intestines. The surgery didn’t go well and another
surgery was necessary. He returned for the spring semester.
One morning early in the spring semester, he came to my office at 6:30 AM. He
looked bad. We talked about whether he had returned to school too soon. As we were
talking, David had a breakdown. I immediately called his father. I was afraid for
David’s life.
David dropped out of classes that spring. He had another surgery. He returned
the next fall and I’m glad to say that he did very well. He has now graduated and
begun his career.
The second story concerns Jennifer. Prior to enrolling at WVU, Jennifer’s parents
got in touch with me about a special medical treatment she needed each month. I was
able to find a doctor for her who would administer the treatment.
Basically Jennifer has chemotherapy once a month. It’s an all day treatment
which has terrible side effects. I spent one Saturday night with Jennifer in the
emergency room as she was being treated for the side effects of the treatment. She had
to be hospitalized.
I recently had an email from David. He is well into his career and is doing great.
He has even created his own side business. Jennifer has now graduated. She has a job
with a top corporation.
As I was sitting in the emergency room with Jennifer, I thought about the
struggles that David and Jennifer were going through. They have really had to work
hard to get their degrees with the personal challenges they faced. I then thought about
many of the healthy students I teach who just don’t seem to care about their education.
I often wonder: “Why?” Do you have an answer?