James Jackson

Jane, thanks for your feedback. Part of classroom discipline is being fair but also firm and consistent. It is critical that classroom rules, policies and regulations are clearly provided to the students on the first day of class. Some form of affirmation can also go a long way to ensuring students understand the requirements to be successful. One thing I have seen done very successfully is students are told in advance how many hours each week they are expected to spend to earn a specific grade. To earn a minimal passing grade students are expected to spend 7 hours each… >>>

Alicia, thanks for your feedback. I really like your focus here and how you have established a true sense of education as your focus in how you implement assessments. There is a wide range of opinions on the issue of punishment, positive reinforcement, and weeding out of those that cannot demonstrate mastery of material. Too often however, the use of exams and quizzes are not used to measure understanding and effective delivery of a curriculum. If we have learned anything over the last 50 years of higher education, we have learned that there are different learning styles and different teaching… >>>

Lorraine you bring forward a great point that is key to the self-doubt of your students. Showing them respect and dignity and treating all students the same is a key element to your students feeling comfortable in your classroom. Higher Education today is becoming even more of a melting pot and not only with different and diverse backgrounds but different value systems and understandings due to age differences. The sooner you can get your students to feel comfortable with each other and with you as their guide, mentor and coach; the sooner their self-doubt will lesson and eventually have no… >>>

Michael, your post really resonated with me and my own experiences. I too have cried at many graduation ceremonies and I feel any instructor that has not had this experience is missing out on the real purpose of teaching and learning. I am not sure I have ever encountered an educator that was involved for the money, there are many professions where the financial rewards are much greater versus a career in education. The sensation of accomplishment when watching a student receive their diploma and the excitement of hearing of their accomplishments after graduation is with more to a true… >>>

Mona, this is a fantastic example of converting self-doubt into an achievement of desired learning outcomes. I find it fascinating to explore the difference between some types of learning outcomes that require both left and right brain development. Cutting a radish into a rose would seem impossible to me from an artistic perspective but if provided the proper breakdown into workable steps and a follow the directions type of approach, I can then begin to see how even I could accomplish such task. How much artistic skill set do you feel is required to be a successful culinary specialist? Can… >>>

Thanks for your feedback Harold. Just as a way of continuing this discussion a bit further, do you have any thoughts with respect to personality traits that tend to be better test takers than others? Resources used to measure such skills could include Myers-Briggs, DiSC or other instruments. Another way of getting deeper into this discussion would be to ask if all students of all learning types should be successful as long as they follow the prescribed curriculum? Not looking for a correct versus incorrect methodology, rather looking to deepen the discussion on this interesting topic. Thanks for any information… >>>

Donald, sounds like you are dealing with the extreme case of conditional testing. Cause and effect is at a very high point when not passing an exam results in loss of opportunities. Brings up a very interesting point about the purpose of assessment. Is assessment to be used to sift out a certain population of students or should it be used as an educational tool? In your case, it is obviously used to qualify some and disqualify others. Do you know if any studies or research that has been done with respect to measuring any loss of potentially qualified candidates… >>>