In article <9309151505.AA26439 at exnet.iastate.edu>, i1sheri at EXNET.IASTATE.EDU (Sheri Huerd --) writes:
> I am a teaching ass't for a class of 31 students, 2 females and
> 29 males. The class is in Weed Science, and most of these students are
> doing fine. But at least 10 people in the class could use some help in
> the greenhouse IDing plants and pressing plants. I have office hours
> that all students said they can make at least one. Nobody comes. Lots
> of questions are asked to me in the hall that would benefit the entire
> class. Is this a result of my being female and the class being almost
> all men? Should I be doing something (teaching-wise) differently?
I think it's fairly typical for office hours to be empty, and for
students to be reluctant to ask for help, and to ask questions in a
group where others can judge how silly the questions are. I have a
couple of things I do to try to encourage people to get help. One is
to comment that the course is cumulative, and that what seems like a
little problem now will just get bigger and bigger as the course goes
on (this may be more appropriate in the statistics courses I've been
involved in TA'ing). I also point out that it's a lot easier to get
quality help earlier on, because _everyone_ leaves things to the last
minute. And I sometimes quip that I *like* the simple questions,
because I can answer them. :-) [of course, I also answer the hard
questions, but I try very hard not to brush off the basic questions.]
Chris. (who is commenting about teaching experience mostly in Canada,
not in England).
--
Chris Hitchcock clh at vax.ox.ac.uk
EGI, Dept of Zoology
South Parks Road formerly: chris at psych.toronto.edu
Oxford OX1 3PS Still reading UseNet
ENGLAND for the signatures.
