Deirdre Sholto-Douglas <finch at MCS.COM> wrote:
: I'm sure some students classify me as mean, petty and vindictive,
: but in doing so, they're giving themself entirely too much
: importance. Picking apart isn't personal and it's not intended
: to "wash one out". I'm the *easiest* critic these folks are
: going to face during their career because I want them to better
: me with logical arguments. If they can't manage someone who
: would like them to succeed, how will they fare in the Real World
: where people do desire their failure?
Yes, I agree that being taught to think is very valuable, but there is a
right way and a wrong way to do it. Picking apart your student in the
privacy of your office or committee meeting is more acceptable than doing
it in front of the student's departmental seminar, IMHO. You can also say
things like "you have presented some very interesting ideas, but have you
thought of this or that?" or "have you thought of any other ways that you
might have approached this problem". Instead of "I think you are out to
lunch on your reasoning, this is my pet theory, and this is why you are
WRONG. What do you have to say about that!".
I prefer the non-confrontational mode of teaching rather than the
challenging, stick-up for yourself, trial by fire mode. I think the
non-confrontal mode accomplishes the same goal of teaching the student to
think critically, but without making them question whose side your one.
Furthermore, I find learning from example much more effective (i.e. when
in lab meetings, journal club, the mentor talks out loud so that I can
follow the thought process) than telling the student to go think about it
some more.
My favourite mentor taught us to read journal articles critically by
allowing us to present the article our way, and then saying something like
"look at figure 4 again, do you see anything wrong with that figure? No,
well how about the scale on the x-axis? (or whatever was questionable)".
This was much more valuable to me, then the other teacher who would say
something like "what do you know about how to plot a graph? You don't
know that the x-axis is wrong? Well, if you want to succeed in science you
better start looking at these things!".
Kelly.
PS. by "you" I don't mean to imply Deidre in particular, but "you" in the
broadest, most general sense of the word.
--
