tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post842628913341997297..comments2024-03-14T04:16:20.472-07:00Comments on In Socrates' Wake: Worst. Course. Ever.Michael Cholbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02012523929044363216noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-76167782900903138602007-08-09T00:25:00.000-07:002007-08-09T00:25:00.000-07:00I don't have a course example, mostly because I am...I don't have a course example, mostly because I am no longer teaching courses, but instead individual lectures scattered throughout the syllabus. My worst lecture would have to be shortly after I arrived in Northern Ireland. I was doing a lecture called introduction to bioethics for a group of students on a food biotechnology. I had spent a fair amount of time trying to make my lecture culturally apt, updated my chocolate bar examples and so on. I started out my intro to ethics lecture with the Maid Marian & Robinhood story which I will share in full if people are interested, it gives a good example which gets consequentialist, deontologist and virtue ethicist intuitions out. But it relies on people knowing who Robinhood, Maid Marion & the Sheriff are. When I began the story, I started to see puzzled looks so I stopped and asked them whether they recognised the characters. It turned out that that particular class was an exchange class with a Greek university, and all of the students were Greek and had no idea who Robinhood or the rest were. So I had to fairly rapidly give the context to make the example make sense to them. <BR/><BR/>What I Learned -<BR/>Don't just assume about the students backgrounds, check if there is information available.David Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10511387997239132302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8070355695530434450.post-6003873864660504982007-08-08T06:21:00.000-07:002007-08-08T06:21:00.000-07:00One that jumps to mind, perhaps because it was jus...One that jumps to mind, perhaps because it was just last spring...<BR/><BR/>Course- Introduction to Philosophy<BR/>What Made It the Worst- First, I've never had an entire class so resistant to discussion. And given that I emphasize discussion every day, each class felt like and in fact was a sort of battle. Second, there was one very immature student who thought that he was above all of this philosophy bs and that attitude came out every day. He made a very inappropriate comment near the beginning of the semester about overweight women, slept in class, messed around on his cell phone, etc. I called him out a few times in class, but it had little effect. I began to dread this class.<BR/>What I Learned- Sometimes I may just need to spend a lot more class time lecturing, if I can't get a class to discuss. I did break them up in small groups often, but in general the quality of their group work was lacking. I also learned that I need to have in mind a course of action for when a student says something highly inappropriate in class, because in the moment I didn't do much. Lastly, even in a difficult class, there were students who were enthusiastic, thoughtful, and enjoyed the course. I need to focus my attention on them, rather than a difficult student or group of students who are a small minority of the class as a whole.Mike Austinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02489700864050607425noreply@blogger.com