| 2015-12-17 | Why learning fails to happen despite the great design of the course and the great teacher? On HKU Secrets page, I saw the frustrations of students in their study of various subjects. Some FB friends tagged me on some of these pages because the discussion on ECON1210 (Introductory Microeconomics ) and MATH1009 (Basic mathematics for business and economics) should concern me.
I often feel that I have to respond because I feel like this is an important channel for a conversation between myself and my students -- in addition to the Staff-Student Consultative Committee held every semester. Such conversation is an important input to the curriculum review.
Truly, whenever I see the frustrations of students in their study of these subjects (in particular MATH1009 or ECON1210, but not limited to these two), I often feel frustrated and sad. I feel especially frustrated and sad when I know that the respective teachers had paid the best effort they could in teaching, but the intended learning outcomes were not achieved.
Seeing the frustration of their peers in the exam of MATH1009, some students immediately called for a revamp of the course -- lower the standard and cover concepts that is more relevant to students. They do not know how much effort we had put in to revamp the mathematics course to the current one, addressing the issues of standard and relevance to the students of Economics and Finance.
Mathematics is an essential tool in learning Economics. For instance, logic is a very important part in the study of Economics. Most of my colleagues teaching applied Microeconomics stuff consider logic very important. In Intermediate Microconomics in which we often ananlyze decisions of individual economic agents, constrained optimization is all over the place. To enjoy the study of advanced courses, we need to build a reasonable foundation in the first year. Offering an easy Mathematics course would not do. In fact, in the course, logic was covered in the first half of the semester in which I attended. My feeling was that the coverage was good and important. It was not excessive at all. For instance, proof by contradiction is often used by economists, especially in the study of applied microeconomic topics. If I were to teach such Mathematics course, I would cover similar materials. In fact, as an Undergraduate Programme Director, I have communicated very much with the Math Department in the development stage of the course. I attended almost all lectures during the first half of the semester. I also had accessed the course moodle website.
The teacher of MATH1009 was a great teacher. The content was reasonable. Substantial proportion of examples were Economics and Business related. The support system (tutorials, remedial support) was adequate. Knowing the high quality of teaching, I feel that students should be able to learning a lot. When it is not happpening, I begin to doubt the effort put in by students.
In adition to teachers, students are an important part in the equation of teaching and learning. Learning does not happen just because we have a great teacher and a great design of the course. STUDENTS, WE NEED YOU!!! No pain, no gain! If we do not put in enough effort, how much do we expect to learn? As in many subjects, practice is the key!
I think I understand why learning did not happen to some students the way it should, despite the great design of the course and the great teacher. Do you?
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Help me help them.... please. | | 2008-12-20 | Learning should not end with the final exam! | | 2008-11-19 | Exchange in Europe can be very rewarding! | | 2008-11-18 | UC Berkeley is my top choice for exchange! | | 2008-11-02 | Why did we not have fresh mushrooms twenty years ago? | | 2008-02-23 | Dialogue is preferred to monologue. | | 2008-02-13 | If I were a single unemployed old man who lives on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) | | 2007-12-17 | Is forecasting a pure guessing game? | | 2007-12-16 | I want zero emission of CO2! | | 2007-11-30 | How would I choose universities for exchange? | | 2007-11-28 | Excuse me. Can you write a recommendation letter for me? | | 2007-11-12 | No pain, no gain! | | 2007-09-14 | Teaching is to be enjoyed, and so is studying. Grades should only be secondary. | |