MAILING LISTS

First the context: this is a first year course for majors and non-majors in
biological function. Most of the students are either majoring in biology or
intending to enter a professional program in the health sciences.

My question: How have people on this list handled the huge disappointment
that happens with the first RAT of the first term in freshman courses?

This is typically students' very first university quiz as I start right
after the first week of setting up the course structure with the first TBL
module. This past weekend I gave students their reading assignment complete
with reading guide (key objectives and keywords matched to the pages and
figure numbers in the text book). Then they wrote their first RAT
yesterday. I received fairly typical results I think except that the iRAT
score were lower then I had hoped.

[image: Inline images 1]


[image: Inline images 2]

It breaks my heart when I hear stories from students during the tRAT and
after class that they studied 10-15 hrs and made 10-15 pages of notes over
the long weekend only to receive an iRAT mark of 2/10. They had such energy
at the start of the term last week. Now I think I have killed it.

How do the rest of you manage this sort of disappointment and help students
regain their spirit for learning (and mine for teaching!)? I suspect the
issue is that many of these excellent students (and I have no doubt they
achieved excellence in high school) simply were able to excel in high
school without developing good study, reading, and note-taking skills. I
have a couple of excellent senior students who will be coming into class
tomorrow to explain how they read and take notes. I hope that helps.

I would love to hear the collective wisdom of the TBLC.

Thanks very much.

Neil

*Neil Haave, PhD*
Associate Professor, Biology
Managing Editor, *CELT
<http://celt.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/CELT/index>*
Vice-President, AIBA
<http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~tnickle/AIBA/AIBA_website/AIBA.html>
Faculty Affiliate, CTL
<http://uofa.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and-learning/about-ctl/people/faculty-affiliates>
McCalla Professor
<http://uofa.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and-learning/awards/mccalla-professorships>

University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty
Rm C155, Science Wing, Classroom Building, Augustana Campus
4901 - 46 Avenue, Camrose, AB, CANADA   T4V 2R3

email <[log in to unmask]> | Augustana dossier
<http://www.augustana.ualberta.ca/profs/nhaave/> | Google+
<https://www.google.com/+NeilHaave> | blog
<http://activelylearning2teach.blogspot.ca/> | Twitter
<https://twitter.com/nhaave> | LinkedIn
<https://ca.linkedin.com/in/neilhaave>

"*We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on
experience*" - John Dewey

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