Delusions of Adequacy

I’m trying not to draw any conclusions. However . . .

This week begins the grading of Part One papers. Right now, based on topics and outlines, I judge about half of my students will produce Part One papers that broadly fit with the expected outcome, meaning they will identify and analyze a problem and briefly outline the solutions they’ll explore in Part Two.

The other half will need more coaching, with about a third to a half of those again getting on the right track for Part Two. The remainder will continue to struggle with the paper through Part Three, when blessed relief arrives and we get to move on to a different assignment.

These outcomes, and rough percentages, occur in my classes whether or not I aggressively push at the beginning to help them understand what this three-part paper is about, and how to succeed at it. And from conversations I’ve had with my wife, who probably puts in five hours for each hour I do in class, these percentages hold the same for her as well.

So for those conclusions I’m reluctant to draw:

How much do we, as instructors, have to bang our heads on the wall to help students understand what’s expected, particularly when the outcome in the aggregate, appears to be the same whether or not great effort is expended?

So this is the problem I need to examine in my own version of this paper. Or maybe something spun in more positive light that makes me sound less lazy.

It’s hard to say additional professional development is a solution. My wife has a current teaching certificate in English. That was her major in college. I have little training in teaching. Yet our outcomes mirror each other.

I’d be interested to see if there’s a correlation between teaching this class online as compared to teaching it in the classroom. Do we struggle with physical and psychological distance in the online classroom that leads to poorer outcomes – or are the outcomes the same whether the class is taught online or face-to-face? Given the physical and psychological barriers between classroom teachers and online teachers at BYU-Idaho, finding this out might be difficult. I could perhaps pose the question in the BYUI teaching forum (but does it include only online instructors, or all instructors?) or in one of the Facebook forums I’ve discovered (which may suffer the same separation).

Nevertheless, I think I’ll ask in our online forums if other instructors in this course see the same percentages. Can’t hurt but to try. And perhaps I need to better quantify what I’m seeing in my own classes in order to make a case – for something; I don’t yet know what – down the road.

And maybe there’s nothing to be done. This is just how it’s going to be.

If only I could chase away these feelings of inadequacy.

Perhaps they’re better than delusions.