Sunday, November 27, 2005

Fill In the Blank

I am reviewing some chapters for non-majors biology textbooks.

It is making me grumpy.

One of the books appears to have been written directly in response to needs that I and other Professors perceive and complain about to book companies. Biology, medicine, health, and ecology are becoming increasingly important to understand as an informed citizen. College Biology classes for non-majors should provide scientific literacy, an understanding of what science is, and useful, practical information.

Here and there, through my extensive education in the biological sciences, I have unearthed some tidbit of immediate practical import. I have understood for years the problems with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, over-use and incorrect use of antibiotics, the fact that cervical cancer is primarily a sexually transmitted disease, that eating a lot of meat is hard on the world’s resources, that goose-bumps are an evolutionary remnant of the reflex that allows other mammals to fluff their coats in response to cold or fear.

These and many other useful and/or interesting bits of knowledge do not really require a Ph.D. to comprehend. In turn they can be instructive on the basic processes of biology. Why not write a non-majors biology text packed with these useful tidbits used as examples of categories of biological processes?

So, this author has aimed to do just that.

Hurrah!

But, the text is often convoluted and impenetrable. To make matters worse, throughout the book are question for students to answer to monitor their progress. A great idea, yes? But the questions are fill in the blank, which can be ok, but are too often bad. If the question is a repetition of a sentence in the text, with a key word or two missing then the student simply needs to find the sentence and dutifully copy the word. This does not require any understanding of the concept or process discussed. It does not require understanding the definition of the word. It does not even require an understanding of the English language. It only requires pattern recognition. Furthermore it encourages plagiarism, copying being correct.

I have students in my classes at my university who have had many such “tests” and they are great at pattern recognition. The ones with high grades are often great memorizers in general. They often understand little. They resent me for using different wording on my test questions than I used on my slides in lecture, or that they read in the book. They think I ask too much in requiring them to understand something.

Who would write such questions? What do they think they are teaching? Grrrr.

2 comments:

Emano said...

Dear Professor,
I am writing regarding the following test questions:
1.Who would write such questions?
2. What do they think they are teaching?

I have searched your blog entry and was unable to find the answers. Obviously, this is poor teaching strategy on your part. It is not my fault I was unable to pass the test, and I demand my 4.0. Thank you.

myo said...

1. Who would write such questions?

Authors of non-majors biology textbooks.


2. What do they think they are teaching?

Pattern recognition, copying skills and plagiarism.