The person on call for this week will share their section experience. Some questions include:

• What did you do?
• How did you implement your activities?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What would you do differently?
• How did you assess learning?
• Did you receive any unexpected questions/reactions/etc.?
• Did anything unexpected happen?
• What were you thinking about while you were running section? Any moments of panic?

As a class, discuss some of common problems that teachers face and come up with suggestions of what to try. (Each of these problems will be posted as a powerpoint slide.) Much of this is taken from McKeachie.

General takeaways:

• Don't immediately think the problem is due to the student. Before trying to change the student's behavior, take a look at what you might be doing that might be related to the student's behavior.

Situations and possible solutions:

1. How do deal with aggressive and challenging students. The situation can range in desirability. One one end, the student might have a lot of interest and prior knowledge to contribute, even if the prior knowledge is actually wrong. Or they might challenge you because they disagree with the ideas you are conveying (e.g., God versus the Big Bang).
   • The first of these situations is a great “teaching moment.” You can delve into the logic behind the facts and principles that sometimes pass for content in students' minds. You can also model what it means to be a critical thinker in the face of challenges to your ideas. Encourage a discussion and not you and the student simply talking past one another. What about the second?
2. Truth seekers: You just gave a superb lecture comparing a variety of theories on some topic. A student comes up to you after class and asked, “Great lecture, but which theory is right?”
   • Students, especially early on in college, may still have a dualistic view of knowledge (something is either true or false). They must learn that different authorities differ and ultimately they must gain the ability to weigh evidence and reach their own conclusions on the validity of each theory and their assumptions.
   • There is also evidence that some students don't really have a dualistic view of knowledge but more of a “everything is relative” point of view. These students might insist on challenging everything that is said. How do we teach students to appreciate how knowledge is arrived at in astronomy?
3. Inadequate students: Students that still cannot do math or the appropriate background for the course.
   • What math problems still exist in your sections? How can we work in supplemental practice?
   • Can someone work through a math example with us?
   • What can we ask the student to help get to the root of the problem? (How are you studying this material, have you missed any class, what kind of notes are you taking (can I see them?), etc.) What could we be doing in section that gives us the impression that we are teaching our students, yet we are actually not making the problem any better? (skipping steps in derivations, assuming everyone understands if one person nods in agreement, ??).
   • Do we have the right to bring up the idea of taking the class Pass/No Pass or having the student Drop the class? (It's OK to give your opinion if they ask you.)
4. Students who take up space.
   • Anyone noticing the few students who never seem to speak up, contribute to group work activities, or interact in any way? You have tried to suggest that the group interacts more with those students, or you have switched around the groups, but the problem still persists. Now what?
5. Unprepared students: You come with lesson plan in hand but realize that over half the class have not watched/attended the lectures involving material you are covering.
   • Emphasize that you expect students to be prepared.
   • Making it clear to the students what is expected of them.
6. Angry, Discourage, or Ready-to-give-up students
   • Try not to ignore them!
   • You can forestall situations like this by getting to know your students. Learn about where they are coming from, their background, how they feel about the course, etc.
   • What happens when a student accusing you of poor grading/lecturing and that is why they are doing poorly in the class or on a test? Try to stay calm, obviously. Make it clear what you were looking for in the question response. Don't rely on your authority or trying to put the student down.
   • If you feel that you may be been in err, tell the student you need to reflect on this and get back to them. If the student does actually have a good point, you will overall gain something in your reputation for being fair.
7. Students who are attention seekers and students who try to dominate the discussion, whether or not they have anything actually useful to say.
   • At the start of the semester, these types are great. They keep the discussion alive. But as the semester progresses, how do we get others to contribute?
   • Emphasize that alternative perspectives are good. How then do you counter the argument of “But I think my perspective is wrong, so I'm going to wait until the correct one is stated.”
8. Students that get by without knowing a damn thing…
   • I had a student who was able to solve all the parallax problems on the homework but thought parallax and parsec were the same thing.
   • Give the class:

The Monotillation of Traxoline (attributed to Judy Lanier)

It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is monotilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.

Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Be sure to use your best handwriting.

1. What is traxoline?

2. Where is traxoline monotilled?

3. How is traxoline quaselled?

4. Why is it important to know about traxoline?

• Note how it is easy to “pass the test” without knowing anything. How do we avoid this in section, on quizzes, on homeworks, and on exams? How can we assess whether students are actually learning something? (Deeper question: What is it we actually want them to learn?)