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cmp45
Joined: 17 Aug 2004
Posts: 1475
Location: KSA
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 Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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Granted the first week is notorious for Saudi students not bringing anything to class...however, something is amiss...as I am somewhat suspicous that students would complain within the first week.
Sounds like there was more to your situation than just students not bringing supplies...and your methods of rectifying the problem |
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No_Longer_Surprised
Joined: 20 Jun 2010
Posts: 7
Location: In My Own Mind
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| Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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Grendal wrote:
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| Lets just pretend like No_Longer_Surprised doesn't exist |
What does that mean?
You messed up. How would you feel if you had to share not only your books and paper, but also your notes?? Come on now!!
And as stated, I also believe that there is a lot more to the story. But honestly, if I were a student who had to photocopy my notes to give to others, I would be pissed.
As to your question as to who I am, you don't know me and I don't know you. And trust me, I know Saudi students very well. In fact, by your manner of handling the situation that you have posted on a public forum, I would venture to guess that I know Saudi students much, much better than you. |
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Mia Xanthi
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 955
Location: why is my heart still in the Middle East while the rest of me isn't?
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| Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| It was going good until I noticed no one but a chosen few good students were taking any notes from my meticulous board work. So I decided to stop and asked the students that did take notes if they could photocopy it for the class and give it to them later so that they could do their homework. |
Not that I really want to step into this particular snake pit, but your classroom management techniques here bear remarking upon. No student anywhere - not just Saudi males, but any college-level student in any class in the world - wants to be punished for good behavior. In this case, the good students were punished by being asked to do an addition task (photocopy notes) to make up for the weakness of other students.
Good students want to be praised for doing things right. You should have just promised pop quizzes based on the notes in the next class. No one would be allowed to copy from another student's notes, and no one should be encouraged to share notes outside of class. If this was implemented as a regular procedure, you would find that 1) the weaker students would immediately begin bringing their own supplies and taking their own notes, and 2) the good students who were already taking notes would feel vindicated by the easy, open-note quizzes that allowed them to quickly get ahead with a high quiz grade.
Saudi students are particularly concerned with fairness. You need to keep in mind that while placating the weaker students you can easily offend the better students by not acknowledging their superior performance. If they perform better in class, they deserve a better grade, period. I think they were justified in complaining in this case. |
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