OTHER MESSAGES CONVEYED BY STUDENTS DURING THEIR REFLECTIONS
One of the side-benefits of asking students to reflect on their learning is the insight an instructor can gain into student lives. As an indication of the depth and breadth of perspectives that students raise, here are some further quotes from the problem-solving reflections.
First a quote that typifies the benefit to a student to reflect on their learning:[75]
“I have found [snip] that being the middle of the semester had midterms and other things going on, that I was crunched for time. Instead of learning the material and then doing the assignments, I would just try to search for equations in the text that would solve the problem, and if I couldn’t figure it out, just guess. I know that this is almost an immature response to being busy. I am concentrating now on learning the material, not just regurgitating it. I know that in a career in the future, that being busy doesn’t mean you just slack or get by. I will concentrate on pushing myself toward learning, in all my classes.”
In contrast, here are examples of students who do not fully understand the wider range of skills they will need in future careers:
“I use a very solution oriented method of solving physics problems so far. I tend to use the numbers right away instead of deriving the equation and then plugging in the numbers. Since I use this method I definitely need to watch for mathematical errors in my solutions. I think that this method and the skills I get from it are perfect for my future in the construction engineering industry. Do not spend a lot of time on theory just solve the problem presented.”
“The way I approach physics problems is by looking for a formula to follow. I will start a problem, look in my notes for a formula, look on the discussion board for a formula, look on the formula sheet for a formula, and lastly, look in the book for a formula. This is probably exactly I will approach some problems in Computer Science. If I need to implement a function, I will need to find the syntax for the function and a little excerpt saying what inputs it has and what outputs it has.”
And finally, here is an example of a student’s candid admission that reminds instructors how hard these introductory university courses can be:
“I feel lost in the questions that are asked and most of the time do not know where to start on the subject. I have a tutor but it seems like it is almost to late to relearn everything over the semester. I am not saying I am going to quit trying but I do feel lost.”