Prof FERGUSON Robert
- Awards for Teaching Innovation, 2001 Best Ten Lecturers Award 2001
- School of Humanities and Social Science Award for Teaching Excellence 1998
"Make sure the students know why they are in your class."
"Will this be on the test?" our students ask. It's a valid question, but it's also a reminder that many students view their coursework as merely one more step towards graduation. We all know, however, that as soon as our students become employed or begin post-graduate study, all those examinations and grades magically become irrelevant. They will be judged by their problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills.
While it is important to design our courses to elicit and test for these same skills, it also helps to show the students, in very concrete terms, how their daily coursework connects to their long-term goals. This is especially so for classes that fall outside our students' immediate area of career interest. One might argue that this approach is much too instrumental, that students should value education for its own sake. This is true, but not all students respond positively to this incentive. We have to appeal to the students at a number of levels, and ultimately prove that their education means more than fulfilling requirements.
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