Instructing ain't so easy.

Factual Questions
1

I finished instructing my 5th week of microbiology lab today. I’m having the students (podiatric mind you) identify unknown bacteria using different biochemical tests. Most of the class is doing okay, but some of the students are just not having anything click. I’m having a difficult time trying to get them to put the pieces together to create the big picture. They’ll do one test, say a Gram stain, and think they know what it is. Or they’ll record a bunch of results, follow a flow chart and still come up with some bacteria that should not have even be considered. This one student today picked an unknown based on one test. Yet this student had three other test results (that hold more weight) that should have led her on a different track. I asked her why she used the one test to make her determination, and she said she wasn’t even sure the result was positive. What’s up with that?

I know they’re busy with other classes, but this lab counts as 20% of their lecture grade , which is worth alot in relation to the other classes they’re currently taking. I feel they don’t put very much, if any, time into the lab. I haven’t come right out and said “You need to study”, but that’s what I’m thinking. I mean, how else are you going to learn what’s going on with a particular test? But they should know this (to study)…they’re in medical school for crying out loud! Anyway, I guess I’m just feeling a little frustrated. This is my first time instructing, so it can only get better from here. Any dopers out there been frustrated trying to instruct students…got any advice?

2

Tell them they have no culture. Hoooboy, they’ll be laughing so hard, they won’t think of any other class but that one!

OK, how about the scare tactics? They’re in medical school. Create some stories of what happens when they misdiagnose the disease because they didn’t bother to read through all the material available to them. Or they give the wrong medication because they couldn’t remember which one does what.

3

I used to teach programming to university graduates who’d just joined my firm. They were pretty keen, since doing poorly on the course would reflect badly on their new career. I only remember one guy in 8 years who was determined to do it his own way (spaghetti coding), and kept insisting it would work right up till he failed the course.
Incidentally, I was the junior lecturer at the time - I don’t remember why the Head of training didn’t step in.

Anyway, back to your problem. Please excuse the simple nature of the advice - you did say you were new at it. :slight_smile:

Have you shown them how to do the tests, and tell if the result is positive?

Have you explained how to combine the results of various tests to draw a conclusion?

Is there a textbook or worksheets they can take home?

Have you asked a colleague or superior for advice?

When I’ve finished explaining a point, I ask 'Did ANYONE understand that?
Most people are shy about asking for help, or admitting in the class that they didn’t understand something. So if you say ‘Did EVERYONE understand that?’, you’ll rarely get dissent.

Hope this helps.

4

I don’t know if this’ll help, but…

I’m an instructor, too. There are generally three types of learners: Hearers, seers and doers.

If they read it, and you say it, and then they do it, that generally covers the bases.

I realize that this may be difficult in a lab situation, but it’s worth consideration.

Good luck.

5

It sounds like the problem is that they just don’t care enough about the class. You can’t really do anything about that.

For my students, I try to make myself as available as I possibly can. I offer to discuss things before or after lab hours. I tell them I’m willing to answer questions via e-mail. I ask them if certain chapters or topics are giving them trouble. I use extra class time to talk about the stuff they’re being tested on. If you’ve already done things like that and more, then you’ve done all you can do. It’s likely it’s not you or your teaching style that’s the problem. It’s probably their poor study habits and study skills.

It’s sad to say, but some students need to flirt with flunking before they get their act together.

6

Stylus,

This is a topic I have thought about a lot. I have an MA in Teaching and taught High School English and Drama - now I run a call center and train our employees.

My personal mantra: Teaching is teaching.

This is going to sound simple, but it is key - you can’t ever make anyone want anything. All you can do is show them reasons to want it.

You can’t make your students want to study the material you are teaching them. You can’t make them want to do well in the class. You can’t make them care about doing well.

All you can do is show them many reasons why they might and hope that, eventually, you stumble across the one that works.

This is the challenge of teaching. I used to tell my English Students, “It is not my job to motivate you or inspire you. It is my job to show you why the subject matter should motivate and inspire you.”

And, yes, the second is much harder than the first.

You probably care about the biology that you teach. You might even think about it on your free time. But your student’s don’t.

So, here’s the clincher - your boss is not paying you to teach the material… he or she is paying you to show your students why they should care about Bio as much (or more) than you do!

Once you do that… the “teaching” part is easy.
PS - glee:

Very good point.

I also make it a point to never ask, “Does anyone have any questions?” because it begs the answer, “No.” Instead, I ask, “What questions do you have?” The answer there simply can’t be “None.”

Subtle difference, but an important one.

7

Stylus, just make them repeat it if they need to. I repeated lab at UCSD. Mostly because Im deaf & didn’t hear the instructions…maybe they aren’t listening?

Also Stylus, any chance of you testing some mold growing on my walls to see if its Stachybotryis [sp] ?

8

sdimbert,

thank you.

you posted ‘I also make it a point to never ask, “Does anyone have any questions?” because it begs the answer, “No.” Instead, I ask, “What questions do you have?”’

Very good point! :smiley:

9

I’ve found that there seems to be two kinds of students. The first type is students who want to pass the class. They will determine what is the bare minimum that they have to do in order to pass the class,and they will then do exactly that, and no more.
The second type of students is those who want to learn. They will go through all of the material, do all of the homework, and attend and do all of the labs, because they know that this will help them learn. They don’t worry about grades, and they don’t need to, because with the work they are putting in, they will always get good grades anyway.
Unfortunately, I’ve never yet figured out how to turn the first type of student into the second. What I work for is to get both types of students what they’re looking for: The first, I help pass, and the second, I help learn. Sometimes, that’s the best that you can do.

10

Thank you all for your advice. I just finished the second class session this morning. It went about as well as yesterday’s session…there’s just more students in this section.

This lab I introduced about 10 new kinds of tests and mediums. All of theses tests are interpreted by vision (ie. the medium changed from orange to yellow, with some gas production). I gave them all a good amount of background for each test/media, but it seemed they just wanted to mark each test as positive or negative, without seeing what the color change meant.

I’ll keep trying though. I have alot of patience, and I don’t mind explaining things over and over to different students. I do like that feeling I get when a student does “get it”. I’m going to incorporate some of your suggestions and I’ll keep you all posted.

11

“…It would be easier to train an APE!!!”
Basil Fawlty

12

This sort of thinking is hard on me, as well. It seems to be a fundamental cognitive style difference. People with a scientific mindset are comfortable with a lack of conclusions when there isn’t enough data to resolve the question. A lot of other people can’t stand to have an “I don’t know” in their world, so they want to label everything as soon as possible.

Maybe it would help to talk about it the way I just did. The students need to understand that when the test hasn’t directly indicated a conclusion, they can’t draw one. They need to apply other tests until the conclusion is proven. The more comfortable they are with unanswered questions, the better prepared they’ll be for eventually nailing the answer down.

13

As a student (although certainly not a med student) I agree that when a teacher asks, “Any questions?” almost always the reply is dead silence.

Perhaps one of the reasons a student might not want to go with the “unknown” answer is because all through their schooling they’ve never been able to give that answer before. Bear with me here for a moment while I tell a story.

In high school History class, I was given a worksheet that asked something about what geographical feature helped lead to Custer’s defeat. There was a graphic with a couple of squiggles and some arrows and some other symbols. There was no key. The question was stated, “From the map given …” I naturally answered, “Since no key is given, I cannot answer this question because I don’t know what symbols mean what.”

I got it marked wrong. I asked the teacher about it and she said that I should have just assumed that the squiggles represented a river, and the arrows Custer’s forces, etc.

This is just one of several instances where not enough information was given and yet students were expected to come to a conclusion. I can’t count the number of times where a teacher of mine has screwed up in some small way (even something as innocent and common as a typo) and yet still expected the students to know exactly what the question was supposed to ask. After awhile, students know that it’s in their best interests to at least guess at an answer, even when they don’t have enough information to get a correct answer.

Although I could be wrong, I think it’s possible that many students have been trained over the years to never admit that no conclusions can be drawn from some data.

Oh, and it’s very heartening to know that you care so much about your students’ learning. I sometimes wonder if many of my professors give a rat’s tail about my education. But I digress. :slight_smile: