Timeline for What Basic Math Skills Should Be Expected of Students in a University-Level Linear Algebra Course?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5 at 20:22 | comment | added | ronno | Maybe I've just been lucky in the students I've gotten to teach but "it's not reasonable to expect [university] students to learn things on their own" is quite a pessimistic thesis | |
| May 5 at 16:20 | comment | added | JonathanZ | Yeah, factoring out $\lambda -1$ is (a bit) harder than factoring out $\lambda$. I just realized that I felt better about my exams when I knew I could say "you've seen all of it before in this class". (Again, this is in classes for non-mathematicians.) | |
| May 5 at 10:02 | comment | added | LeafGlowPath | I did one example of 3 by 3. But realized in that one, $\lambda$ itself is a factor. So it is a bit easy. In the end I did agree with the student and give all of them the points, which means 2 among 40 students. | |
| May 4 at 19:04 | history | edited | Justin Skycak | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 538 characters in body
|
| May 4 at 18:39 | comment | added | JonathanZ | "(The exercises in the book are all about 2 by 2 matrices.) " Unless I'm teaching a class to prospective math majors, I try to make sure that the material on the exam is a subset of the problems they've worked on during homework. The exam is where they show to me that their mastery of that material. (I once taught a class that involved RGB color values. I put a question on the midterm about the code for 'grey', and most missed it. I had assumed that I must have mentioned grey-tone colors during lecture or problems. I had not.) | |
| May 4 at 3:53 | vote | accept | LeafGlowPath | ||
| May 4 at 3:11 | comment | added | Sue VanHattum♦ | I try not to judge. I'm more likely to say that it's unfortunate student x doesn't have the time to put into the course so they can be successful. We are more able to help students when we can manage not to be judgmental. I do agree with you about setting boundaries. | |
| May 3 at 23:22 | comment | added | Justin Skycak | @SueVanHattum are you telling me that a student who is offered support, does not take the opportunity, and then continues to complain, is not lazy? If that's the case, I would love to hear what it would take for you to call someone's behavior lazy, or if you would ever consider anyone's behavior lazy at all. | |
| May 3 at 22:05 | comment | added | Sue VanHattum♦ | Given that the book's exercises are all 2x2, I'd definitely point out that 3x3 is included. Did you do at least one 3x3 example in class? I searched for a few exercises for my students in just this section, for just this reason. | |
| May 3 at 22:03 | comment | added | Sue VanHattum♦ | "their own laziness". Nope. Inadequately taught/learnt does not equal laziness. And many students are overwhelmed with the multitude of their responsibilities. | |
| May 3 at 19:34 | comment | added | Justin Skycak | @MatthewLeingang see here: khanacademy.org/standards/CCSS.Math/HSA.APR#HSA.APR.B | |
| May 3 at 4:44 | comment | added | Justin Skycak | @LeafGlowPath sure, put that on your syllabus next time, but I wouldn't really call that a "mistake" on your part, just an area where you can better guard yourself against attacks. Don't be too surprised if next time, a student like this finds something else to nitpick about in attempt to externalize blame ;) | |
| May 3 at 4:39 | comment | added | LeafGlowPath | That is a very thorough answer. In my reflection, I suppose one mistake I made was not to be crystal clear that finding eigenvalues of 3 by 3 matrix is required. (The exercises in the book are all about 2 by 2 matrices.) I should make that clear next time. | |
| May 3 at 4:30 | history | edited | Justin Skycak | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 180 characters in body
|
| May 3 at 4:24 | history | answered | Justin Skycak | CC BY-SA 4.0 |