I got an excellent example of how much question phrasing matters in
class the other day that others might find useful. In my 160 student
macro class we do some group work. One thing we do is I ask them to
review the notes so far that day and I'd ask something along the lines
of "What is unclear?" or "What don't you understand?" The other day I
instead asked "What was easy and what was hard?" and I got MUCH better
responses. It dawned on me that nobody really likes to say that they
don't understand something, but "hard" is a nice intro into what is
indeed confusing.
It isn't related at all, but today I read an article on how e-mail isn't
as private as some might think: "E-mail scrutiny said to be 'scary'"
http://hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20040429/localnews/322322.html
I used to teach at Southern Mississippi.
- Bill
--
*------------------------------------------------------*
| Bill Goffe goffe@oswego.edu |
| Department of Economics voice: (315) 312-3444 |
| SUNY Oswego fax: (315) 312-5444 |
| 416 Mahar Hall <wuecon.wustl.edu/~goffe> |
| Oswego, NY 13126 |
*--------*------------------------------------------------------*-----------*
| "Didn't Get an E-Mail? That Could Be Spam's Fault, Too" |
| -- the second most e-mailed article from the Wall Street Journal on |
| August 4, 2003. |
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