Exam prologues and epilogues
More times than I can remember, I’ve been in a discussion of teaching
with Janet or Jerod and the following happens: They suggest a really
good idea. I respond with Wow, that’s a good idea.
They then reply,
Sam, I learned that idea from you.
I don’t know if they are telling
the truth or not, but I appreciate that I have helped them develop some
useful teaching methodologies.
I also appreciate the many things about teaching that I have learned from these colleagues. Jerod and Janet both do a very nice job with writing journals, and looking at what they do has helped me develop my own model for such journals. (I still don’t do as well as they do, but I think I do well enough.)
These past few days, I’ve been reflecting on a particularly useful technique
that I learned from Janet: meta-cognitive wrappers
. As I understand it,
students learn and retain information better if they are asked to reflect
on work both before and after they do the work. A few years ago, when Janet
and I were both teaching CSC 151, we added prologues and epilogues to
the take-home exams for CSC 151.
Perhaps I should add a bit of background. In my experience, in-class exams aren’t useful for what I generally want to test students on. I’m less interested in their ability to memorize syntax, interpret short segments of code, or solve simple problems in a limited-time and high-stress situation. I’m much more interested in how they approach more difficult problems when they have resources and time available to them. I think of exams as opportunities for students to learn. I also know that different students take different amounts of time to solve the same problem, and the amount of time they take is not representative of their understanding. And so I give take-home exams.
Okay, back to the prologues and epilogues. For the prologues, we ask the
students, within a few days of receiving the exam, to provide a short
note on how they will approach each problem and to indicate something
that they can do to help themselves succeed on the exam. The short notes
on the problems can range from This problem is easy enough that I’ve
solved it already
to I’m going to try the following
to This looks
really similar to a problem I did on hw 3
to I don’t understand this;
I should ask Sam
. The strategies for success range from Do a little
work very day
to move on to the next problem when I get stuck
to
get enough sleep
to drink more coffee
. I don’t recommend the last
strategy, but the others I just mentioned are good.
For the epilogue, we ask the students to reflect on what problem was the most difficult, and why. We also ask the students to identify two strategies that will help them be more successful on the next exam. I don’t recall the exact reasons we chose those prompts, but they are good ones. The first forces students to think about the whole exam, and what kinds of problems they find difficult. The second helps them reflect not just on our exams, but on what kinds of habits they should develop.
The prologues serve other purposes, too. Too often, students wait until the last minute to work on their take-home exams. But we give take-home exams because we think it’s important for students to have the time to let a problem work through their brain. Not every problem has an obvious solution. Since they have to fill out the prologue soon after receiving the exam, they start thinking about the problems relatively early on in the process.
This semester, I’ve started to use Formstack for the prologues. (I used
to use Google Docs. However, the College prefers that I use Formstack
to help maintain FERPA compliance.) I’ve managed to configure Formstack
to make the forms more helpful to me. I get an email when a student
submits their prologue, and I can quickly respond to good and less
good ideas. (Drinking more coffee is probably not the best approach.
I’m glad that you plan to take breaks when you get stuck for more than
five minutes. At that point, you should send me an email message.
)
I realize that my quest for inbox zero suffers from these additional
email messages, as well as the additional email messages my suggestions
will likely create. The prologues also give me the opportunity to note
and correct any confusing parts. I suspect that my responses to the
prologues also improve my relationships with students, but we’ll see how
that goes. It’s certainly been easier to respond with the emailed forms.
These wrappers
are one of many techniques I have adapted or adopted
throughout my career. I’m thankful that I’m at a school where my
colleagues, both within and outside of the department, care so clearly
about teaching and so regularly share good ideas that help make me a
better teacher.
Version 1.0 of 2017-02-09.