Affective Domain Case Studies

Mineralogy Motivation: A Real Life Tale of Woe

I teach mineralogy (do you feel my pain?). Mineralogy has a reputation for being a "weed out" course, and not many students look forward to taking this class. But in addition, in our department I've encountered another problem: we have a degree option in paleontology, and students who self-select this option basically want to be Jack Horner and head out to the hills to dig up dinosaur bones. The problem is that they place very little value in the full range of geoscience content knowledge and skills required for a degree in our geology program-by their way of thinking, it seems like these are just hoops to jump through, and most of the curriculum is irrelevant to their interests. Colleagues who teach required courses at other institutions report similar reactions from some of their students. In the first meeting with my mineralogy class, I try to patiently explain the relevance of this course and that even paleo majors will indeed need to know some mineralogy that will be useful in studies of taphonomy, diagenesis, mineralogical replacements of bones and eggshells, etc. But, the response is one of benign disinterest at best (lack of participation in class activities, glazed over looks in lecture, a focus on pulling split ends...) and even open defiance and hostility. I've got a mess on my hands. The discontent of this small group has infected the entire class environment.

Questions

What could I have done better on the first day of class (and subsequently) to avert this situation?
Is there something about student pre- and misconceptions that I should be aware of?
Does this specific example point to strategies that an instructor can use broadly to insure that all students become engaged in a class from the first day, and remain engaged throughout the semester?
What do I do now to salvage what's left of the class?
How does motivation play in the design of your courses?

Trilobites Live!

I teach Historical Geology at a large public university. As I was setting up class the other day, a student, Eric, nervously approached me and asked a question that caught me off-guard. "How do you know for sure that trilobites and humans didn't co-exist?" he asked. I smiled, thinking he was making a joke. After all, we were several weeks into a second-semester geology course and this was the first time he had expressed these ideas. "Nice one," I said, "how can I really help you today?" But then I realized he wasn't trying to be funny. His face turned stoic and serious, but before I could gather myself and formulate an answer, he continued, "You throw around these huge numbers for the age of the earth, the age of the rocks and the age of the fossils. But how do you know? Aren't you just repeating the numbers that you have read elsewhere?"

Once again, I tried to come up with a good answer. I began explaining that these numbers weren't simply reported by a single source; that there are all types of data that point to similar and consistent ages for various formations. Before I could get too far, two other students interrupted us with a question about the homework due that day. I talked briefly to them while Eric stood by. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Eric was deeply bothered. But amid the hustle and bustle of the start of class, I was struggling to give him the attention he needed. It seemed that no answer I could give would placate him. I wondered why he had never mentioned any of this before and why it seemed that all of a sudden he was expressing deep concerns with the concept of geologic time and evolution. Had his feelings been building up all through the semester and only now coming out? And meanwhile, I had a class to run and other students to attend to. It seemed there was nothing I could do to address his concerns at this time, and I felt like I was caught up in a "no-win" situation.

Questions

What should an instructor do if they anticipate situations that have the potential to place students' beliefs in conflict with concepts presented in a course?
Do they have a special responsibilities in this circumstance?
What should my next step be in the historical class?
What strategies do you use when teaching controversial topics?

Field Trip Anxiety

A few years into teaching my physical geology course, I made a bold move and added an all-day, mandatory field trip to the course. With 120 students in the course, orchestrating this field trip was neither an easy nor inexpensive task. I used the field trip as a major milestone of the course, talking it up for weeks beforehand, and structuring the lectures, labs and homework assignments to lead up to the Big Day. I am usually a pretty enthusiastic teacher, and my own excitement for the upcoming field trip was enough to make most of the students roll their eyes.

Imagine my dismay then, when George knocked on my office door the day before the field trip. George said he "needed to talk." George was an economics major, a junior, and had spent his entire life in Queens, NY prior to coming to college in New England. He was an average student in the course, didn't apply himself too much, but he was a successful student in his econ and business courses and was articulate, funny and quite likeable. He was hoping to "survive" this course to get the science requirement over with.

George sat rigidly on the edge of the chair in my office and began to explain that he did not want to go on the much-anticipated field trip. "I'm not much of a nature-lover. My roommate freshman year was one of those granola types and spent every weekend camping or backpacking. For the life of me I don't understand why someone who can afford to attend this university would go out and sleep in the dirt on purpose!"

George went on to describe the litany of certain disasters that would befall him on the field trip. He had heard from another geology student about an incident where there were snakes basking on an outcrop. How and where would everyone go to the bathroom? What if it rained? What if he "fell off a cliff or something?"

What George really wanted was to be excused from the field trip and be allowed to do an alternate assignment instead. "Please," he begged, "I'll do anything else as a make-up assignment. Just don't make me spend the whole day outside."

Questions

What actions did the teacher take that may have enhanced George's anxiety?
What might the teacher have done to prevent or alleviate George's dilemma?
What barriers to learning have you encountered in your own teaching in the field?
What should the teacher do next?
What role does student comfort/anxiety play in enabling or hindering learning?