Hi, John
The most interesting part of your message, to me, concerns your observation
of student capabilities and attitudes, especially:
- Recent undergraduates could not actually get to grips with the issues and
did not progress beyond recall- and that at quite a basic level.
That statement would apply especially to understanding a fairly complex
system of questions to use with every decision - and to adapt that list to their
own needs.
Below is what I wrote recently to all student in the class in response to a
question about the use and applicability of such a system:
seminars.
You may want to give some thought to what the impact on your career might
be if in meetings you attend you raise one or the other of the 8 major
questions that is particularly relevant, and then if asked, were able to elaborate a
bit on what you were thinking. Might that have others come to see you as
perceptive and insightful, and respect you for that? And if the meeting were
called by you and your preparation for the meeting included consideration of the
particularly relevant questions, might that make the meetings more efficient?
What use you make of whatever you will have learned in the semester, is of
course entirely up to you. It ranges from (a) no use to (b) serious efforts to
develop the habit to use a list of question with every decision - the one
presented in the semester, an adaptation, or an entirely different list, to (c)
something in between. However, as far as my responsibility to you is concerned
I have to ensure that you understand what the book and I present so you can
make informed decisions on what to use, how and what to adapt, and what to
reject. In my role as instructor I have to assign grades - not because I like to
do that, but because I owe you feedback on your learning performance, and to
the University an evaluation of your progress.
I hope this helps, even if I cannot respond to your explanation of the unique
restraints of your environment.
Cheers,
Erwin (Rausch)
didacticra@aol.com and
erausch@kean.edu