Importance of being dumb - oh science...

Taking break from student horror stories for a minute I recently came across an interesting article, which I have linked at the bottom (free access) for those that are interested.  The gist of the article, which we will go into more detail about in a moment, refers to the need of stupidity in graduate school and to be successful in science.  I had an interesting applied moment when I read this in light of my graduate career so far.  I remember reading an opinion paper (which I cannot find now for the life of me) in a journal that talked about how being in graduate school makes you feel stupid, even though being in school means to some degree you are pretty darn smart.  Recently, with my comps (ideally) looming next semester I've heard more than a few talk about the need for absolute humility while taking the oral component - in short explain what you know while never appearing as though you think you know everything.  Let's discuss.

First off, graduate school does make you feel stupid.  Part of this level of education is not taking regular classes but having them as seminar or discussion - to integrate advanced topics and reasoning.  Prepare as you will, the professor will always lead the discussion in a way that you never thought of and there's always someone else that says something profound (well, it's not always actually profound, but you're little brain makes it feel that way).  You'll find yourself scrambling to write down every word and still walking away only half following what the hell just happened.  This mixes very interestingly with the societal pressure to cut the tall weeds (aka it is often socially unacceptable to be the really really smart one) and the academic pressure to weed out the scrubs (aka figure out who really doesn't know much).  Most new students are too afraid to say anything, afraid to sound stupid or to come across like they are "attacking" another idea.  So you sit, smile, and nod your head.



Of course, this doesn't last.  Here in my 3rd year of my PhD I find myself participating more often, especially in classes or seminars with a large proportion of graduate students.  Still keep pretty pursed lips though in large scale settings with lots of faculty.  I'm not really a shy person, but what do you do?  Just try.

Now onto the comps piece.  We talked a little bit about this before but for the conversation to continue we all need to be on the same page.  For a PhD student, the only way to move from "student" to "candidate" (aka even be considered for grants or graduation) is to take comprehensive exams.  This differ from department to department and school to school.  Usually there's a mixture of written and oral exams.  Some use a mock grant proposal and defense.  Others use large scale tests.  My department has a week of essay papers for the written.  Each day a different committee member (minimum of 5, and trust me that's ALL you need) will send you a set of questions each day.  They will require you to produce facts from papers you have read as well as extrapolate and apply them to the questions.  Assuming you pass these there is a day of orals, whereby you sit in front of your committee and for 4-6 hours they verbally ask you questions.




Okay, enough on that drama for now.  I am more than sure as they approach and I sink in deep for survival there will be more on that.  The point of that conversation is to move it further.  Another student in the department (with another adviser) was telling me horror stories of her first failure and her second try (you only get 2) in which she passed.  She told me one of the biggest differences was attitude.  She's a smart cookie and going into her first one felt confident.  Responding to this her committee became very aggressive and would outwardly tell her that they didn't like whatever thought process she had followed to get to an answer, even if it wasn't technically wrong.  Afterwards her adviser berated her for her performance, leading her to almost quit.



Thankfully she didn't quit and when she tried again she went in with her head down.  She was still able to think through answers but by being less confident she got more positive responses and received much less aggression from her committee (plus she passed).  Now take any story with a grain of salt but it seems to me that part of the point of comprehensive exams is to show you how much you DON'T know (or can't know YET) and look for you to show signs of humility and "absolute" stupidity.  Keeping in mind of course that these exams also look for you to prove you do know the basics in your field and would be a respectable representation of it (not "relatively" stupid).

This brings us to the paper I mentioned at the beginning of this conversation.  The author actually teases at my assessment above, stating if a student is able to answer all the questions posed to the fullest it is the committee that failed the exam.  By that feeling of absolute stupidity it pushes us to question and inquire, to keep moving beyond the bounds of current knowledge to learn and regain the feeling of shock and awe at the complexity of the universe.  If we ever feel like we know anything, then we stop learning and stunt the learning of those around us.  In the universe of science, you shouldn't feel like you know what you're doing because that's what leads to the big discoveries.  So feel absolutely stupid but know that you're not relatively stupid.  You know a lot, but you can't know everything!

Check out the article.  It's a well written essay that is easy to follow, even if you don't get into science itself per se.

Swartz, M.A. 2008. The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Journal of Cell Science 121: 1771.
http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full.pdf+html-

Let me know what you think or share related experiences.  Your story can only lead to inform others coming through and make those who have felt it feel less alone.


"Do not be afraid of defeat. you are never so near victory as when defeated in a good cause" Henry Ward Beecher

TA: It's always worth it

I know the past couple of weeks I have spent so time doing a little student bashing and talking about many of the frustrating features of being a teacher.  So here I'm going to put forth some examples of students that DID care and DID really freakin' give me everything they had.  The thing to remember is, no matter how many students you have swear at you or walk out, if you have EVEN ONE that comes out a better person, that you were a successful teacher.

1. So even when a student is not necessarily successful with his/her actual grades, it is often clear when a student putting forth a concerted effort to change their path.  Student A (again, different than all the other student A's from past weeks) was a mess from the start.  He sat at the trouble lab table and after 3 quizzes was looking pretty desolate.  However, after the third quiz he actually came into my office to talk to me about it (a miracle in itself).  He wanted to go over the quiz and discuss how he could change his study habits to improve his grade and ultimately not fail the exams or class.  Not only did he come in to my office every week to study but moved tables, sitting with a group of final year nursing majors (a good find in an anatomy course-I was pretty fond of them myself).  He still did fairly poorly in the class, which I largely akin to poor test taking skills, not learning problems.  However, he was teetering on the edge of the D/C range so I was able to bump him up due to clear effort and participation. He cared and put the effort in to make a difference.  Those situations always make me care so much more AND feel good about what I do.(ps does anyone else think this button looks less than adorable and innocent?!)
2. Student B begins to put a counter balance on all the stupid excuses I've ever gotten.  I received it via e-mail initially.  It came in during class, but of course I didn't get it until directly afterward.  It had been particularly snowy this year, seemed every week for a while had the University shut down for at least part of one day.  The e-mail was not actually from a student, but from a mechanic.  Apparently, the student had slid on the ice and another car plowed right into her.  She was fine but was so worried about missing class she asked the towing company that retrieved her totaled car to contact me.  Phone, address, and manager.  Completely legitimate.  For something like this I would have probably not pushed too hard even without the e-mail but in addition when she sat in the next day's class she brought me the DAMAGE ESTIMATE.  The problem with situations like these is because she went so far beyond the call of duty, I have A LOT of trouble dealing with most other excuses! 
3. For my final piece of evidence I present to you the following image I made from an actual e-mail.  I received this e-mail after my first semester of teaching Anatomy and Physiology (second semester teaching ever).  It was a particularly arduous class to teach, most of the students were a little younger and it was partially filled with athletes that were "just wasting time until drafted."  I was exhausted and a little disheartened (this is the same class I had the plagiarism issues I referred to before).  A wonderful student sent this to me the last week of the semester (technically finals week but labs don't have finals).  Enjoy this and hopefully it lifts your day like it always lifts mine. 

Next week I've got some unusual students that give me a head tilt just thinking about! Got some happy stories? Please share! Every TA has a bad day, class, or even semester! Share the love!


"When I was younger I thought success was something different. I thought, " When I grow up, I want to be famous. I want to be a star. I want to be in movies. When I grow up I want to see the world, drive nice cars. I want to have groupies." But my idea of success is different today. For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way." Ellen DeGeneres

TA: Above my pay scale excuses

Hey guys.  So this is a segment I have deemed to call "above my pay scale."  The excuse types found herein are true examples of things that not only make you go "oh mercy" but are just viable enough so you can't ignore them or are long running issues that you'd like to run from.

Student A (not student A from last week): Student was missing from the first 2 weeks of class, which if you're teaching a lab, only meets once a week, so that's a significant proportion of class time as it is. So, after taking role and marking him absent I assumed he dropped and crossed his name off my paper roster (TAs are almost NEVER EVER given updated rosters. EVER.)  About half way through my mini lecture of course, guess who comes strolling in?  Right, so I tell him he needs to see me after class and carry on, can't spend precious class time on someone who doesn't think class time is precious right? So after class he comes up and asks what I need. REALLY?!  You can't possibly imagine why I would want to talk to you?!  So I ask him why he's missed class so much.  Are you ready?  Turns out he was TAing another class during this same timeslot so he needed to get that fixed before abandoning his class to come to mine.  I ask if he had spoken to our Lab Coordinator (LC).  Of course, he said no, he didn't think he had to.  I had to stare for a moment, thinking you teach and you still thought you didn't need to let anybody know why you were missing class.  I told him he was unexcused until he talked with the LC.  He said nah, he'd pick it up.  Yeah okay whatever buddy, do as you wish, you're now above my pay scale to argue with.



Student B:  Student B had pre-emailed me (good girl) that her mom had a medical emergency and she needed to miss that week's classes. I gave her the go ahead (I'm a momma's girl myself).  After THREE weeks of no communication she comes in to take the final lab practical.  She's obviously allowed to take the test and I ask her to see me after, wondering how she was even going to complete the exam with half of the lessons completely missing.  After class she has the last 3 weeks homework assignments (given to her by friends) and a note from her mom that read, "XXX was home with me. I fully expect her to be responsible for her missing work."  So, after the 8th grade, that kind of note means NOTHING, but she was a good student so I tried to humor the situation.  I asked her what was going on and that I needed something more substantial.  I told her I believed there was something real to her absence but I couldn't be favoring her by going on her word.  She told me her mom was sick and it wasn't her place to talk about it.  They didn't go to the doctor so she only had her mom.  At this point I assume her family was under a delicate situation and likely there was some mental illness at check here.  Still, it broke all my University Sanctioned rules to run with it.  I took the first homework, from when I had given her the go ahead to miss.  I told her very seriously to just talk to the LC.  If I get the go ahead from her then I would love to grade the other homeworks.  The student backed off and said she didn't want to start a fuss.  I told her I didn't have the power to say okay but the LC did, and that I believed what she told me. She said she'd think about it.  She didn't.  This was painful because I still believe something was wrong but at my level I'm not allowed to make decisions like that without any sanctioned excuse.  She still passed, but two zeros did some damage.



I've got more to come for next week, and I've only been teaching 3 years. If you've got any good stories or insights SHARE!!!


"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." Samuel Johnson

TA: excuse note stories

Ah excuses, easily the biggest bane of any teacher's existence, ever.  And at the college level, we've gone well beyond, "The dog age my homework."  The tales you will hear will range from the astonishing, to downright infuriating.  Of course they're not all lies, but even the truth tellers tend to go out of their way to make things messy.



Firstly, every year you will always have at least one student e-mail you the DAY a major paper is due or a test will occur.  Always.  And it's always some variant of "I'm so busy I didn't have time to do it!"  Normally my rule is, if you came to me with a legitimate issue BEFORE said date, I will probably roll with it if it doesn't start too many issues.  Examples of complete inability of students to follow this philosophy:

1. Student A shattered his dominant arm mid week that a paper was due.  You don't really need a note for this, they show up with a cast.  So I gave him an extension to go down to disabilities resources and get help with writing.  Easy!  If he had told me the day of or day before though, hell to the no.  You shouldn't be writing the paper 2 hours before class anyway and putting if off until then certainly doesn't earn you an extension.  Of course, this kid ended up turning it in later than the extension date anyway so he still could have lost points.  Round two had no excuse besides, "I forgot!"  Regardless the paper was terrible so the score was low enough that not only could I tell he'd written in that Saturday to turn it in in the middle of the night (it was due Friday) but I couldn't even justify taking off an additional 20%.
2. Student B sends me an e-mail after hours on a Friday. She states that she is leaving for a conference in an adjoining state with her club and won't be back until late Tuesday, therefore missing the field trip we have on Monday. She says she will go to the Thursday class. So, I have two major issues with this e-mail.
1. It's a conference, which means you knew about it more than 12 hours in advance so either you are lazy and didn't bother to use a pre-excuse as an actual pre-excuse or you fibbing. I made her show documentation so it was legit, but seriously, she's known since the first week of school, what?
2. I HATE (hate hate hate hate hate) when students skip the request stage and immediately assume they can jump in where ever or just get the notes and that's just fine and dandy. As a student you are SUBORDINATE. You have to ask. And in this case we had full classes so she couldn't just pop on to another day, there wasn't room in the vans. 
3. The first week of school contained labor day, so Monday labs were missed. However, the instructor decided that all safety training needed to be done that week. Therefore the students needed to hop in to one of the other 3 labs that week or to my extra session on Friday. Student Splinter Group C ignored the requirement and the very important step of TELLING ME. 
1. Did I mention all I require is communication? You know that first day whether you will have issues or not. It's like the pre-excuse, I just don't care as much when you show me you don't either!! 
2. Anyway, I digress. Come the following Monday I had 7 students who had not only missed training the last week but ignored even talking to me about it in class. I held them after and asked why they skipped. The average response? "I just got the information from somebody else taking the class." 
3. So...I was pretty sure I hadn't certified anyone else to do safety training. I told them training is more of a piece of paper and I needed them in the training with a signature of completion if they wanted to stay in class. Furthermore, since they skipped class without discussion they received an unexcused absence.
4. I actually had a student tell me she couldn't e-mail me because she didn't have access to the internet. Apparently for 7 days. I asked if she had been on campus at all, since we have free computer access. What I didn't ask was if her legs were broken so she couldn't walk up to the instructor's or my office either, the location of which were given in lecture multiple times. Miraculous healing she must have had.

 

Next week I'll post some more serious excuse situations. Have some good stories of your own? Let me know!!

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal." Mark Twain 

TA: tips and tricks of the trade

Now I want to start this off by reminding you that this in no way is the perfect set of rules for a TA.  Every TA is different, and so is every class, course, professor, student, and coordinator.  Take them with a grain of salt and use them carefully!

I'm going to spend this week going through a list of dos and don'ts.  Definitely question, comment, and add on!  I always love these conversations!!

DOs:

1. Be energetic.  
1. Students can smell weakness and feed on it like the brain slugs from Animorphs.  Sound confident and it really does go a long way.  
2. My first year teaching I was driving a van load of students to a lake field trip.  Along the way they said they could tell that it was Nematobrycon's first time teaching (the other TA, also female).  Of course I told them it wasn't and that she deserved respect, teaching wasn't easy.  Truth was though they had us backwards, I was the noob and Nematorbrycon was a seasoned veteran so to speak.  The difference is I am loud and bouyant while she is quiet and short on speech, lending her to look unsure of herself regardless of her competence. 
2. Be engaging.
1. Every chance to get to bring in student participation, do it.  If nothing else they'll be less likely to fall asleep.  It also helps to get a good feel for students and to learn names.  Teach Socratically.  The goal remember is to teach them how to learn, so by giving them some basics you can help them through just about anything.  
1. Use candy as a bribe, that works.  Just make sure they know they can't eat it until they leave (no food in labs ya?). 
2. My coordinator also recommends "danger colors." I've never had to employ this method but basically you draw a color randomly and go around the room so anyone with that color on will have to answer. Depends on the students I think how well they would respond.
3. Speak and write confidently.
1. Give the students assurance that you know what you are babbling on about. Even if you feel like it's a weak subject for you, prewrite your board work and think about what you say. Fumble around or need to change something on the board and you will lose them fast. Super fast.

Don'ts

1. Never say "Try harder"
1. Seriously, never say this. Chances are the student is trying to their capacity (whatever that is) and even if they're not it's a very frustrated piece of advice. You look like a complete pompous douchebag and they will likely stop trying altogether and feel you are entirely unapproachable. Which you are.
2. Never say " I don't know"
1. Even if you don't know, there are other ways to handle the situation that doesn't make them lose their faith in you.
1. Try attacking it socratically, can you think through it together?
2. Is it really pertinent? If not say that's above the level required for the course and in an effort to stay on track let it slide for now. After class, look it up and have it open for THEM as a resource.
2. Does it matter? Are they asking what the obscure stuffed animal in the corner is that was likely extinct 400 years ago? Then a "mmm I'm so sure on that one" is probably just fine.
3. HOWEVER, NEVER EVER LIE to your students. For one they take what you say is truth and you can severely harm their learning. Moreover if they figure out you fibbed you lose all their confidence AND, again, you look like a pompous douchebag, albeit an incompetent one.
3. Never let students run the joint.
1. Some freedom in a lab setting is great, it teaches responsibility and add comfort to their learning process, allowing them to focus more. Some informality at this level works too, be friendly and you'll likely get more active discussion. However, there will come a time when you need to stomp on a student. Be sure that when push comes to shove no means no. Some of them will tests boundaries, make sure you set a solid example.
4. Stay away from "wrong"
1. Especially if you are in a discussion moment within the lecture and asking for feedback, telling a volunteer straight out they are wrong can slow the discussion down dramatically. Make sure to smile and keep a positive flow. Say things like "well that's a good start" or "okay what it we thought about it this way." Try to redirect without spurning their attempt.

That's a solid review. Drop in your questions and comments and we can add more. Next week I think some funny horror stories to bring in the realism!

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." Gail Godwin