<p>"Who AGREED upon them (or were they simply shoved down their throats), and why is it assumed that everyone else is following them when we know with certainty that they aren't? WHO understood these rules? Were they freely entered into? Or were students given mixed messages from the very day they entered kindergarten and told to share?"</p>
<p>As I can hopefully describe below, I set the framework and upfront rules, but also often in consultation with the students. I also ensure they are followed by everyone (I have 2 proctors for my exams and no material on the desk if its closed book for example)- maybe I'm missing your question? Freely chosen rules? My syllabus is a contract (though in mutual agreement we may change it), I go through it on the first day and they have 3 weeks to opt out and take the course with someone else.</p>
<p>"Your discussion about how YOU decided to use various forms of exams is valid - did you explain in advance to your students why you decided on each form? Respectully, did you notice that it was all about YOU? - "It depends upon the course (or the way YOU evaluate it), the learned material (that YOU assigned), "what I need to evaluate", "what I want them to get out of the exam process". Did you ask them about any of this? (I think not to is unethical when it comes to learning processes - and, yes, I have taught at the college level - although that's an entirely different discussion.)"</p>
<p>Maybe I am ego-centric but I make no apologies about being the leader of my courses. it's what I'm paid to do, my students succeed and their ratings of my approach and my courses are very high. Would they learn better with a different approach? I'm open to that possibility but not trained to offer it.</p>
<p>I have a lot of say in what's valid since I have been trained in my area and pedagogy, I know what their board exams will require they will need to work in the profession, and I have 20 years of trial and error, and many thousands of students experiences and feedback to draw from. Do I know everything? Not at all! I'm constantly learning. But my insights and guidance are not worthless and why would I withhold that from my students and make them have to start from scratch every time?</p>
<p>I learn a huge amount from my students, especially in terms of pedagogy and how they can learn best. In terms of content, however, I know more than they can know about what knowledge and skill sets they need (actually have to have) to be qualified to work in their profession and at their stage.</p>
<p>I spend a huge amount of time telling them the reasons for everything. So I explain why I have chosen what I did for the readings, why we are covering a given topic, why we are doing a particular homework set, or the nature of an assignment, group work, an exam. Every single part of my syllabus from the outset, and as we go through it, is tied back to what I believe it will do for them and the logic behind it. It's very important actually for them to know. (here I go with the "I" again..but who are we kidding? even if my students were self-directed, it would be ME as professor who had to decide that approach...so I could say my students this and my students that...but behind it would be ME who set that environment in place). </p>
<p>Sometimes students will come back with better suggestions or modifications (one big benefit of explaining why you are doing something or the bigger goal rather than just imposing it). Sometimes if the whole class wants to, we do things differently- a different time of assessment, group rather than individual, open rather than closed book, no exam at all, a paper instead of an exam.. Other times we experiment..and I've tried all kinds of things....I've had students generate their own exam questions or exam format for example. It depends on so much. </p>
<p>And feedback twice a year in an anonymous form helps me to lead the next class better and make changes- THEY tell me what was useful, what was useless, what needs to change. I learn a lot from that and that goes into my database of 20 years experience that can help me help the next set of students. In a sense, the students DO direct my courses but its students over the course of many years, not each new set each time. </p>
<p>Maybe in the humanities, there is more room to explore, grow and learn and be student driven so they create both the process through an emergent form, and learn the content material at the same time. I would admire those that can do it, and I just don't have the training and experience myself to be that level of teacher. Also, I lack sufficient knowledge about how this could be done i some fields required confidence in knowledge and skillsets learned. How does a future class of accountants or surgeons direct their own learning and how do we ensure they each have acquired the necessary knowledge to not harm a company or patient? I might be missing something important, but I would not let a surgeon operate on me who directed their own education, choosing, in a cooperative group effort, what topics they wanted to cover and how they wanted to learn, without individual exams assessing knowledge.</p>