Practice Tips from Faculty

Contributed by Steven Markoff, Instructional Specialist, Department of Accounting, Law, and Taxation

At the end of the semester, with the final exam, I have a separate page where the students complete the following sentence anonymously : “During the semester I learned _____.” Some of the answers that come out of that are incredible. I then have another person gather this information and give it back to me in a Word file, which I then reformat and circulate back to the students. There are several reasons I do this.

First, it forces all of the students to reflect on the semester and make an evaluation. “What did I learn that is worth putting down?” I think every class could benefit from more student reflection and evaluation. We convey information to them and they convey it back to us, possibly without ever thinking of why they are doing that and what thy are gaining from the process. We often end the semester with a final examination that asks “can you compute the average cost?” or “do you know how to compute interest expense?” without any general query about what was actually learned.

Second, these reflections should help the teacher get better at teaching. If I don’t like what I read from the students, I can consider what changes need to be made. I have never made a secret that I do not like formal student evaluations which too often hinge on whether you get a 4.3 or a 4.2 on a five point scale. However, I believe that asking students what they learned, and then deciding whether you like the answer or not, is a very valid way to get some genuine feedback.

Third, it gives students a take away from the semester. Too often, students study like mad and take a complicated final exam and then walk off without the semester being brought to any type of logical conclusion. Somehow there should be some closure to the semester other than the mystery of walking away from a final exam wondering what you got right and what you got wrong and then a grade magically appearing on WESS or Blackboard. By sending out the list of “what did you learn in this course?” the students can get a sense of what the entire community gained from the course and I think that is a great wrap up.