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[3rdadjunct]

With mid-terms approaching, I spent the past few days calculating student averages to get a sense of who may be in serious trouble. I teach two sections of an introductory course, and in the first section (9 a.m.) just five of 26 students are passing the course!!!

Eleven of the students I will drop for non-attendance, the others who show up simply stare at me for the whole class -- not bothering to take notes, some do not even have the textbook! They repeatedly fail quizzes -- some quizzes are carbon copies of quizzes they failed earlier and I've re-arranged the questions in an effort to help them get a better score (we go over the quiz answers as a class after each one).  

Only two have taken advantage of four extra credit opportunities I've offered, and only seven have bothered turning in the first two parts of a five-part term paper (which is 20 percent of their final grade!!).  Just three have taken advantage of the re-writes I permit for any homework assignment on which they've scored a low grade.

Today the class took their second test of the semester -- one student scored a 12 (!), most scored in the 40s, and five scored above 80.

I teach a second section of this class (at 11 a.m.), and those students are doing so well!! In that section, the lowest score on today's test was a 77 -- I am so distraught!!!!

What do I do??
I don't want so many of those students in my first section to fail the class, but I'm at a loss as to what more I can do for them!!! I don't understand the disparity between the two classes!!!

[bitter]

This is not your problem. Sometimes classes stink. It sounds like you've done all you can do to get these students to do better. You can't make them want to learn, so don't give yourself such a hard time about it.

[Xylocopa]

You are getting paid to:

1) teach students, and

2) assess whether they have learned the material.

"What do I do?" Do your job.

If it meakes you feel better, have a talk with your department head. My experience is that most department heads are about as good as the system allows them to be, and maybe even a tiny bit better. Most of them. Not all.

[majors]

I just finished marking the lecture midterms for an introductory course.  The marks were averaged based on what lab section the students are in (all are in the same lecture).  One lab section had an average that was 10% lower than the other eight sections.  The average for the other sections was fairly similar (within 2%).  I asked another person who teaches another introductory course and they pointed out that one of the lab sections is set aside for students who are in engineering (not the subject I am teaching) and they normally score lower for some reason.  Sure enough, this is the section that scored the lowest.  All of the other sections contain a mix of science and non-science majors.

Is it possible that the first section contains a different mix of students than the second section?  As for the students failing, you seem to have given them the chance for extra credit, if they don't want to do it, it is their loss.

[asst_prof]

Students have to learn that behaviors have consequences.  You don't have to do anything.  By not studying, taking notes, or engaging course material, your students will reap the natural consequences of their behavior (or lack of behavior in this case).  Each class has its own personality.  I also teach two sections of the same course.  The students (mostly female) in one section are doing great.  The students (mostly male, 80% athletes) in the other are doing very poorly (class average 58).  In the latter class, the students skip class a lot, don't read the textbook, don't take notes, and either sleep or stare at me for the whole class.  They are now experiencing the consequences of their own behaviors.  The intelligent ones figure things out and correct course.  The less intelligent ones never get it, and eventually wash out.  Anyway, isn't college sort of a filtering process (a separating of the wheat from the chaff)?

[%sig%]

[anon]

Your students have to take some responsibility for learning.  You can't really teach them anything...all you can do is present material and structure the learning experience.

[qzectb]

3rdadjunct wrote:

> them!!! I don't understand the disparity between the two
> classes!!!


One thing I've noticed during my years of teaching is that attitude is one of the most contagious things in the classroom.  The overall demeanor of a class can be set by just a couple of bad eggs OR by a couple of outgoing, positive participants.   Once the vibe is bad, it tends to reinforce itself  as all the other students are made uncomfortable by the tense atmosphere.

Of course, it could also be a statistical fluke in which you just happened to draw a disproportionate number of poor students in one section.  I had a class of 150 one time where every single student had a last name falling in the first half of the alphabet.  Statistically almost impossible, and yet it happened!

[%sig%]

[Safety First!]

Run for your life! The creatures you are describing are not students--they are the living dead! You've actually given them the same questions, rearranged, and they still can't get them right?! Protect your sanity by telling yourself you are doing everything you can for them; avoid losing any sleep over them! And, most importantly, avoid being alone with any of them in a darkened hallway! Hey, exclamation points are fun!

[%sig%]

[anon]

Is it the time slot? I was very worried when I first taught an 8:00 am course in winter and
at times had less than 50% attendance (not that I didn't sympathize -- I didn't want to be there either!) -- but it was actually the time slot not the course. Also, unpopular times often attract the lazy student who miss their registration times -- so you have students who are mediocre to begin with and given the choice between class and sleep choose the latter.

[hereandnow]

I had a similar problem last fall.  My night class (8-9:40 PM) was so awful that I asked a friend (who looks like an undergraduate) to sit in on the class.  She informed me that about 2/3 of the class was drinking *DURING MY CALCULUS LECTURE*.  I started using the rear blackboard as well as the front blackboard, and the grades started improving a little, but not much.

[%sig%]

[Ed]

Give each student his/her mid-semester average.  Say "for those of you who are not earning the grade that you would like to earn, you have a choice -- do better or drop the course."

[tamiam]

They also might think, consciously or (more likely) unconsiously, that you can't flunk all of them. Make sure they know that they are in a grading pool with your other section and they are holding up the bottom of the curve quite nicely. Any that care should come around.

You could offer coffee while telling them this. :)

[B.F.]

I agree that students who register at the last minute may wind up in the same section. My online sections fill up in the order that students register. The section that has the students who register last usually has significantly worse students.