I found the reading from Ch. 8 to be very appropriate as today was the first day of class and I am teaching three lecture classes this semester and was thinking about how I could "get to know" my students better. The statement that "each class brings a new group of students" is not only true because of the obvious but also true in the fact that each group interacts differently even when including the same students from previous semesters.
I found the part about "Students Are More Likely to Succeed if They:" to be very significant! I also found the section on tutoring to be interesting as we have many students where I teach who just want "to be shown the answers." This connects with the part of the Markwell and Courtney article that describes the student who seeks knowledge of only the material that will be on the test and has no interest or desire in the quest of knowledge in and of itself.
I felt strongly about the type of test questions described in Markwell and Courtney. This is something I have been working with as a college instructor regarding testing the students knowledge and not just recall. The other issue is writing a test that can be given in 50 minutes to over 90 students and promptly graded. This is where the multiple choice/Scantron test has appeal over the several page short answer and essay test.
Going back to Ch. 8, the part about Science Fear and Math Anxiety is very true. I do think that Science can be a "scary" subject for many students. I also find it interesting, in daily life, the response I get when people who don't know me find out I teach Anatomy & Physiology. It is always something like, "Oh, wow, really..." Sometimes I get the feeling that because I'm a woman I can't possibly be "smart" enough to teach science or that these people are surprised that I can do this because they perhaps have preconceived notions about women in science, I don't know.
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