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From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu
Subject: Re: How to beat the high cost of text books!
Summary: Subjects are not linearly ordered.
Message-ID: <1053@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 88 14:00:52 GMT
References: <1124@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1809@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Lines: 67

In article <1809@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, coughlij@clutx.clarkson.edu ( Jason Coughlin,221 Rey,84176,) writes:

> >From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
> >Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu

> >I will not even give out in advance what topic I will cover on a given day.
> >This is even the case in multi-section course in which the other sections are
> >doing this.  I do not necessarily follow the same order as the other sections.
> 
> 	And what problem fits this solution?  I'm thankful my professors give
> me an itinerary for the entire semester.  I read the material before the
> lecture, go to the lecture, and well-la, I've been exposed to the material
> twice.  By looking at the material ahead of time, I get a perspective on the
> concept so that I can ask questions about the application.  Don't tell me that
> you understood physics and calculus the first time you were exposed to it in
> a classroom because I don't buy it (Pun intended!)

For one thing, it is not necessary to follow the order of the material in the
textbook.  I may want to use some of the material in chapter 6 before some of
the material in chapter 2.  Or I may feel that a digression, explaining some
of the concepts in more detail, is justified.

Also, there are parts of the book which are irrelevant and are being omitted.
But the worst situations, which I attempt to warn the students about well in
advance, are those where the book is just plain misleading.  Books in
mathematics and statistics are particularly bad in presenting algorithms or
special cases in such a way as to make the concepts very difficult to
understand later.  The student who believes that integral is antiderivative
must disabuse himself of this in order to understand the 4500+ year old
notion.  Computing the amount of a bill is a much better example.  A concept
may involve the use of formulas, but it is not the manipulative procedure.
I expect the student to read the book in advance of class, and most of them
do not.  But in most courses, the warnings about the misleading nature of the
book are necessary.

I also do not read the textbook in class.  I expect the students to read the
relevant parts, and they do not like this.  Also, do not tell me to write a
book.  I know what is involved in writing a textbook, but few of the textbook
authors seem to do anything but copy bad books.

> >But the students want to know what will be covered on a given day, and what 
> >will be on the examinations.  Our examinations should have at least half the
> >questions things which can be done by someone who understands the concepts 
> >but not the manipulations, and cannot be done by someone who has merely 
> >memorized the various types of manipulations.  I suggest that the liberal
> >use of crib sheets be allowed in mathematics examinations.  A formula can
> >always be looked up in the real world; a definition can be looked up; a
> >theorem can be looked up; the understanding of what these mean cannot be
> >looked up.
> 
> 	Now THIS is a solution!  And I agree entirely!!  In fact, so does
> my comp sci professor.  All examinations are open notes and open book.  Any
> data structure, any formula, any algorithm already written can be looked up.
> However, his problems are new faces on old people.  One must find the solution
> not just the forumla. 

I can assure you that this is not appreciated by students in service courses in
mathematics and statistics.  The students are accustomed to having only the
regurgitation of memorized formulas, and routine manipulation.

The only reason that I do not customarily allow open book, and limit the
amount of notes, is that otherwise students unaccustomed to this approach
will spend all the time looking things up.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)