Entering wintery weather seems to again put me in an Andrew Bird kind of mood.
Two weeks left to work before starting the leave. Sort of weird to try to tie loose ends before disappearing. I've been away from my office for extended periods of time previously but always for work related travel...
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Friday, 24 September 2010
And a some chocolate cake as well
This is not about my latest baking achievement.
Yesterday I got an email from the authorities here informing us of a new governmental policy.
From now on, ALL the 'compulsory' course materials must be on Universities' intranet, and those students receiving a governmental grant for studying, the University must print all these materials for free upon request.
The purpose is to democratize access to higher education, and, basically, to provide free education.
This really poses a lot of questions...
-Basic education has been 'free' of in this country for a long time. Yet every year, newspapers make headlines with the hundreds of € spent by families on kids getting back to school (some of which is probably useless branded stuff, but still). Free education is a myth. That being said, I do believe it is important to make sure that people from any income group can access education at any level.
-Still, this, from the pedagogical point of view, and from the point of view of a lecturer, has a number of implications. I use a textbook (rather nice and quite reasonnably priced, beside the fact that it can be bought/sold second hand) - does that mean I can't use that as a 'compulsory' course material? Does that mean that instead of this nice textbook, I need to write a shitty syllabus for them to study from?
-Why is the intranet the only canal mentionned? What happened to libraries? (for which the government also spends money, incidentally)
This comes as yet another obligation for lecturers to fulfill. I wonder if whoever came up with this has any idea of the type of course materials that are currently used.
Did I mention this trimester I need to lecture in a room that is litterally 2 meters from a big construction site? So far I haven't been able to get another room. They really want us to fucking podcast our lectures (not on my mind...)
Yesterday I got an email from the authorities here informing us of a new governmental policy.
From now on, ALL the 'compulsory' course materials must be on Universities' intranet, and those students receiving a governmental grant for studying, the University must print all these materials for free upon request.
The purpose is to democratize access to higher education, and, basically, to provide free education.
This really poses a lot of questions...
-Basic education has been 'free' of in this country for a long time. Yet every year, newspapers make headlines with the hundreds of € spent by families on kids getting back to school (some of which is probably useless branded stuff, but still). Free education is a myth. That being said, I do believe it is important to make sure that people from any income group can access education at any level.
-Still, this, from the pedagogical point of view, and from the point of view of a lecturer, has a number of implications. I use a textbook (rather nice and quite reasonnably priced, beside the fact that it can be bought/sold second hand) - does that mean I can't use that as a 'compulsory' course material? Does that mean that instead of this nice textbook, I need to write a shitty syllabus for them to study from?
-Why is the intranet the only canal mentionned? What happened to libraries? (for which the government also spends money, incidentally)
This comes as yet another obligation for lecturers to fulfill. I wonder if whoever came up with this has any idea of the type of course materials that are currently used.
Did I mention this trimester I need to lecture in a room that is litterally 2 meters from a big construction site? So far I haven't been able to get another room. They really want us to fucking podcast our lectures (not on my mind...)
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
As a way to maybe possibly get back into blogging here...
Raspberry buns for you.
They were a weird sort of sconey-biscuitty thing... No idea what they're meant to look like. I wish I managed to put more jam in there, but they were nice nonetheless.
I fell in total baking mood. Not that I will necessary succeed in that ambition.
Friday, 3 September 2010
Visiting...
Been warmly welcomed by hgg!
There was a conference, and I needed a place to rest my pregnant ass (so there. Not much posting these days, not by lack of things happening.)
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Learning to write in scientific style
I don't know how this is in other countries, but here, there is a large discrepancy between what you learn is writing 'well' in secondary school and what is expected of students in terms of writing once they write scientific reports in University.
At school, the only course where writing is assessed is the course on the language here. Any other place where writing may be required tend to not assess writing (maybe spelling). Wherever writing is assessed, certain specific aspects will be valued positively: being able to construct complex yet understandable sentences, show a large vocabulary by the liberal use of synonyms and many different words, discuss nuances of all sorts.
In University however, you are expected to be able to write in a clear, concise, scientific style. When we tell students that writing will be part of the marks, not just the content, they try to write, but tend to get back to those things valued in school, whereas scientific vocabulary tend to avoid naming things 10 different names, and that expression such as 'a lot', 'not as much', 'many', 'little' are generally not well seen (gimme the figure!).
It's interesting to notice this difference. Both ways are interesting, probably, and those who will go towards litteraray studies probably will find that training valuable; those going into science though need to learn something different. For some it is really challenging. There are students who consistently give back way more words than the limit set.
At school, the only course where writing is assessed is the course on the language here. Any other place where writing may be required tend to not assess writing (maybe spelling). Wherever writing is assessed, certain specific aspects will be valued positively: being able to construct complex yet understandable sentences, show a large vocabulary by the liberal use of synonyms and many different words, discuss nuances of all sorts.
In University however, you are expected to be able to write in a clear, concise, scientific style. When we tell students that writing will be part of the marks, not just the content, they try to write, but tend to get back to those things valued in school, whereas scientific vocabulary tend to avoid naming things 10 different names, and that expression such as 'a lot', 'not as much', 'many', 'little' are generally not well seen (gimme the figure!).
It's interesting to notice this difference. Both ways are interesting, probably, and those who will go towards litteraray studies probably will find that training valuable; those going into science though need to learn something different. For some it is really challenging. There are students who consistently give back way more words than the limit set.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
