6

What and how much scaffolding is necessary for a motivated undergraduate student who doesn't have the ideal prerequesites for work? This could be for a number of reasons:

  • He didn't realize the purpose of certain classes until later.
  • He had troubles grasping concepts on his own and didn't have as much help as he should.
  • Really bad classes.

Whatever they are, he's willing to catch up. How to deal with this situation?

Mark Fantini
  • 3,040
  • 2
  • 17
  • 42
  • 1
    I would spend some time identifying the gaps this student has in their knowledge and then maybe devise a plan on how to catch up with this knowledge. – Alexander Vlasev Apr 01 '14 at 00:18
  • 1
    A related question some of the answers might be relevant (though I did not find a real answer to your question): http://matheducators.stackexchange.com/q/1137/61 – András Bátkai Apr 01 '14 at 19:33
  • The related question seems to be treating with overly basic matters. As an example for my question, consider a student who knows linear algebra but not dual spaces and linear functionals very well. – Mark Fantini Apr 01 '14 at 19:38
  • Do you think you could phrase your question so that it is not so broad? Right now it says: For some reason, a motivated undergraduate is behind where he should be in his work. How should an instructor [even this is implicit...] respond? – Benjamin Dickman Apr 02 '14 at 01:30
  • @BenjaminDickman I feel it is in the same spirit as how to nurture a good student. Quoting the first sentence, When you encounter a very bright student in a first-year (college/university) class (and who is therefore bored), what do you do? – Mark Fantini Apr 02 '14 at 09:52
  • 1
    I also think this is far too broad. It should at least be asked from the point of view of his instructor in a current class, and perhaps even from the point of view of his instructor in a specific type of class. For example "When a calculus student knows no trigonometry, how best can I help him catch up?" probably even has different answers than "When an abstract algebra student knows nothing about matrices, how best can I help him catch up?" And "My research student doesn't seem to know how proofs work" would be even more different. – Chris Cunningham Apr 03 '14 at 15:24

0 Answers0