Continued from my previous post!
What had changed from my bachelor to the master degree? Well, the domain of study was very different. The stuff I studied in Computer Engineering largely pertained to knowledge acquisition and practical application, whereas the post-grad’s emphasis was entirely on analysis, synthesis of new knowledge, and critical evaluation of theories and models.
There was also another unintended effect of working in academia for several years before I started on the post-grad: that I now understood the relationships between assessment instruments and learning objectives, or in simpler terms, how to present answers that demonstrate the degree you’ve met the desired learning outcomes. Doing well in examinations isn’t simply a culmination of writing voluminous and informative material, or creating a lot of conceptual illustrations, or about demonstrating great understanding. It’s about showing how your level of competence in strict relation to stated learning outcomes.
For instance, if a learning outcome requires you to demonstrate competency in writing well, then it won’t matter if you can verbally explain Einstein’s theory of relativity in the most eloquent manner possible that even an Teochew ah so can understand.
Here’s one thing I try – occasionally in vain – to impress upon my students: that I’m ultimately not too worried if they can remember the definition of software engineering, or what are the nine activities in requirement analysis after the course ends. What is more important is…
Being able to comprehend material on your own.
Being able to think around that material.
Being able to form new relations (e.g. an informed opinion) from that material to some other material.
Being able to communicate that understanding to someone else so that person can understand you.
So, when my students present their software engineering problem solution packages – I deliver the subject using problem-based learning – the questions they get asked during the Q & A invariably aren’t of the “What is the meaning of… ” type. They are the “What do you think?”, “If you were in the practitioner’s shoes, what would you do?” types.
Ironically, they all get freaked out by these questions! But these questions are far more useful than those that merely demonstrate knowledge. They make you think, and realize the significance of what you’re reading or applying from a reference text.
So, prior to their final presentations, I routinely remind my students not to be too caught up trying to read and commit everything to memory. Rather, just keep to the key facts, understand them properly, and think about how to contextualize that few key facts and build relations between them. Makes far much less stressful learning, and enjoyable too.
Now, if my own lecturers had told me these things all those years ago. Oh maybe they did – but it just never sank in LOL.
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