Hi

I use howlers and other similar mess-ups in class with my students as learning resources so that they don’t make similar mistakes.

James

 

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From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Celia Popovic
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 2:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: exam howlers

 

To be honest I always assumed they were made up.
And rather dull really....


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From:        Phil Race <[log in to unmask]>
To:        [log in to unmask],
Date:        09/14/2015 02:40 PM
Subject:        Re: exam howlers
Sent by:        "Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association" <[log in to unmask]>




I think we academics should make up some exam howlers? Where's our creativity? Perhaps we take exams too seriously (as well as set them far too frequently!).
Phil

Sent from my mobile
Prof Phil Race
Http://phil-race.co.uk


On 14 Sep 2015, at 20:23, Gordon Asher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi All

Been thinking about this today (it's beem ticking over in my head since a colleague sent it on this morning) and I'm not sure I see the problem that others do – though am happy to be convinced.

I'm not sure what harm is done, and to whom? Is it 'shaming' (which I agree is an objectionable and harmful process) when anonymous - isn't shaming public/open ridicule /reproach to attempt to change behaviour?

I appreciate that some of the framing can be offensive (oh look at the stupid students etc.) but it need not be that way, and I'm not sure I see how the sharing of mistakes and deliberately entertaining responses (be that exams, essays or other) is problematic per se?

I do think we should have similar sharings with regard to humorous and daft mistakes by teachers/lecturers/staff in the questions they ask, their powerpoints etc. etc.

Both categories of howlers have made me smile about and as both a student and a teacher. I think I'm happy to continue to see both while arguing strongly for the end of exams as assessment (at least as they are conceived presently, in most cases – where all they appear to test is whether folk can pass exams, while having a hugely negative impact on teaching, teachers, learing and students!)

Wondering if

All best

G

Work like you don't need money
Love like you've never been hurt
and dance like no-one's watching

 

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation

into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the

means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality  and discover how to participate

in the transformation of their world." Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)



> Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 17:44:24 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: exam howlers
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> On 14 Sep 2015, at 16:44, Lea, John ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
> > Yes, some of them are very funny, but perhaps the biggest joke is on
> > the people who think that the person who wins the exam game is the
> > most intelligent one in the class...
>
> I confess to very mixed feelings about the whole thing, both the
> practice and the objections. I think a competition is too much but I
> can't quite forget the way it made my first ever marking (Classical
> Civilisations A level) a bit more bearable when something was
> accidentally funny.
>
> But I always saw a lot of them as a kind of feedback on our teaching.
> Those who understand that the Homeric poems (aka just 'Homer') were
> actually oral poems sung by professionals ('sons of Homer') and that
> 'Homer' (a poet) never existed would have laughed - and understood -
> this old favourite of mine:
>
> 'Homer was not written by Homer, but by another poet of the same name'
>
> As long as the laugh was followed by 'crikey we really didn't get that
> across very well, did we? How else might we teach this topic?' I thought
> it was tolerable to circulate them. Similarly, the sheer number of
> spelling mistakes 'Ajax had a fatal floor') convinced me that English is
> truly a disaster of a language that I thought ought to be sorted out
> (read out that last bit to get a glimpse of the ludicrously antiphonetic
> spelling habits we have). This is what our international students are
> struggling with, amongst other things...#GoodReminder
>
> The laugh is on us too. If we remember that, we can chuckle while we
> fill in the potholes, no?
>
> J