Just last night I was reminded of the importance of the details of reaction. I can usually tell when a student has each one of the following reactions to the moment when a question of what-is-the-answer/how-to-understand-the-answer (the "move on" moment) is reached:
1) I'm tired of this and want to move on;
2) I feel a little bad not understanding this so I'll say I understand it;
3) I understand it (but I don't understand it);
4) Oh, I see, now I think I understand it, kinda;
5) I get this and I'm not going to forget it; and the best of all
6) OMG my new understanding of the law of cosines is going to change my life forever!!!
You know, because you are a tutor, it is mainly the facial expression. Some students are inscrutable (or stuck on #1) and you can't really tell, but most react. However, they all react in their own way, using face, body expression and words, which requires a couple/few sessions to totally get (by the tutor) partly because you won't get all of these reactions in a single session, and it usually takes the student a period of trust-building to feel comfortable enough to not be putting it on most of the time. I try very hard to get that going (the trust thing) right away, but it can take time.
Anyway, take that, AI! Sure, you can do that, but somebody might need to tell you that you need to do that, and it is going to use so many resources that your keeper (the tutor builders) are going to turn that option off because it is too expensive.
Helping students get comfortable letting you know they are wrong is so important. Maybe there are other ways to infer, but faces and non-word sounds give us crucial hints. I'll be very curious to see the method that can compete
Just last night I was reminded of the importance of the details of reaction. I can usually tell when a student has each one of the following reactions to the moment when a question of what-is-the-answer/how-to-understand-the-answer (the "move on" moment) is reached:
1) I'm tired of this and want to move on;
2) I feel a little bad not understanding this so I'll say I understand it;
3) I understand it (but I don't understand it);
4) Oh, I see, now I think I understand it, kinda;
5) I get this and I'm not going to forget it; and the best of all
6) OMG my new understanding of the law of cosines is going to change my life forever!!!
You know, because you are a tutor, it is mainly the facial expression. Some students are inscrutable (or stuck on #1) and you can't really tell, but most react. However, they all react in their own way, using face, body expression and words, which requires a couple/few sessions to totally get (by the tutor) partly because you won't get all of these reactions in a single session, and it usually takes the student a period of trust-building to feel comfortable enough to not be putting it on most of the time. I try very hard to get that going (the trust thing) right away, but it can take time.
Anyway, take that, AI! Sure, you can do that, but somebody might need to tell you that you need to do that, and it is going to use so many resources that your keeper (the tutor builders) are going to turn that option off because it is too expensive.
Helping students get comfortable letting you know they are wrong is so important. Maybe there are other ways to infer, but faces and non-word sounds give us crucial hints. I'll be very curious to see the method that can compete