The essence of "independent" in Independent Study
Some of my students in Independent Study (IS) do not know how to make use of Excel to generate multiple regression analysis reports; so I offer to generate the Excep reports to them if they will just send me their excel files.
A few days ago, some students sent me emails asking me to interpret the multiple regression reports (from Excel) for them as they do not know how to do so. At this point, I told them that I cannot do that - it is solely their responsibility to do their own data analysis. If they do not know how to analyze multiple regression data, they need to study (or do some revision on) statistics. Subsequently, I repeat the same point in my facebook. Then, one of my students commented that it was IS students' sole responsibilty to do own data analysis in IS because this was made clear in the name of the subject Independent Study, which means "Eat myself". [I feel a bit taken aback that this viewpoint comes from a lady as my understanding of "eat myself" is "masturbation".]
In general, I like this interpretation of the subject name: Independent Study (IS) does mean Eat myself Study (EMS). The only question left is: what is the role of the teacher in IS then? I maintain that the teacher's role is that of a mentor or a coach. Now, one does need to study the literature on mentoring and coaching to understand what these roles are all about....
A few days ago, some students sent me emails asking me to interpret the multiple regression reports (from Excel) for them as they do not know how to do so. At this point, I told them that I cannot do that - it is solely their responsibility to do their own data analysis. If they do not know how to analyze multiple regression data, they need to study (or do some revision on) statistics. Subsequently, I repeat the same point in my facebook. Then, one of my students commented that it was IS students' sole responsibilty to do own data analysis in IS because this was made clear in the name of the subject Independent Study, which means "Eat myself". [I feel a bit taken aback that this viewpoint comes from a lady as my understanding of "eat myself" is "masturbation".]
In general, I like this interpretation of the subject name: Independent Study (IS) does mean Eat myself Study (EMS). The only question left is: what is the role of the teacher in IS then? I maintain that the teacher's role is that of a mentor or a coach. Now, one does need to study the literature on mentoring and coaching to understand what these roles are all about....
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