Friday, September 18, 2009

Incentives to Inquire

Students don't like asking questions. For a while, I thought it was simply because they are shy and need to be enticed out of their shell (I still believe this, but less so now) so I require participation for the grade. An undergraduate friend of mine told me of another reason:
We know the professor only has so much material planned for a lecture. If we get it all done before time is up, they have to let us out early. But whenever anyone asks a question or asks to elaborate, that pushes the time we get to leave, back.
This is a problem. Most students don't understand the first time around or will forget if they don't talk about the subject matter. And there's a lost life lesson in the importance of speaking up. The reality is doubly a problem for my style since I make the lecture notes available online before each class.

It's tempting to solve this issue by just over-booking each lecture, but it makes you look disorganized. It also creates the risk of having material constantly spilling over to the next lecture until you get backed up at the end of the semester and your homework and exam assignments get out of whack.

So my solution I will be trying out in the future is to create one or two five-minute "widgets" at the end of each lecture. Short extensions on the topic we covered, but small enough that if we don't cover them I don't feel a big loss. When the semester begins, I let them know the rules: if we finish before we get the widgets, then I assume they have mastered the nuances of this lecture and we can further their understanding with applications (which will be now be on the exam). If we don't get to them, they won't be tested over them. Therefore, students are incentivized to ask questions, filling in the time by furthering their understanding of the material in order to avoid a larger exam. Since I have the power to veto questions, I can't imagine I'll be bogged down with filler inquiries in an attempt to game the system. I hope there aren't any unintended consequences I haven't thought of.


Anonymous said...

If you could think of the consequences you could avoid them and they would not be unintended. Just like you have known unknowns and unknown unknowns. I think you meant the latter.

Thank you Tanya, Brendan posts pictures on his blog, let's see one of you and David.

PS Jarrad left today for his 3rd tour in Iraq.

Anonymous said...

David, are you teaching? I thought this year was all dissertation work.

What blog does Brendan post pictures on? He hasn't had anything new on Bundaegi since June?

Thinking of Jarrad.


David said...

UB: "Unintended consequences" generally means "people will react to the incentives in ways detached from the original goal." They're only unintended to someone who hasn't thought through all the consequences of the change in incentives. Granted, that's hard to do, but you could argue that's most of the economist's job.

AP: I'm not teaching; it just came up in conversation. I haven't seen anything new on Bundaegi in a while. Not sure where else he posts.