When students have technology, however, they can, and will, google the textbook answer to textbook problems. They will copy down the search result and turn it in without going through the mental processing that causes learning. Worse, many of them will believe they now understand the concept because they have read the answer their own mind had nothing to do with creating—they don't even realize they haven't grasped the essentials.
Here is a way I came up with, out of my own frustration, to salvage problems when students google the answers, so that I can still use them to stimulate real learning...
An example question I used this week from a popular physics textbook says,
A clothesline is under tension when you hang from it. Why is the tension greater when the clothesline is strung horizontally than when it hangs vertically?This question is ideal for stimulating the thinking a student needs to go through to understand the generation of large, potentially hazardous, tensions when a load is hung from a horizontal rope.
A student promptly presented me with a googled answer, which was word for word the same as the textbook answer given by the publisher. When I questioned the student, it was eminently clear that she had no idea what she was talking about even though she had given me the perfect answer. I went home troubled that day, but I came back the next day with a solution.
I wrote the textbook answer on the board, and I underlined key terms or phrases that are essential to a good answer:
The vertical components of the tension vector must add up to the weight, so the vectors along the rope will be very large.Along with this, I wrote the following directions:
Directions: For the six terms or phrases underlined in the textbook answer, write a sentence or two explaining why each is essential for a good answer, and why the answer would be incomplete or wrong without it.The learning that happened was probably better than if they had answered the question on their own in the first place. Explaining the six underlined terms and phrases created six new mental engagements with the concepts at a deeper level of thinking than the original question itself. It was actually fun to walk around the room from team to team and engage in authentic discussions of the concepts. This exercise stimulated very focused questions from my students. I found myself being called over by one student after another truly seeking to comprehend the concepts they had so easily glossed over the day before.
If you are a teacher who wants to try this, be aware of a few things that will help. The students most likely have never done anything like it before. More than a few thought I was asking them to write down definitions of the terms. Several began searching in the glossary of the textbook for the terms. I had to explain to them that they would not find these terms in the glossary, and that I was not looking for definitions. I explained that what I am looking for is an explanation of how the terms are important for the role they play in the answer in relation to the other terms, not definitions of the terms in isolation.
When they understand what the assignment actually is, they will realize how difficult it is. Be up front with them that, yes, this is a difficult assignment. In my case, I explained to them that I know it is difficult, that the value of it is for them to puzzle over the answer—I would help them get started and I would help them get unstuck and direct their thinking toward the right answer, but for me to tell them the answers outright would deprive them of the learning.
Because of the difficulty and unfamiliarity, students will be anxious about producing acceptable explanations of the terms. I reminded them that I know the assignment is difficult, and that I would not be looking for perfect explanations. I told them that when I look at their answers I will be reading what they wrote and making a judgment, "Oh yes! This student does understand the issues even though he is not able at this time to give a refined explanation of it." This put them at ease and enabled them to focus on and engage with the assignment. For my part, I am looking for evidence of genuine engagement with the material, not necessarily correct answers—if they engage with the material I can correct and direct their thinking to arrive at the right answers.
The in-class discussions with students, and the written answers I received, were mixed insofar as student comprehension of the material was concerned. What was true across the board was that students were engaged and learning at their own level of ability—differentiation (if you are a teacher you know what I'm talking about) is built right into the assignment.
I would love to see comments from other teachers about ways you have handled the problem of googling answers to problems.
