{"id":15199,"date":"2022-01-30T16:33:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T05:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/?p=15199"},"modified":"2022-01-31T16:36:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T05:36:30","slug":"the-value-of-prework-and-how-to-get-them-to-do-it-in-the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/the-value-of-prework-and-how-to-get-them-to-do-it-in-the-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The value of prework and how to \u2018get them to do it\u2019 in the new normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although I take comfort that I am not alone in facing the challenge of getting students to complete class prework, it has always frustrated me. I have tried prework with and without marks, case studies\/videos\/readings, and I also have to admit, sometimes I have resorted to \u2018finger wagging\u2019, guilting, and even unadulterated pleading. All to no avail. Each session I would be hopeful but end up falling into the \u2018mini-lecture recap\u2019 at the beginning of the session simply to give students something to work on during class. While I felt this was eating into our interactive class time, my bigger issue was, what I call, the \u2018Prework-tutorial dynamic\u2019; when students don\u2019t do prework, everyone feels \u2018bad\u2019. That is, I was cranky because most students had not completed the prework, and I also felt I was doing a disservice to the small number of students who had. These students were bored and frustrated sitting through the recap while the students who hadn’t completed prework simply remained silent and embarrassed. I reasoned that such a negative environment was not conducive to a positive learning experience and challenged myself to understand: how can I get my students to complete their prework? This is what I tried\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: Defined my \u201cprework purpose\u201d<\/span><\/h2>\n

The first thing I did was to try and understand the situation from the students\u2019 perspective. For several years I have run a <\/span>HILL (How I Like to Learn)<\/span><\/a> pre-semester survey to get to know my students before we meet. I analysed responses to the HILL question \u201cWhat hinders your learning?\u201d. Some example student\u2019s responses included:<\/span><\/p>\n