The improper student

A 'proper' student is defined as one who satisfies the learning goals established by the instructor. An 'improper' student is one who constitutes the majority of a class usually. The proper student, it has been said, does not need an instructor all that much; but it is the improper student who challenges the dedicated teacher and keeps the teacher from becoming bored with the profession. It is noted that these simple distinctions impart an importance to the improper student, an importance reflected in prodigious efforts to reach this particular student. The author presents the characteristics of a simple cycle that is part of the learning process and discusses how the cycle is interrupted for the improper student. The cycle is embedded in a model of the different environments of the teacher and the student. The interruption of the cycle is demonstrated by several examples where numerical data or classroom observations are available to support certain conclusions. These conclusions present a set of constraints that a teacher of technology currently faces regardless of any individual approaches used by the teacher to reach the student.<
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