Re: Feedback on today's exercise session
Ralf Eggeling [eggeling@cs.helsinki.fi]
Sent:   Wednesday, January 25, 2017 7:43 PM
To:     Kangassalo, Lauri K

Hi Lauri,

thanks a lot for the feedback!
You are right, the one case got a little bit lengthy, I thought it was just a minor thing and could be fixed in a minute, but then it got a bit out of control, I should have interrupted earlier. I will not make the mistake again and try to improve according to your suggestions.

Best,
Ralf

On 25/01/17 19:23, Lauri K Kangassalo wrote:
>
> Hello.
>
> I attended today's exercise session on probabilistic models and wanted to contact you because I think the way you held the session was not as good as it could have been.
>
> Especially, it was very painful to watch the last student on the blackboard try to solve the exercise for half an hour while being bombarded by your questions and "tips". While your goal may have been to teach the poor student and make him realize his mistakes, you must understand that whoever bites the bullet and goes to the board to present their solutions (which may or may not be right) is scared shitless already when they start speaking. Trying to force them to find and fix their errors at the spot is not going to work and is very humiliating for the student. It is also unpleasant for the audience to watch. Besides, no one will understand anything of the solution if it is presented erroneously and corrections to it have to be made continuously.
>
> I suggest that in the future if you see a student struggle with their answers, save their faces and let them go off the blackboard and finish the solution yourself, or ask someone else from the audience to finish it. You should try and make the exercise sessions as pleasant as possible and you should make students feel safe rather than judged, especially since the sessions are mandatory for everyone.
>
> Please also pay attention to the length of the sessions, nobody likes to stay overtime and it gets really hard to concentrate after 1,5 hours of continuous sitting.
>
> Sincerely,
> Lauri