provoc~tiveopinion The Grade Thirteen Syndrome James J. Bohning' Wilkes College. Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766 At the same time that the buzzards and swallows berin . their annual pilgrimage another yearly and unpublicized event is alsrr occurring. Most of us who are instructors in the first year chemistry co&es witness a torrent of books unleashed by the opening of the publishers floodgates. The resulting debris accumulates in faculty offices across the country and is followed by a clean-up army of assorted historians, sociologists, and osvcholoeists who valiantlv trv to extol the virtues of
presumably to correspond to the declining abilities of the students. This is especially noticeable when a text has gone through many editions. Accompanying this change in writing style has been an increase in other types of questionable pedagogy that have slowly hut surely crept into most texts. Thus, large pictures which defy the "one thousand word rule" and cartoons abound. Thev are intended. I snnoose. to maintain student
sheets. Since a starving person should have no difficulty in selecting from a menu of over one hundred main-course offerings, I have often wondered what ueculiaritv in mv metabolism prevents me from selecting a textbook withouisuch an enormous degree of difficulty. Each year I anticipate a termination of the the refuse. and each rieid diet forced on me as I nick throueh u year I am obliged to continue on the edge of malnutrition. Over the past twenty years the change in authors' and publishers' attitudes has been staggering hut has not necessarily been reflective of the changes in the discipline. In fact, many changes are more representative of societal decline instead. For examole, mv old-fashioned values oroduced a verv positive reaction to-the simple but elegant gold title stamped on the green cover of a recent organic chemistry text. Unfortunately, this approach is almost totally lacking in the firstyear course material. Because of a highly competitive market we, at the introductory level, are offered an incredihle potpourri of covers which appear to have the sole purpose of attracting" the casual hrowser a t a nanerback bookstore. This past year I was dismayed to see a rocket appear on the cover of what has been considered a verv- nooular . . text. Evidentlv I was under the mistaken impression that rockets on chemistry texts went out of fashion ten vears am. even a t the hieh school
authors, however, when we need'a picture of a child playing with buildinn blocks to introduce a chauter on solids or a drawing of a & hurled a t a human face t i illustrate that ahsorotion is a surface ohenomena. Having survived t i t h e end of the chapter, the student may be greeted with a list of objectives:
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Since these texts are now in the twenty dollar price range effect. Among the vague responses there is one which ns;ally emerges as the most typical of editorial thinking-"the students like it." One hapless individual even indicated that perhaps the students will be more likely to keep and refer to the book if the cover is attractive! Yet the student does not select any text from a large selection in the hookstore, and I have not f m n d a student who reallv knows. much less cares. what the artist is supposedly communicating through his design. In some cases I challenge anyone to decipher the message conveyed by the cover, and rarely does the author comment about the cover in the text. And if the real purpose is to seduce those faculty who are involved in text selection then we are all in trouble. While the cliche relating the book to the cover is more true than false, the current sampling frequently continues on the inside what was begun on the outside. There seems to be little question that the level of writing has declined over the years,
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To begin to understand what the study of chemistry involves
entific theories and laws. 31 T o learn what chemistry is and to be able to list.
To accomplish this would be an awesome task, since most of us have spent years attempting to meet these "objectives." Does a rose have any other names? Objectives may be "learning goals": Having read and studied this chapter, you should be able to 1) Use the metric system and list the basic metric units and the common prefixes.. . . 2) Perform calculations involving density. 3) Determine the number of significant figures in a derived quantity. The ultimate in nomenclature, however, is the "performance goal": Read the performance goal or goals at the beginning of each section; studv the section: re-read the oerformance .eoals:. satisfv . vourself . that'the goals hale been reached; if so, go on; if not, go back and re-study the text until the goal has been met. List. Perform. Are we educating students or training seals? In some cases the lists are provided for the student a t the end of the chapter and calledMimportantterms": science, matter, solid, liquid, energy units or "important concepts" Sdds of chemistry, elements, compounds, molecule, symbols, formulas, names of compounds. Presented in pat? at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of College Chemistry Teachers, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, April 7, 1979,and the 178th National Meeting of The American Chemical Society, Washington DC, September 10, 1979: Abstract CHED 9. 'Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky. Lexington. KY 40506. 1980-81, Volume 58
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These sterile, snace-consuming. and utterlv useless words are expanded by some authors include dkfinitions as well. When several pares of definitions are lifted from the textual material one winders about the author's opinion of the reader's literacy. Once the student has learned his goals, mastered his concept list, and memorized his kev term definitions. he mav then find
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these "readings" are generally listed without comment, involve more than most students could possibly handle, indicate that the author has an extensive literature card-file, and are of most value only to the instructor. Pity the poor grade-conscious pre-med student who finds "The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" as suggested reading a t the end of Chapter I! Added to the main course dilemma is the side-dish smor-
etc.-all of these have the same function. But why does a student need a guide to work his way through a texthook, especially if any of this new "pedagogy" is involved? It almost seems as if the author 1s apologetically offering additional help hecause of some flaw in the original. Even more insultine. nately, this might be true in some cases). What is next? An instructor's guide to the student guide? A text with a spoon on the cover? This last statement is most imwortant. The orevious examples were cited to show what s&osedly willknhance the students' progress and comnrehension. More often than not they only &in the way. students are easily misled into believing that if they memorize important terms and meet certain performance goals they should automatically excel on any examination. However, facts hecome vocahulary through usage, not rote memorization of isolated words and numbers. The instructor who selects one of these texts and who attempts to interject his own techniques and methodology into this arena will most likely he ignored, since in the student's mind the author is obviously more authoritative than the instructor or the text would not he in print. We now live in a multinle-choice societv whose students
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Journal of Chemical Education
they need is to circle one of five letters in order to obtain high marks and create an illusion of brightness. Ask these same students to write a sentence, or even put two sentences together in a logical thought pattern, or compute a simple arw will deteithmetical oneration without a calculator and t h ~" ~ riorate before your very eyes. Multiple choice is an empty ritual used for expediency by educators. How many employers provide multiple choice situations for their employees? Several vears apo . a .prominent author eave an excellent talk at a local ACS sectional meeting on thlfirst year chemistry course structure and content. When questioned as to why
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sell." Will economics dictate the materials we have to work with? As we a t the college level are pushed by the declining standards occurring a t the lower levels, are we going to follow the path of least resistance? Incoming freshman now suffer from The Grade Thirteen Syndrome-"When is the retest?" or "Can I do any extra work to improve my grade?" Is the disease contagious enough to infect instructors as it has already contaminated many textbooks? Or twII uv hold the I I W . mnintirin , t s n d n r d ; . i ~ ~rde ( ( , g r i i ~ ~ ~ t sslim dra111:~ti~ ;and w ~ l h t ~ ~ i a + r i c tnat l'rd~!l(ntlv ~ t u d e ~will response when challenged, pushed, pulled, or cajoled out of the depths into the rather heady atmoswhere of accom~lishrnent?-I recall a group of ~ u r s i @major; who were amazed a t their ahilities to solve buffer prohlems, and they promptly responded hy asking for more problems on which to test their new-found talents. But, if we continue the downward slide of expectation, then the student will resnond accordinelv. u In the first-year course it is not only the chemistry hut also the maturation and motivation that must he developed in such a manner that there are no impediments to a clear, logical, thinkine ability. The success of the instructor is not measured by exam scores, hut by the accomplishments of the students ten years later as they carry something from the course on which to build. Many of the current texts are making that objective difficult to obtain.
