Post #2104640

2025-04-27 12:18 UTC

@geekygirldawn @dahukanna This is also a huge problem with students and trainees in labs. I've been a professor for 25 years. I have *never* had a trainee in my lab bother me too much, but man oh man, I have had lots of trainees not bother me enough. As I've pushed on this, I've found that it's not that they think they are "cheating", it's the (incorrect) belief that these other people are "busy" and they don''t want to bother them with questions. PS. In my experience, students don't have a problem separating classwork (where you are being tested on what you know) from jobwork (where a task needs to get done), but I do agree that they carry lessons over. One of those lessons is "not bothering the teacher". I try very hard to get students to come to "student hours" (what I call "office hours"). I had one student in my class finally show up to ask for help who said they came to "student hours" because I was the first one who seemed to "actually want someone to bother them to ask for help".

Replies (3)

@dahukanna@mastodon.social 2025-04-27 12:58

@geekygirldawn Thanks for the reminder that “office hours” are intended to be in service of and help others, not corporate “propaganda and marketing announcement” hours. @adredish

Open ##2104641
@bdd_warriors@hachyderm.io 2025-04-27 14:07

@adredish @geekygirldawn I once had an intern who kept asking me for help because everyone else in the team looked extremely focused in their work (I wonder if I looked like a slacker but I think it was just me being the only person working without headphones.). When he felt that I was overwhelmed by too many questions, he refrained from asking. Props for empathy, but I wanted to shake the rest of the team.

Open ##2104642
@Emiliagnathus@circumstances.run 2025-05-02 06:40

@adredish @geekygirldawn @dahukanna have you noticed any change in the last years? I see an increased number of students who will only work on a task if you sit down with them in person. Reading a tutorial, following an instruction video, applying written feedback aren’t serious options. It’s either a meeting or nothing happens. It’s a meeting even if they cannot articulate the problem, or perhaps because of that. So they ask for help all right, but sometimes the help can be reduced to “let me google this for you”

Open ##2104643