Faculty Spotlight: For Mike Stecher, the proof is in the writing
Mike Stecher had his doubts.
An associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, Stecher wasn’t sure about transforming MATH 220, a course on the fundamentals of discrete mathematics, into a writing-intensive (W) course.
“I was concerned that perhaps having to qualify 220 as a writing course would detract from its content,” Stecher acknowledges.
Mike Stecher by the Fish Pond on Campus
Mike Stecher, associate professor of mathematics, had doubts about W courses at first, but now says students in his course learn from writing about math.
Luckily for both Stecher and his students, he needn’t have worried.
In fact, Stecher, now in his third semester of teaching this W course,
says “for MATH 220, integrating writing is ideal because what we want
to accomplish in this course is training our students how to write
mathematics and how to read mathematics. So, the writing fits in well.”
Students
have also been receptive to the writing assignments, offering, Stecher
notes, “mostly positive comments, saying the writing component has
helped them learn.”
The students still take quizzes and exams, but also complete four writing assignments using Calibrated Peer Review (CPR).
“They
submit a document and go through online training on what that document
should look like,” Stecher explains. “Then they grade three of their
peers’ papers and then their own. Their grade for the assignment is
determined by how well they do each of those steps.”
Although CPR
isn’t a time-saver for him, Stecher believes it’s useful because “with
CPR, as opposed to standard writing assignments, the students have to
do some grading themselves, which I hope enables them to improve their
critical thinking skills and their ability to analyze what they’re
reading.”
Integrating the required writing instruction into class
time hasn’t been a problem for Stecher, who notes that “when the
writing is talked about, it’s also involved with the content.” In
particular Stecher has made use of writing models, bringing in examples
from the students’ own assignments for discussion.
Stecher
doesn’t focus on teaching grammar, concentrating instead on how
effectively students are communicating. He acknowledges it can be
annoying to read papers using “your” for “you’re” and “to” for “too,”
but says that, for him, “the crucial thing is if students can convey
their ideas to someone else, so readers can understand their thought
process.”
While Stecher has plenty of positive things to say
about his current W course, the requirement for departments to offer a
second such course by fall 2006 concerns him, particularly for the many
departments on campus like mathematics that have content-heavy courses.
He’d like to see the university “give more thought to what really
should make a course a W course.”
His concerns aside, Stecher
appears to take pride in his willingness to adapt, whether he’s
learning to use CPR or integrating writing assignments into his class.
As he puts it, “when you want to do something, you can say, ‘Well, it’s
going to be a big deal’ and make it hard for yourself, or you can just
go ahead and do it. My attitude has always been: Just go ahead and do
it.”
