'I can do this in my head': Teacher makes student show his work, tells him it should take up the whole page, cue malicious compliance

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    Property - "Your work should take up the whole page...
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    Font - Your work should take up the whole page.... S OC Hey all, some quick teacher vs. student MC here. There's a student, let's call him "Andy", who is an adult taking a child's course (Algebra 1/College Algebra), and I keep telling him to show his work instead of just writing answers down. Every week it's the same thing "I can do this in my head", "Oh really? Then how have you not passed College Algebra yet? You're missing something here...It's the only way I can help you.."
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    Font - I finally get frustrated enough to say curtly "Look Andy, your work should take up an entire PAGE... Look at THIS (showing another person's paper from a plausibly deniable distance), look at THIS", I say, tapping emphatically, profusely at yet another person's paper. He sighs.
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    Font - Enter MC The next assignment that came through had all of his answers, and ONLY his answers, in the largest imaginable lettering/numbering, taking up the entire page to the point of illegibility. Kudos, my man.
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    Font - Edit: The "Kudos" were genuine and non-sarcastic. I had this one coming. Andy is not the first, and won't be the last to just dial it in when writing his chicken scratch answers down. Some kids just are doing it this way and there's nothing you can do about it... as a semi-adult (early 20s)? It's engrained in pretty deeply.
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    Font - I 100 percent was being totally ' about the whole thing when I could have come from a place of compassion (like the first couple times I tried to talk to him about it). I deserved his work of art/homework, and it was clear that, at the very least, he spent more than ten minutes on his homework. I guess we're going in the right direction. :)
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    Font - phoenixxx_iv That's a paddlin' 10 hr. ago
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    Smile - Rubbermayd +2. 10 hr. ago I hear his voice. Brilliantly done
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    Font - duckforceone 9 hr. ago +3. my teachers in school were always frustrated with me in math, because when i did it, i could never say how i got to the answer. i even managed to get some of the highest scores in a 4 hour examn, but i did it by among others to draw on squared paper, and count the squares... :D highly irregular ways of getting there... also ADHD didn't help with remembering how i got there... which is another factor as to why i could not say how.
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    Font - √5+²) +2.9 hr. ago joppedi_72 When I did algebra in school the rule was that your answere should be such that someone who hasn't read the question still should be able to follow your calculations. Later this was extended to science classes also, lab reports should be written such a way that even a person with no prior knowledge in the subject should be able to repeat your laboration based on your report and get the same results.
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    Font - +1.7 hr. ago Tubist61 Here's how I mark questions like these. I award marks for each step of the calculation. If the result of a step is incorrect, I follow through the rest of the calculation and award marks for the correct method even with the wrong answer. I explain why the answer is incorrect and provide the correct worked steps.
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    Font - If a student provides just the answer with no explanation, they are awarded just a fraction of the marks available. We are looking for students to show they understand the method. Just providing an answer doesn't show this. If the answer is wrong and there is no method shown, I can't explain the method.
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    Font - BrookeB79 +2.9 hr. ago Yeah, he definitely needs to show his work. It really doesn't take that much longer. When I was taking my calculus courses, I could take up at least a page, if not more, working out the answer for a single problem, lines marching down the paper. It kept me on track and I wasn't guessing. Made it easy for the instructor to correct me when I did something wrong (I hated the stupid mistakes like subtracting 1 from one side and forgetting to do the other).
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    Font - Aromatic-Strike-793. 6 hr. ago The fact that you are the "target" of the MC and posted the story is fantastic. It shows self awareness imo. Which your edit confirms
  • 15
    Font - Careful-Pension6670 10 hr. ago The shaming is unnecessary.
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    Font - qwirkymom83 - 9 hr. ago I've failed college algebra 3 times because i can't show my work. I do 90% of it in my head. It and it's hard to do sometimes when you can solve it pretty quickly in your head.
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    Font - Representative No9110 7 hr. ago I wouldn't call College Algebra a "child's class."
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    Font - MegC18 4 hr. ago . As a teacher, I can appreciate people being able to do maths in their head. It's a success for our teaching methods and the student's efforts. However, once you get past a certain level, you might allocate 10 marks in a national exam for getting a complex piece of maths right, but only 5 are for the answer. You can get several marks for using an appropriate method, which you show in workings, even if you get the final answer wrong.

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