4 ms·
This is a dilemma for me. On one side: Is it wrong to ask for help?? In the professional world, being able to communicate and collaborate in finding an answ
by elviejo 14y ago
This is a dilemma for me. On one side:
Is it wrong to ask for help??
In the professional world, being able to communicate and collaborate in finding an answer is more usefuel than doing it all by your own.
On the other side:
If what you want to do is to develop in your brain the mental models to do math.
then you need to do your homework... is like triying to get in shape, it's ok to have a personal trainer but he can't lift weights for you.
- missechokit 14y agoI think the issue here was that it was for a final exam.
- ams6110 14y agoEvidently a take-home exam, which by its nature would have different expectations wrt assistance vs. an in-class exam.
- c0nfused 14y agoYeah, let's post the questions to our take home final to the internet. No one will notice. Honest.
- enjo 14y agoI'm not sure what you expect when it's a take home final, however.
- stephencanon 14y agoHonesty?
- forkrulassail 14y agoI'm sure honour codes don't distinguish.
- misnome 14y agoIt's not wrong to ask for help or advice, but this wasn't even that in the slightest; The question is just posted verbatim, without even any evidence of attempting to understand or tackle the question on it's own.
- pwny 14y agoThe real issue is that he spits the homework (or take home exam) question as-is on math.stackexchange and has others solve it. Asking a concrete, directed question meant to understand part of the problem and get him "unstuck" would probably have been fine and expected.
- masklinn 14y agoIndeed, it's exactly the same on developer forums and the like: spit out a homework/exam question and you'll deservedly get slammed. Show you've been working on it but you got stuck, you'll likely get people to give you pointers.
- Steuard 14y agoAs far as I'm concerned, it's not really a dilemma at all. Your second side is exactly the point: one part of any learning experience must, must be to develop your own skills. Learning collaboration is also tremendously valuable, but it can't be the only thing you learn from a class. (And even then, you'd have to be collaborating, not just finding someone else to do the whole job for you.) As a professor, it's good to give your students opportunities to develop in both ways. And for a variety of reasons (some good, some bad), it's more or less necessary to test and grade both types of learning, too. So if a student violates the explicit rules set forth for an exam (which I assume was the case here) by swapping one type of learning for the other, that displays a clear lack of integrity.
- timbre 14y agoWhat's the dilemma? Isn't a math class very clearly not the professional world, but a place to develop in your brain the mental models to do math?
- DanBC 14y agoI agree that getting help is a valuable part of working life. But he's not being assessed for that. He's being assessed on his ability to jump through some other hoops. You're right to ask whether the hoops are the right hoops or at the right hight. But, if we're limiting ourselves to how he asks for help: Did he search for help and try to solve it himself? Did he ask partial questions on the specific part that he was stuck on and try to solve the rest?