[ARCHIVED] What was the most sudden student's question you've ever heard?

[t_logvynenko]

Funny or unexpected; difficult or utterly obvious. Frankly speaking, the "why should I learn this" question still beats me.  And what about you?

[kona]

For a journal article review I had the question of who did this research and the student responded with "the authors." Well yeah... but... who were they? 😉

Also, since there is no right or wrong answer I'm going to go ahead and switch this to a discussion. 

[t_logvynenko]

Answering question without giving an answer can be considered as a real student mastery  

[myerdon01]

I am not sure that it was really a question on the student's part, but she called me out for having an assignment that in her words "had nothing to do with the subject, and was basically how to read directions!" I teach digital literacy, and I do not even remember what the assignment was, but after some back and forth with nasty emails from her, I finally had to tell her "Yes, the assignment is nothing about computers, it is solely on how to read and understand directions. If you are going into nursing (she had NOT been accepted into the program yet) you will need to know how to read and follow directions. As a nurse you will need to follow doctors' orders (reading directions), give proper medications (reading directions), how to calculate correct dosages (reading directions)..." I gave her half a dozen other examples and stated very tactfully that if someone was unwilling to take the time to read and understand the directions, no matter what the context, I would not want that person as my nurse. Not another email from her, she did finish the course successfully (by reading and understanding my directions I hope!), and I do not know if she ever went into nursing!

[sabsmith]

As I gathered my things after teaching my very first MBA class, a student walked up and asked "It's really important to me that I get my money's worth in every class I take. So, what's the ROI on what we covered today?" My jaw dropped. I'd been told that MBA students were demanding and I was just fine with that. But on the first day of class?! We'd only gone over the syllabus and talked about the schedule for the semester! I couldn't think of a good answer so I just chuckled and said "Wow! They told me MBA students are serious. They weren't kidding."