Students’ interests in different topics and contents are an important issue that course planners need to consider. Whether this factor should be taken into account to determine the content of the courses depends on whether the course is a requirement for students pursuing their majors or an elective course designed to broaden students’ horizon. I will first explain two reasons why required courses should be designed without regard to students’ interests. Afterwards, I would discuss why the statement holds true for elective courses.
The first reason why required courses often include materials students are not interested in is that such materials are essential for students’ current and future academic studies. Take the introductory Calculus course I took as a freshman for example. In the course, the professor introduced Matlab as a programming tool for performing advanced math calculations. Without prior background in programming, most students found the materials boring and difficult. Following the logic of the statement, the professor should not have included Matlab programming in the course because students would not be interested in the topic. Nevertheless, learning how to use Matlab as a tool to solve advanced math problems is an essential technique not just for this course on Calculus but for many other courses in science and engineering that students need to take in the near future. Therefore, the topic has to be treated at a considerable length despite the lack of interests of the students.
In addition, the interests of students on a certain topic may change dramatically after some exposure to it. This is the second reason why course planners should not exclude certain topics simply because students are not interested at the beginning. In the Calculus course I took, after spending some time learning how to program in Matlab, my classmates and I had gradually realized the power of Matlab in solving math problems numerically. We were particularly impressed with the visialization of an abstract math problem made possible by some programs written in Matlab. Towards the end of course, most of us became increasingly interested in Matlab as a useful tool for solving math and engineering problems. As this example clearly illustrates, it often takes some time for students to develop their interests on certain topics that seemed to be boring at the beginning. Therefore, course planners should not give up such topics too early.
On the other hand, when designing elective courses, students’ interests should be a decisive factor. As we know, unlike required courses for students’ major field of study, elective courses are offered with the belief that students should take different courses outside their major fields to receive a more well-rounded education. Such courses are often standalone without close links to more advanced courses on the same topics. Therefore, the course planners can be more flexible in choosing what topics to cover in such introductory courses. For example, in the course “Physics and Society”, an elective course I took in my sophomore year, the professor covered a wide range of topics from global warming to nuclear energy that most students fould appealing and relevant. Due to its interesting topics, this course had become one of the most popular courses among non-physics majors when I was in college. Indeed, this is another reason why elective courses have to present materials that are interesting— they have to attract students who have many options when choosing elective courses.
In conclusion, student’s interests should be taken into account when determining the content of elective courses that are offerred to broaden students’ horizons. But for required courses that prepare students for more advanced training in a given field, the course contents should be designed based on students’ needs rather than interests. Nevertheless, students may develop their interests on certain topics after some exposure to the topics despite their initial lack of interests.
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... the lack of interests of the students. In addition, the interests of students o...
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...ould not give up such topics too early. On the other hand, when designing electi...
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...options when choosing elective courses. In conclusion, student's interests ...
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, if, may, nevertheless, second, so, therefore, well, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, of course, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.5258426966 123% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.4196629213 137% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 14.8657303371 74% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 11.3162921348 124% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 33.0505617978 109% => OK
Preposition: 85.0 58.6224719101 145% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 12.9106741573 54% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3482.0 2235.4752809 156% => OK
No of words: 637.0 442.535393258 144% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.46624803768 5.05705443957 108% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.02382911018 4.55969084622 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.97531507934 2.79657885939 106% => OK
Unique words: 267.0 215.323595506 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419152276295 0.4932671777 85% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1071.9 704.065955056 152% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 6.24550561798 128% => OK
Article: 9.0 4.99550561798 180% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 8.0 4.38483146067 182% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 20.2370786517 138% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 23.0359550562 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.7328311162 60.3974514979 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 124.357142857 118.986275619 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.75 23.4991977007 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0 5.21951772744 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 7.80617977528 51% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 19.0 10.2758426966 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 5.13820224719 97% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.83258426966 83% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.259233112613 0.243740707755 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0915984485618 0.0831039109588 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0585227534986 0.0758088955206 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.188306136704 0.150359130593 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0453701972779 0.0667264976115 68% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.7 14.1392134831 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.8420337079 83% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.1743820225 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.74 12.1639044944 121% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.38706741573 98% => OK
difficult_words: 141.0 100.480337079 140% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 11.8971910112 92% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.2143820225 96% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.7820224719 93% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.