This blog is mostly written in German. To learn more about the book check out www.echoprinzip.at/english . ×

10 Thesen für eine bessere Uni – These 2: Feedbackkultur einführen

Mein Studium ist abgeschlossen. Endlich ist die Zeit, Überlegungen und Argumente aufzuschreiben. Die 10 Thesen sind nichts Revolutionäres, nichts Teures und vor allem nichts Unmögliches. Sie würden meiner Ansicht nach die Uni – die Lehre an der Uni – besser machen ohne viel Aufwand oder Geld zu kosten.

These 2: Feedbackkultur einführen

Eigentlich ein No-Brainer, gleichzeitig aber ein durchaus schwieriges Unterfangen. In der Schulpolitik ist es noch relativ leicht, transparentere Benotung zu gewährleisten: Anonymisierung von Schularbeiten; Benotung der anonymisierten Schularbeiten von fremden LehrerInnen, etc. Auf der Uni ist das nicht mehr so leicht möglich. Dennoch gibt es ein paar Grundregeln, die leicht implementiert werden können: Seminararbeiten dürfen nicht einfach so benotet werden. Es muss eine Überarbeitungsphase geben. In meiner Unikarriere habe ich ein einziges Mal eine Seminararbeit mit Anmerkungen zurück bekommen. Zwar war sein größter Kritikpunkt, dass mir die Überschrift des vierten Kapitels auf Seite 8 gerutscht ist, dennoch hatte ich zum ersten und einzigen Mal das Gefühl, dass meine Seminararbeit aktiv von einer Lehrperson gelesen wurde. Natürlich ist die ProfessorInnenseite verständlich, die mit einem Stapel von 50 Seminararbeiten pro Seminar schon ohne zweite Phase überfordert sind. Das spricht wieder für den für Studierende gewöhnungsbedürftige bis unangenehme Vorschlag in These Nr. 1 die Arbeiten nicht nach dem Semester sondern während des Semesters zu verlangen. Außerdem – und das wird in These 3 diskutiert werden – ist nicht einzusehen, an dieser sinnfreien Seitenanzahl von 20 festgehalten wird.

 

Fazit: Durch das Schreiben von Seminararbeiten allein werden wissenschaftliche Skills der Studierenden nicht besser. Durch die Diskussion der Arbeit mit einer Lehrperson schon.

10 Thesen für eine bessere Uni – These 1: Referatsflut eindämmen

Mein Studium ist abgeschlossen. Endlich ist die Zeit, Überlegungen und Argumente aufzuschreiben. Ein letztes Mal will ich mich also mit dem Thema Uni beschäftigen, vor allem, weil praktische Überlegungen zur Uni-Lehre in meiner aktiven Zeit in der Studierendenvertretung viel zu kurz gekommen sind.

These 1: Referatsflut eindämmen

Es gibt zwei Argumente für die Methode „Studierendenreferate in Seminaren“. Erstens ist ein großer Teil von akademischer Arbeit die Präsentation von Ergebnissen, was während des Studiums geübt werden soll; Zweitens besteht die romantische Vorstellung, Studierende würden Teilbereiche eines Themas bearbeiten und präsentieren. Die Realität sieht anders aus. Referate blockieren echtes Lernen und echte Diskussionen. Studierende lernen nichts, wenn sie Referate von KollegInnen anhören. Referate sind durchschnittlich schlecht gehalten (Wie können sie auch gut sein, wenn Studierende nie Rückmeldung darauf bekommen) und basieren nicht auf vorhergegangenem Forschen. Will man in Seminaren wissenschaftliche Konferenzen simulieren, so müssten Studierende zuerst eine Arbeit schreiben und erst dann ihre Ergebnisse präsentieren. Stattdessen halten Studierende Referate die zwar informieren, aber dadurch das Thema nicht aus einer wissenschaftlichen Perspektive vorstellen (Wie können sie auch, wenn sie noch nicht begonnen haben das Thema wissenschaftlich zu bearbeiten).

Es gibt zwei Möglichkeiten, darauf zu reagieren: Entweder Studierende müssen vor Präsentation ihres Themas eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit dazu abgeben oder es muss auf Referate verzichtet werden. Auch wenn ich sie nicht während meiner Unikarriere gesehen habe, kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, dass es außer Referate keine andere Lehrmethode in der Hochschuldidaktik gibt.


Thankssayings

Since I passed my final exam on Friday, officially earning the degree of Magister philosophiae, it’s appropriate to post some thankyou-notes, as found in my thesis.

Vielen Dank meinem Betreuer, Dr. Roland Innerhofer, der keine Angst vor dem Trivialen hat. Natürlich meiner Großmutter, für den Ansporn und die Unterstützung. Dank Rupert, nicht nur, weil er mir immer die Pausenbrote nachgetragen hat. Dank an Barbara, ich hätte mit niemandem lieber studiert und Sylvia, sie hat mir den Respekt vor der Wissenschaft genommen. Beth und Mareike haben mir neben vielem anderen die Wissenschaftlichkeit näher gebracht. Barbara Burkhardt, Heidi Lexe und Ernst Seibert gebührt Dank für die inhaltliche Unterstützung. Meinen vielen Freundinnen und Freunden fürs diskutieren, mitwohnen, Mut machen, für Boshaftigkeiten und Freundlichkeiten.

Vor allen jedoch meiner Mutter: Du hast es geschafft.

Bildblog für alle (Länder)!

Bildblog for all (countries)! The best watchblog (I know?), the Bildblog, expanded his watching material today. It was founded as a watchblog for Germany’s biggest tabloid: The (in)famous Bild Zeitung. Sometimes Bild takes care of ruining its own credibility, not only by printing nonsense headlines („We are pope“ or „Obama kisses Germany“ when he greeted Chancelor Merkel) but also by uncovering the aweful truth: Hitler had flatulence. (Wow, there’s even an english version). For all the other times, there’s Bildblog. They recheck articles, facts and figures, call out immoral behaviour and  translate Bild language in truth.

As of today these fine men and women expand their Aufklärung on other media. They argue that, while Bild didn’t get any better, other  newspapers got worse. Economic pressure forces all newspapers to make cuts in research and therefore quality, while being tempted to give in on product placement. From now on you will be able to watch how news change from the real world to the agencies to the newspapers and outlets. They started off today with an article arguing that the 5.3% negative revenue that Reuters saw in February  2009 in comparison to Feb 08 has one good reason: February 08 had 29 days and one day out of 25 buissiness days is: 4%. The headlines resulting ranged from cautious „Retail sale suffers from recession“ to screaming: „Recession kills retail sale“

Considering the amout of crap Austrian newspapers are reporting, it is time for an Austrian media watchblog. Just this last weeks, Österreich reported that Peter Alexander had a heart OP and screamed „Today, USA elects Obama“ 6 hours before polls opened while the largest newspaper in the world (1), the Austrian Kronen Zeitung called the accusations of Helmut Zilk a lie before even reporting of what he was accused of. Considering that the Homepage of Kronenzeitung is one of the only tabloids on the web trend map showing the 333 most influential web pages one can only hope that Austria gets its media watchblog soon. All attempts so far have failed since they were either a) a spell watch blog, like the recent and still active Österreich Blog, b) a Letters to the editor watchblog, like the Krone Blog (2) or c) are just dead, like the ORF.at Watchblog.

Here’s applauding the Bildblog for expanding and hoping that Austria will have a Watchblog that is not only watching but also watched.

 

(1) In relation to population. 45%ish Austrians read Kronenzeitung on a daily basis.

(2) The Krone Blog actually got better recently, but publishes irregularly. 

Homepage Updates I

This headline is an elegant understatement. Indeed, I updated the Texts part of my homepage. It’s not that I updated it, but what I updated it with. Long speech short sense (I love translating German idioms in English): I updated it with my thesis!!! It’s in German, but here’s the abstract. If you are able to read German and don’t have anything better to do: I’d be happy if you read (parts of) my thesis and tell me what you think.

Pick, Carl: Serial Narration in Children’s Literature. Thesis, Vienna, 2009.

In this thesis, I create a typology of children’s book series. I analyze series from four different countries: the Italian “Adventures of Pinocchio,” the Austrian “Die Knickerbocker-Bande,” the German “Die Wilden Fußballkerle” and the American “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” and consider specifically the areas of fabula-episode-relation, beginnings and endings, and the relationship of the author to his/her work and story/discourse time. The paper defines three major different types of children’s book series: “Serie”, which has both a contained episode and an overlapping fabula;. “Reihe”, which has only fabula contained within the episode; “Feuilletonroman”, which is best defined with the already established definition: „Every fabula that is published in a periodical publication“.
There exists a phenomenon in current children’s literature called the illusion of the real, especially in children’s books where the level of border crossing between reality and fiction reaches a new climax: In two of the four series analyzed, it’s not only the author who stages himself as a witness-narrator, but protagonists of later episodes who have read earlier ones. While series in other media create cliffhangers by breaking on the peak of suspense, the books analyzed here use the narrator to achieve tension at the end of an episode.

In general, I conclude that similarities prevail over differences in children’s book series. While the plot may vary, the formal frameworks are very strict and serve as a narrative guide for the young reader.

Elevators Rant

Seriously, what do you not get?? There’s an up button and a down button. If you want up, you press up, if you want down, you press down. No, you don’t press down if the elevator is above you and you want to send him down to you. No, you don’t press up to pull the elevator from below you on your level. It’s really not that hard. And it wastes my time and yours if you do it wrong. The elevator will stop. You won’t get on because it’ll go in the wrong direction. I will have an unnecessary break and you will catch the elevator when it’s going in the right direction for you. That’s what the buttons are for. rant over.

Universität Wien: The empire strikes back

And the SNAFU continues. The handing-in ceremony at the German Department went surprisingly well. It was a clean cut, took 5 minutes and everything worked fine. They even send the form to the service center independently. I don’t have to get it and bring it there. Ok, they gave me another form (two actually) that has to be signed by me and my two professors who I take the final exam with, but that’s a reasonable portion of red tape – for U of Wien standards. The SNAFU continued today at the history department. The very nice office worker looked at my form and made the sound that I was fearing of since I thought of finishing school: Uh-Oh. There was one class missing. It was a free elective class, so I showed her my 10 extra PoliSci credits, my 10 extra German as a foreign language credits and my 29 students union credits, and told her to choose whatever she thought would fit.

That would be too easy. Turns out the free electives aren’t as free as the name sounds like. It has to be a class that has something to do with politics. Not a problem? I do have 10 extra PoliSci credits? Yes, but that’s not enough. There has to be a form. I have to plea that the PoliSci credits (one of the classes is called historical basis of politics) get accepted for the „free yet political history“ credits. But the REALLY bad news is: I have to go to the „service“ center and it takes SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS. Three if everything works out.

INT: STUDENTS SERVICE CENTER, DAY.

I have to pull a number. It’s 889. The door says 888. I’m surprised. I wait and fill out the form. My number shows up, I walk in.

OFFICE WORKER
(harsh doesn't come even close) 
Do you have a number
ME
Yes, here

SHE
Why didn't you get in?
ME
I was waiting for my number to show up.

SHE
I called your number five minutes ago.

I resign and give her the form. Because I thought it would be easier, I wrote down all the PoliSci courses I had, so that they could choose which one they thought would be the right one. She tells me that the Bescheid (1) would be negative, if the form stays like this. I have to guess which class they are thinking is right. If I choose wrongly, well I know that in six to eight weeks and the spectacle can start from the begining. But let’s be optimistic. After another mistake on my part (on the front, I was supposed to write down the name of my curriculum, not the number. On the back I was supposed to write the number of the curriculum, not the name. Stupid me.) I was free to go. I will know more in three to eight weeks. There’s nothing I can do.

(1) there really is not a proper translation that fits the horrifiying tone of the word. Verdict might be closest.




    

    

                    



            

        
Why am I surprised (or: Universität „Red Tape“ Wien)

    

    

        
Today my red tape marathon at University of Vienna began. SPOILER ALERT: I’m not going to make my final exam date that I planned for END OF APRIL.


Step two (1)




I study at three different departments (German, History and Education/Licensure). That means: Three different office hours. „Office Hours“ in the Austrian sense: It’s open twice a week for two hours. Tuesdays is Education-Day, so I grabbed all my things (diplomas, validations, the form I filled out 5 years ago) and went to turn it in. I filled out the second part of the form I filled out five years ago and gave it to the nice lady at the counter. She took it, went to her little archive and pulled out the duplicate of the form, I filled out five years ago. She gave it to me and asked me to copy what I just filled out on the form that I filled first out five years ago onto the duplicate of the form I filled out 5 years ago. When I told her, that I was done, she asked me TO COME BACK IN 4 WEEKS TO GRAB THE SIGNED FORM THAT I FILLED OUT FIVE YEARS AGO. After looking really sad and desperate (I practiced in front of the mirror) she put the form that I filled out five years ago on another pile, so that it only takes 3 weeks. The person who signs all these forms filled out five years ago apparently has only one signing day a month.


Step three


When I get it back, that’s not even close to getting my degree. There are two other forms I filled out five years ago that I have to turn in at two other offices. When I get those three back (I hope four weeks is the limit, but it might as well be longer), I have to go to a place that is euphemistically called Students Service Center. It’s open – boy I don’t know, there’s no website where I could find that information, but as far as I remember it’s 6 hours a week. Good thing there: the queue is especially long since all students who study languages or various histories have to go there to hand stuff in.


Step four through seven


When I turned my three forms that I filled out five years ago in, I’m still not even close to my final exam. I have to wait: at least 4 weeks. Then I have my diploma, which means I can turn in my thesis. To turn in my thesis physically I have to upload it to a plagiarism controller first. This ridiculously expensive program controls if I plagiarised. It takes one week. For a machine. To run my thesis through Google. After I waited in line at the Service Center again and they accept my thesis, I have to wait two weeks to take my final exam.


Step eight – the bonus round


Does that mean I’m done? Well, yes. If you don’t want to have commencement. If you do want to show your family what it’s worth to put you through school, you have to register. There’s only 4 commencements per semester. There’s a waiting list. There’s a line at the Service Center where you have to register for the waiting list. To get a commencement date THIS JULY, (next date: September) I have to be done with my final exam END OF APRIL. To get a final exam date END OF APRIL, I have to turn in my grades in JANUARY. To do that, I’d have to be done with my courses in the spring term(2). Without any petty looks, sad faces and desperate bribing attempts it takes one year from your last exam to your commencement. With all these obsequious gesti it still takes a semester.


Abstract


I had my final regular exam on March 2nd. My thesis is done. If I’m lucky my commencement will be in July.




Rant over? Hell, no.






(1) I spare you and me the part where I take exams and wait for grades for a month or more. Grades I need to get this whole process, that is coming up, started.


(2) For classes in the winter term you get graded not before February. See me.



    

    

                    



            

        
BZÖ and I together at last (or: Dewey Defeats Truman)

    

    

        
Late Jörg Haiders almost late party, the Alliance for the Future (of?) Austria (that really sounds even more pretencious in English), demanded on Tuesday that it should be forbidden to publish polls three weeks before election day. While the argumentation for that new stance is darn stupid, the general idea isn’t. BZÖ argues that the polls in last Sundays elections in Carinthia mobilized for the social democrats (SPÖ), that for polls/their publishing should be forbidden. The BZÖ won the elections by 45ish over 28ish percent. Polls in the last weeks before the election showed a close horserace between both parties at around 30%. BZÖ is arguing I don’t see how that close race couldn’t help both parties – and obviously helped only one after all, but the „evil liberal media“ argument works in Austria as well.


But back to the proposition: Polls are influencing voting behaviour to an extend where it is necessary to intervene in media rights. I think so. Since I am eligible to vote, there was not one election where the pollsters hit the target within MOE. In 2001 in the elections for Vienna the polls showed the SPÖ at around 42% far away from the absolute majority at 47% that they reached on election day. In the national elections of 2002, the closer Sunday got, the further away the polls went from the actual result: At a sample of 1000 people, which is about double the usual sampling size, IMAS missed the target by 6%, claiming that ÖVP and SPÖ were in a MOE race at 37:33. ÖVP won the election with 42 over 36%.It’s not that those examples show polls way off their margin of error, but they are still a couple of points off (1) and much more important: they couldn’t predict a general trend in the elections. Should they? No, but since they pretend they do, someone should call their bluff.


In the 2008 national elections, a lot of people were thinking of voting Liberales Forum in order to have a 6th party (or rather 3rd center-social liberal) party in parliament. Polls showed LiF up at around 4%, which is the make-it-point into parliament. Those people wouldn’t have thought of committing to this pragmatic compromise, if it hadn’t been for polls who showed LiF could make it. I’m convinced they would’ve made it with those votes from unlikely LiF voters, attracted by the poll (2).


Polls influence voting behaviour. Voters vote, don’t vote or vote something else, because parties look well/not so good in polls. Of course it’s not a mainstream phenomenon, but it is significant. It’s not the only reason for strategic (ergo: not idea driven) voting, but it encourages it. It’s not the reason for bad (horse race) media coverage, but it helps distracting journalists.


Banning polls from newspapers in the last 2-3 weeks of the elections really doesn’t hurt anyone. Parties can still have internal polls, that are usually much more significant anyways. Newspapers have to find something else to write about, bad case scenario: it’s gonna be the chancellor’s dog; good case scenario: something that matters.  And voters can follow their gut feeling without being distracted by voting strategy. Or was it issues they were voting on?












(1) Actually 2 points off their 4 point MOE is A LOT.


(2) That they didn’t in the end was „only“ because their chairperson at the time was involved in a lobbying affair.



    

    

                    



            

        
Extended work hours: Teacher’s edition

    

    

        
Over at the Sektion8 blog I wrote another post about the recent discussion regarding the extension of work hours for teachers. It’s in German. After summarizing key thoughts of mine and Jakob’s post, I throw some new thoughts out there, I didn’t have when I wrote the first post.


Key points of my first post:

a) The Austrian teachers union is the root of all evil. Maybe not all but they are for sure one of the main reasons why there was no improvement (or any change) in the school system in the last 20+ years.

b) The discussion, whether or not teachers should work two lessons/week more leads in the wrong direction. The real question is: Why are teachers still allowed to work from home? Forcing them to stay in school in the afternoon would automatically improve the quality of teaching, because:

– even if they do nothing else but drink coffee and talk, this will lead to collaboration teaching, maybe a project or just a reflection of their own work.

– working parents wouldn’t be forced to take the morning off to talk to a teacher, who only has one office hour a week. They could come in the afternoon.

– Teachers wouldn’t need to prepare at their homes, using their computers, internets, printers etc. They also wouldn’t need to carry homework from one place to the other and back.


In another post, Jakob Huber, who wrote a great paper on how schools haven’t changed significantly in the last 80 years, wrote up some facts. He uses data from a study about teachers workload that is usualy used to argue against extension of work hours to show that teachers aren’t burned out by more work. On the contrary, the study shows that what teachers like most about their jobs is to be in class. Now they can be in class two hours longer. I don’t agree with him on everything: I don’t believe that the reduction of class size goes hand in hand with an extension of teacher’s work hours. Its also wrong to think that another two hours is just another two hours in a class. It’s another two hours in ANOTHER class. The though part of being a teacher is the adjustment to a new group of people every 50 minutes. A teacher has probably 5 to 10 different classes/groups of people, all of whom are a different play field. With 2 hours extra to teach, it’s most likely that a teacher will get a new class. I don’t say that’s not manageable, I just think it is to easy to say it’s just two hours more. (I’m aware that I made exactly this cheap argument in my first post).


You have another good reason in mind or an argument that I forgot: Post away!