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Students swear by module of 'obscenely hard' work
11 March 2010
Professor who practises what he preaches sees class enrolment soar. Rebecca Attwood reports
Studies suggest that UK students tend to put in less hard graft than their European peers, but at least one professor has found a way to get his students to work their socks off.
The official title of module PY114 in the University of Essex's department of philosophy is Critical Reasoning and Logical Argument, but its unofficial name is "Work Obscenely Hard".
Worth 30 credits, the first-year course is voluntary, which Wayne Martin, the professor who runs it, said is crucial in order to avoid it seeming like slavery.
In return for students agreeing to take on a Stakhanovite workload, Professor Martin makes them a promise: if they work obscenely hard, then he will work obscenely hard, too.
When students are asked to write an assignment in the first few days about difficult material they have not yet been taught, he returns their work with detailed comments within 24 hours.
Professor Martin, who previously worked at the University of California, San Diego, has voluntarily added weekly two-on-one tutorials to his workload.
A key aim of the year-long course is to teach students to write first-class essays, and the module demands an assignment from every student every week. The other goal is to teach them to appreciate the joys of pushing themselves to the limit.
Professor Martin said: "I was a student athlete, and one of the things you learn is that if you put in a certain degree of effort, a certain kind of performance comes out of it and there is a pleasure associated with that."
Some classes, according to one former student, include an element of "public humiliation" when - with their permission - Professor Martin reads out passages from students' essays in class and asks the group to improve them.
The professor openly admits that the course is not for everyone.
The first time he taught the course, he said, he "scared away" many students in the first week.
But those who returned, according to Professor Martin, were "incredibly committed" and gave extremely positive feedback.
Pawel Wargan, who is studying for an LLB in law and philosophy and who took PY114 last year, said: "The class did more for me in a month in terms of my writing ability and argumentative skills than all my other classes combined over the past two years."
Now word has spread and enrolment this year is up 80 per cent.
Professor Martin is head of his department, a research director, the editor of a journal and a book series, the director of one major research grant and a supervisor of another.
He said he managed to do all this "by working more or less all the time".
It would not be reasonable to expect this "form of madness" from colleagues, he said, adding: "I will be universally detested if my absurd life gets listed as best practice."
Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Essex, said that while it would not be possible to apply the model elsewhere in the same form, he did want to examine whether the principles behind it could be applied more widely in some way.
He said the module was particularly successful at "building up a sense of trust and confidence between the staff and the students that they have a common goal: for the students to achieve as much as they possibly can and really fulfil their potential."
rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.
Readers' comments
About time too! I can't wait until some stupid academic committee cuts all the admin staff so that Professor Martin has to do it all himself and give up on the stuff he's good at.
This so-called "absurd life" is what Oxbridge calls its "tutorial system". Should anyone really be surprised that devoting a lot of resources to students in very small groups creates an intensive and effective learning environment? The only thing that is "absurd" is that this privilege is restricted for a tiny elite.
Not everyone who goes to Oxbridge is tiny, in fact the height distribution in the population is broadly similar to the global population.
1st April is still nearly three weeks away. I think Ms Atwood has had her article published a couple of THE editions too early.
Sounds like a model for further exploration. Yet no discussions.
A model for further exploitation, that is.
No, it' actually quite interesting; but hardly feasible for most of us.
In my second year module I'd love to do something like that. However, I have 40+ students, and simply do not have the time to do anything like that. But it seems that having this degree of teacher feedback is really necessary, otherwise students won't be motivated to do much. The main problem is that any additional demands on time which are not assessed usually are the first thing to go when deadlines for essays are coming up.
I would be curious to know the gender distribution of his class, because it sounds like it has an all-male locker room kinda atmosphere.
"Geewhiz 18 March, 2010
I would be curious to know the gender distribution of his class, because it sounds like it has an all-male locker room kinda atmosphere."
so? Who cares if it's all males or all females?
I'm not surprised Prof. Martin gets the results he does. But I'd have to ask at what price to himself and his students. Does he have a life in other ways, e.g. spouse, children, hobbies, connections with friends and family on Facebook or at pubs after work. I'd not want to bet on his health over the long haul if he keeps up that level of manic activity. His comparison to the dedication of elite athletics is apt but when watching the Olympics I couldn't help asking myself about the costs to those young men and women for the dedication that led to their impressive levels of achievement. While I can admire such performances, I would never wish them on my kids or teach them that unless they devote themselves so much they are failures. Moderation in all things is still a fine goal for the good life. I also remember that the Russian model for such over-the-top production as a miner was exaggerated to inspire the masses. Remember: When you die there is not room for your CV on your tombstone.
I would be much more interested in the feedback to stories in the THES if it included contributions from students on a more regular basis. This story cries out for some student response.
I was a student of Professor Martin's at UCSD and took part in a single term version of this rigorous course: it was then called "Philosophical Methods." Hands down it was the most important class I took at UCSD. As one now teaching philosophy at the community college level, I find myself constantly incorporating into my own courses things I learned from Prof. Martin, though admittedly with less rigor. I also count Wayne as a personal friend and can attest to his healthy life outside the academic bubble. Contrary to what some commentators seem to infer, Wayne is a dedicated family man and quite the sportsman (especially when it comes to activities involving boats!).
Thanks for this attestation, Garrett Miller. Let me second it, as another former student and now friend. How does he do that?! Only the gods know.
Wayne should be congratulated. I wish I could take this course, too.
I teach critical thinking to a class of 400 students, with the help of three teaching assistants. Tell me how I can emulate Professor Martin's model.
This sounds like a splendid example of philosophical teaching - what a pity that contemporary trends - towards intensive administration, for instance - tend to militate against it.
Some things about this should be noted. First, the course is voluntary and the hard work starts straightaway. This means that students will know what they are in for and self-select for it. Second, a tutorial approach can be quite enjoyable for both teacher and student, given such a self-selected group of students. Trying this as a required course (especially with poorly prepared students) would lead to disaster. There are many teachers offering notoriously difficult voluntary courses to self-selected students. Why is this special? I'm not sure there is anything to be taken away from this example.
Angelo - I'm not sure why you don't take something from this; what I get is that we could do with a great deal less compulsion in education - or rather, a more healthy balance between the compulsory components and the voluntary, (fun-but-hard-work) components
Re Geewhiz's assumption that women couldn't possibly keep up with a competitive course that involves hard work.. their pretty little heads might explode I presume??
I actually took the same type of module that Professor Martin introduced at Essex for the MA students. It was damned hard work, but extremely rewarding. It’s hard to gauge gender distribution across the board of these classes. I think this is because Essex tends to have considerably more male philosophy students than female, particularly at post-grad level. However, almost everyone who began stayed on. I was only disappointed that due to having to work 18 hours a week to buy food and pay the rent that I had to give up the course after two months. In hindsight, my academic writing has come on leaps and bounds since the course.
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