I handed out a study guide an hour prior to the test. The dept head thought it inappropriate. How to respond?

Question

I handed out a study guide an hour prior to the test. The dept head thought it inappropriate. How to respond?

Answer 1

I suspect the problem may have been the timing of your provision of the study guide.  Most times a study guide is designed to remind students of the important ideas that were covered-- not an exact guide to all that might be on the test but a general aide in helping them to review.  Thus, it's typically provided about a week-- or at least a few days-- ahead of time.  Better, perhaps, to have provided no study guide at all than to have provided one at the last minute-- which might have made you look, to your department head (or perhaps to a complaining student), as though you were disorganized.  

That said, if there was some pedagogical reason for doing it the way you did, you might explain that in a deferential  email to your department head/chair (in which you might propose a brief meeting at which she/he could provide you some feedback on the method or, alternatively, testing preparation pointers she/he would suggest-- asking for advice implies deference and can also prove helpful).  Of course, if you have tenure, you are generally free to experiment pedagogically and should simply explain your reasoning and perhaps reassure the chair that you will re-explain/clarify your methods to the students (since the chair's main concern is complaining students coming to bother her/him, which I would guess is maybe how she/he found out about your study guide).

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

If the study guide was very close to what appeared in the test, then it was inappropriate. Students need to learn material and be able to apply that knowledge in different situations, not memorise it in the short term and forget it after the test.

If the study guide was a general reminder of the topics being tested then it should have been OK.

Your response depends on which of the above fits the bill. If it is the first, then a brief apology, find out the views of the dept head as to what can safely be put in a study guide and then move on. If it is the second, explain to your dept head that there was no detail in the guide that could be directly put into the test and that it was a general reminder of the topics which had been covered and could be in the test.

I've had to explain in the past what I've done and why I've done it and then had to change my approach to fit in with the requirements / mood of the person in charge, and I expect I will have to do it again in the future! No big deal.

Answer 3

Yuck!  I hate it when people like that find nothing better to do than to nitpick over little things like that....It might have helped your students if they had had more time to use the study guide, but also remember that many teachers do not give out any study guides at all.  You might try to tell the dept head to think of it as a "review".  Reviews are perfectly normal.  Many teachers also play "review games" right before the test....and that is about the same as giving out a study guide.....just in a different way.  

You might try to redirect their focus onto something else . . . and focus on how much you have helped your scholars . . . and the ways in which you have helped them.  I would try not to get dragged down into this or become defensive about it.  That'll only feed into it, and the more energy you give something, the more it grows.  This is a small item and should hopefully blow over soon.........