What the...?

[Kheldarson]

I do contract work for an online tutoring service. Most of the time my sessions are fairly benign, usually students asking for help getting over sections of homework by clarifying ideas or reading through papers and helping with the editing process.

I just had this gem though:

(Customer)
[00:00:00] research a case where business ethics was the core issue. A common example may be where a corporate board of directors breached one or more duties, such as the duty of loyalty, to its shareholders, although there are many other areas where business ethics are at the center of a case. Describe the facts of the case briefly and describe the legal issue. Discuss also the effect of the case on the business world and on society generally.

You
[00:00:09] Hi, welcome to [tutoring service]! My name is Kheldarson; how may I help you today?

(Customer)
[00:00:21] hi i need help answering tht question
[00:00:40] can u help me find a case online

You
[00:00:54] Well, what sort of cases would you be interested in?
[00:01:04] Business ethics is a rather large field

(Customer)
[00:01:22] it doesnt matter as long as business ethics was the core issue

You
[00:02:18] Well, is there a particular area of business ethics you'd prefer? Do you want to talk about how companies should be loyal to their customers? To the environment?
[00:02:24] To their employees?

(Customer)
[00:02:36] i need a real case
[00:02:57] and like i said it doesn't matter what kinda case it is as long as it deals with business ethics

You
[00:04:38] In that case, I could suggest looking up Enron and its sharehold manipulation, BP and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Martha Stewart's case, the current growing case of fast food strikes, the entire history of the coal industry...

(Customer)
[00:05:18] does the martha stewarts case has business ethics as core issue?

You
[00:05:25] So knowing what you're particularly interested in would help us focus on what areas to research
[00:05:40] Well, yes. She broke the law.

(Customer)
[00:05:44] k

You
[00:06:02] Do you know what laws she broke?

(Customer)
[00:06:05] no
[00:06:13] cuz i dono abt her case
[00:06:51] usually tutors are nicer and dont make students feel stupid but u sure know how to make students feel stupid.

(Customer) logged off.


I still don't know what the hell that last sentence was about. Did they expect me to just hand them the answer? Besides, business ethics covers a lot! Grr...

[KabeRinnaul]

Because you asked them questions and questions are hard. Also,

(Customer)
[00:05:18] does the martha stewarts case has business ethics as core issue?

They speak in lolcat.

[Sunshine]

Yes. And yes, yes it does. O.o that person made my brain hurt

[Jay 2K Winger]

I approve of the way Khel was interacting with that student. Tutors are not there to do the work for you. They're there to help you understand what you're trying to learn.

The closest thing to tutoring I ever did was helping some classmates out in a math course. I never did the work for them, but I'd use the in-textbook examples and walk them through the steps involved. Then I'd take a simple problem on the assignment (one I'd already finished), and have them do the problem in front of me. It never failed to get them to understand what it is they were supposed to do.

There are a depressing number of teachers out there who simply try to drop knowledge on their students without making sure they understand what it means.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I've done a bit of tutoring if you count helping friends out. My particular favorite instance was helping a friend understand and remember French history by getting a map of France, getting a bunch of markers and highlighters, and "acting" out the history with said writing implements. (If someone got killed I popped the top of the marker off with my thumb going "Whoops!")

Why yes, we were in high school at the time when I did this. She got an A.

I think you were doing the right thing, and they just wanted you to do their homework for them. When you wouldn't, and it became obvious you wouldn't, they wanted you to feel bad or guilty or... whatever.

[EricKei]

Yes, I DO think he was expecting you to either "give him the answer" or more or less do the work for him. You're there to help them learn, not bypass the process -- you were absolutely in the right ^_^

[Kheldarson]

I approve of the way Khel was interacting with that student. Tutors are not there to do the work for you. They're there to help you understand what you're trying to learn.

*bows* Thank ya, Jay

As an aside, I just finished another session with a different student. Lasted nearly a hour.

In that time, here are the questions asked:

[00:00:42] what alternative were there to inviting the soviets to join the war effort against japan

[00:18:52] what evidence os pffered that the bomb was dropped as the "first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with russia"?
[00:19:08] what evidence refutes this interpretation?
[00:19:23] how did the use of the bomb affect US-Japanese relations after the war

[00:28:59] of what historic inteerest was east europe to russia and to the west?
[00:29:29] explain the developments after ww1, in 1939-41 and military operations of WW2
[00:29:49] how did the conflicting interests give rise to the cold war

[00:35:45] why was poland of such importance to both sides\
[00:36:03] why wass FDR willing to give in to stalins views of polands borders

[00:43:35] what influences led truman to make poland a "test case" for future US-USSR relations

I think I just need to start pointing to Google...

[MoonCat]

Seems like a lot of students equate "research" with "asking someone to give me the answers."

[Yfandes]

Yes, the student in the OP was hoping you would do the work for them, or at least spoon feed the answers to them. And by not doing so you, and expecting them to do some thinking, YOU made them feel stupid! How could you?

[fireheart]

Seems like a lot of students equate "research" with "asking someone to give me the answers."

Sounds about right.

[catcul]

Seems like a lot of students equate "research" with "asking someone to give me the answers."

This reminds me of a quote of American humorist Don Marquis:

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.

Even though he died in 1937, his words are still absolutely true.

[Gaki]

I did tutoring in college for World History students and usually they were fairly good to tutor since usually all we did was teach them basic writing techniques and let them know how to get good grades on their in-class essays. We did a lot of looking through the textbook and showing them which chapters their answers would be in and how the textbook was set up to help them (most of them hadn't even opened it.)

Although there was one tutoring session right before the finals and they were told by the professor what one of the possible essays was going to be.

"When did the French Revolution end?"

Every Senior History major in the room did one of these:



It was a tough day for everyone. When I saw the professor I told her she was going to get a lot of weird answers. She said that was fine as long as they could argue it effectively. I said good because that's what I told them. Just pick something and run with it and run with it WELL.

[EricKei]

When I saw the professor I told her she was going to get a lot of weird answers. She said that was fine as long as they could argue it effectively. I said good because that's what I told them. Just pick something and run with it and run with it WELL.

This reminds me of an English Lit prof I had in college (who, of course, got fired later because some other teacher didn't like her (highly effective, unorthodox) teaching style...Her philosophy was simple: "If you can prove your side of an argument (in an essay, etc), you're right, and you will be graded accordingly -- whether I agree with you or not." She said that the only time she recalled shooting down an essay topic outright was the time someone wanted to argue that Shakespeare was writing about the events that took place in Star Wars. Note that she would have had no problem with a paper comparing the two in other ways, but that particular take on the idea was juuuust a bit too much.

Part of why i loved this teacher was because of my experience in high school -- where offering an interpretation of a work that disagreed with the school's/teacher's version of "canon" was automatically wrong, no matter how well you backed it up.

[dalesys]

Seems like upper level management equates "research" with "telling someone to give me the answers."

Fixed that for you...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

[00:06:51] usually tutors are nicer and dont make students feel stupid but u sure know how to make students feel stupid.

Gee, I would've thought the "do you haz cheeseburger?" offered up earlier would've made the customer feel stupid.