Personally, I usually (not always) give my students Areas of concentration ahead of my exams but recently I had a discussion with a colleague about it. Here's the summary:

He doesn't give students Areas of concentration because he thinks it'll breed laziness in students.

I give them because I believe it helps them focus on the key things they need to take out of the course. Many students may focus on the difficult aspects or topics which may not be the most important aspect.

So, I believe the AOC will help them channel their reading in the right direction.

That said, my questions are not always easy. My students always know they have a lot to do before they can pass but at least I let them know what they need to do, how they get it done is up to them.

Over to you, as a teacher, lecturer, trainer etc. Do you think it's better to give students Areas of concentration or not and why?

Please share your thoughts and knowledge.

Before I went to answer the clarion call, I took up teaching in a Family friend’s school. I discovered that not that some of these students don’t read. Many of them do focus on the minor and minor on the major.

I decided giving them AoC before Test and Exam and many times, treat the questions with them.
My questions are always based on the essential aspect of the course which they are meant to know and understand. Not dwelling on parts that aren’t useful to them.

Giving the students AoC doesn’t make them to be lazy, it only makes them to concentrate on the part which is very useful to them. I teach student to know, not to set trap for them

Even with the life questions I did give to them, the ones that would pass would surely, while the ones that would fail would definitely

Yes please. I had the opportunity to teach a federal secondary school in Osun state(Ikirun) and a private secondary school in Kwara state (Offa).
I realised examination does not define success or who will be successful. I always give my whole question both theory and objective to my students unchanged to go practice. Trust me many of them will still fail....Examination have to do with preparedness and willingness, I discovered most people find it hard to study or go through whatever material they have at there disposal.

espn:
Yes please. I had the opportunity to teach a federal secondary school in Osun state(Ikirun) and a private secondary school in Kwara state (Offa).
I realised examination does not define success or who will be successful. I always give my whole question both theory and objective to my students unchanged to go practice. Trust me many of them will still fail....Examination have to do with preparedness and willingness, I discovered most people find it hard to study or go through whatever material they have at there disposal.

ah! oga teacher, expo re ke

Deasegun19:


ah! oga teacher, expo re ke

I have a lecturer who does something like this. He'll give us eight questions and six out of those eight will show up in the exam. You're expected to answer three or four questions out of the six.

Trust me, it was still a lot of work. You know what to read but how do you memorize/understand it.

At the end, anyone who passes the paper would have certainly learnt something sizeable at the end of the course.

I think this is better than mass upgrading scores due after failure.

I have a strong dislike for giving students scores. You must earn whatever I'll give you. I can assist you to earn the scores but I can't dash you. I think this is similar to how entrepreneurs do with money.

I like to see topics like this from young minds. Tells a lot about what you ponder on in your spare time. But when a yoot in Nigeria wakes up by 2am to ask why girls boôbs are unequal, you already know his village people would have nothing to do with his impending predicament.

To your question, I can’t say if it is right or wrong. However, I see nothing wrong in it. Even professional courses have Examiners Report to guide you in your studies. Some syllabuses are so bulky that you need more than the course duration to actually understand them, except you want them to cram it. So, let’s save ourselves time and energy.

In my teaching days, I never explicitly gave them AOC, but I gave several tests and stated that two or more must feature in their theory- that is after doing corrections. For the MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions), I ask random questions in the class and if they all fail, I go home and add it to my list of questions.

Education is an unending process. If they have the zeal to read and learn, they’ll pick up a lot as they go.

pocohantas:
I like to see topics like this from young minds. Tells a lot about what you ponder on in your spare time. But when a yoot in Nigeria wakes up by 2am to ask why girls boôbs are unequal, you already know his village people would have nothing to do with his impending predicament.

To your question, I can’t say if it is right or wrong. However, I see nothing wrong in it. Even professional courses have Examiners Report to guide you in your studies. Some syllabuses are so bulky that you need more than the course duration to actually understand them, except you want them to cram it. So, let’s save ourselves time and energy.

In my teaching days, I never explicitly gave them AOC, but I gave several tests and stated that two or more must feature in their theory- that is after doing corrections. For the MCQ, I ask random questions in the class and if they all fail, I go home and add it to my list of questions.

Education is an unending process. If they have the zeal to read and learn, they’ll pick up a lot as they go.

Good to have you here ma.

Firstly, nice joke in your first paragraph.

Secondly, you're saying it should be left to the teacher's discretion. Is my deduction right?

Finally, what's the meaning of MCQ?

GeoAfrikana:

Good to have you here ma.

Firstly, nice joke in your first paragraph.

Secondly, you're saying it should be left to the teacher's discretion. Is my deduction right?

Finally, what's the meaning of MCQ?

Yes, it should be left to the teacher. The teacher should also be intuitive enough to work around the variables of his/her course and students.

Some students and courses would need you to bend a bit. It isn’t unethical to bend that way, but what is ethical may not be morally right to some individuals. Let’s also pray against over-religious teachers.

Forgive me, I should have expanded. MCQ is multiple choice questions. In local parlance OBJ, not Obasanjo but objective.

Good question. Here to read the comments .
Sometimes I've pondered about this(while in school though) but found it hard to voice out so as not to get labeled as 'bad belle' . I guess there's nothing wrong with it if it's just about pass and go .

While it's not bad to give AOC, it's majorly dependent on the nature and format with which you give it to the students.

•The AOC shouldn't be too loose or direct.

•It shouldn't be such that it encourages laziness.

•The AOC must only act as a guide to aid the students' reading.

•It must not be a form of "stepped down or lower version of malpractices"

I did an experiment on these. The students complained that my questions were too tough and I was part of the cause for their poor performance so I decided to give them AOC for their next examination
Experiment To Determine The Effect Of AOC In Student Performance


Class Size
21

Performance of Student without any AOC

Number Students who passed above average
4
Number Students who scored within the average domain
11
Number Students who scored below average
6

Performance Of Students With AOC
Number Students who scored above average
5
Number Students whose score is within the average domain
12
Number Students who scored below average
4

Note: This experiment was conducted with the same students when given AOC and when not given AOC.
The exams conducted were from two different terms
The subject used for the above was mathematics for senior secondary school one
Conclusion
AOC according to my experiment affects the performance of students slightly positive.
From the numbers we can see that AOC do not have a significant effect on the performance of students.

Recommendation
AOC should be encouraged, I noticed that the students were confident in their ability to take the test, as it builds confidence
AOC creates room for students to accept their shortcomings, rather than blaming their teacher they are only left with the option of blaming themselves for any shortcomings whatsoever. It creates an avenue for students to own up to their actions.
AOC helps students to increase their reading and attention span, boosting the ability of students to understand the relevance of a particular topic and also help them to organize themselves properly when preparing for their examination.
The low performing students after going through with them the AOC deliberately refused to prepare and such shortcomings is as a result of lack of interest to the subject in question, so they should be giving special attention to ensure a good result.

may GOD bless all my lecturers who gave me AOC. #PAAU

GeoAfrikana:


I have a lecturer who does something like this. He'll give us right questions and six out of those eight will show up in the exam. You're expected to answer three or four questions out of the six.

Trust me, it was still a lot of work. You know what to read but how do you memorize/understand it.

At the end, anyone who passes the paper would have certainly learnt something sizeable at the end of the course.

I think this is better than mass upgrading scores due after failure.

I have a strong dislike for giving students scores. You must earn whatever I'll give you. I can assist you to earn the scores but I can't dash you. I think this is similar to how entrepreneurs do with money.

@the bolded, I agree with your submission. This is what is obtainable in most advance countries.

soundOsonic:
I did an experiment on these. The students complained that my questions were too tough and I was part of the cause for their poor performance so I decided to give them AOC for their next examination
Experiment To Determine The Effect Of AOC In Student Performance


Class Size
21

Performance of Student without any AOC

Number Students who passed above average
4
Number Students who scored within the average domain
11
Number Students who scored below average
6

Performance Of Students With AOC
Number Students who scored above average
5
Number Students whose score is within the average domain
12
Number Students who scored below average
4

Note: This experiment was conducted with the same students when given AOC and when not given AOC.
The exams conducted were from two different terms
The subject used for the above was mathematics for senior secondary school one
Conclusion
AOC according to my experiment affects the performance of students slightly positive.
From the numbers we can see that AOC do not have a significant effect on the performance of students.

Recommendation
AOC should be encouraged, I noticed that the students were confident in their ability to take the test, as it builds confidence
AOC creates room for students to accept their shortcomings, rather than blaming their teacher they are only left with the option of blaming themselves for any shortcomings whatsoever. It creates an avenue for students to own up to their actions.
AOC helps students to increase their reading and attention span, boosting the ability of students to understand the relevance of a particular topic and also help them to organize themselves properly when preparing for their examination.
The low performing students after going through with them the AOC deliberately refused to prepare and such shortcomings is as a result of lack of interest to the subject in question, so they should be giving special attention to ensure a good result.

Probably when you increase your sample size, you might see the significant effect of AOC on student's performance

a course in the university can be from a 2000 page textbook and a lecturer will only set 6 questions without giving any AOC where should the students read exactlyimagine reading a whole 2000 pages textbook for just 6 questions??
this is one of the reasons why students fails in the university

yes its needed and help students in focusing on the valid n important issues but our naija lecturers would say it makes us lazy and we should read all their epistles and manuals to stand a chance.
if you follow them argue they would come up with dt weak excuse dt goes "you guys are even lucky, you have library n even phone to assist you, doing our time we use to pay for all of these"

soundOsonic:
I did an experiment on these. The students complained that my questions were too tough and I was part of the cause for their poor performance so I decided to give them AOC for their next examination
Experiment To Determine The Effect Of AOC In Student Performance


Class Size
21

Performance of Student without any AOC

Number Students who passed above average
4
Number Students who scored within the average domain
11
Number Students who scored below average
6

Performance Of Students With AOC
Number Students who scored above average
5
Number Students whose score is within the average domain
12
Number Students who scored below average
4

Note: This experiment was conducted with the same students when given AOC and when not given AOC.
The exams conducted were from two different terms
The subject used for the above was mathematics for senior secondary school one
Conclusion
AOC according to my experiment affects the performance of students slightly positive.
From the numbers we can see that AOC do not have a significant effect on the performance of students.

Recommendation
AOC should be encouraged, I noticed that the students were confident in their ability to take the test, as it builds confidence
AOC creates room for students to accept their shortcomings, rather than blaming their teacher they are only left with the option of blaming themselves for any shortcomings whatsoever. It creates an avenue for students to own up to their actions.
AOC helps students to increase their reading and attention span, boosting the ability of students to understand the relevance of a particular topic and also help them to organize themselves properly when preparing for their examination.
The low performing students after going through with them the AOC deliberately refused to prepare and such shortcomings is as a result of lack of interest to the subject in question, so they should be giving special attention to ensure a good result.

Highly commendable contribution sir.

But I need to air some points.

Firstly, the research you carried is a step in the right direction. However, more experiments need to be done to verify the result of your research.
There's something called "lurking variables" in research. Lurking variables are variables that affect the outcome of your research but are usually hiding in the background so the researcher may not pay attention to them.

For example;
A researcher found out that shark attacks occur more when people ice cream sales increase. So he concludes that people should buy less ice cream to reduce shark attacks.

This is obviously wrong. Ice cream sales can't affect shark attacks. The more likely cause is the weather; when the water is warmer, people tend to visit Rivers, oceans etc. more frequently and they also tend to buy ice cream more frequently. So ice cream isn't the cause, increased visit to the ocean and rivers is the cause.

I hope I was able to explain myself well.

So, we need more research before we can accept it fully.

That said, it's a valid contribution to existing knowledge and I'd rather depend on your research than depend on guesswork.

Secondly, you talked about not making the AOC too loose and not too tight. But you didn't mention the effect of time on the effect of AOC?
For example, giving the AOC to students two weeks before the exam versus giving it to them three days before the exam.
What's your thought about this?

paulolee:
yes its needed and help students in focusing on the valid n important issues but our naija lecturers would say it makes us lazy and we should read all their epistles and manuals to stand a chance.
if you follow them argue they would come up with dt weak excuse dt goes "you guys are even lucky, you have library n even phone to assist you, doing our time we use to pay for all of these"

Lol. That's their line. To be honest, I think it's not a justification. One of my friends calls it "SufferMan mentality".

I've never left the shores of this country but I've taken courses online. To be honest, foreign lecturers aren't concerned about how much you suffer. Their concern is that you acquire what you should acquire.

If they could feed you the knowledge, they would.
But they won't because they know the only way you can learn is by studying. So they give you everything you need to ease your learning process.

Our lecturers need to change that SufferMan mentality.