Land of Confusion

How far are we, as university teachers, allowed to create (or, to fail to eliminate) the possibility that students might be confused? As far as subject matter is concerned, it seems reasonable to say that we should normally endeavour to ensure that by the end of the class, or maybe the end of the module, students should not be confused, or at any rate should be less confused, but that it’s absolutely fine to confuse them – even to do this deliberately – in the course of getting to that point. As I’ve said before, sometimes the correct answer to a historical problem is “we don’t really know” – or, “we don’t understand” – and the important bit is understanding why this is the case. On the other hand, we don’t generally want there to be any confusion about things like the timing and location of classes; the deadlines for assignments, and word limits and other parameters if those are important; and our expectations of their work. There are tensions here (and not just around the fact that,…

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