Homework Help Policy: Guidelines for Providing Assistance on Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lord_Voltimeter
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AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around the guidelines for providing homework help, emphasizing that complete solutions should not be given to students. Instead, helpers are encouraged to ask questions to understand what the student has attempted and where they are stuck. This approach aims to promote learning and understanding rather than simply providing answers. Concerns were raised about the absurdity of not giving simple answers, but the consensus is that teaching the process is more beneficial for long-term learning. The forum maintains a strict policy to prevent students from relying on others for homework solutions.
Lord_Voltimeter
Suppose I ask for help with the question:
7 + 3 = ?

How can you answer this without violating the Holy Global Guidlines?
"Under no circumstances should complete solutions be provided to a questioner, whether or not an attempt has been made."
 
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take 7 marbles. put them in a jar. now take 3 more marbles and put them also in the jar. now take out all the marbles and count them
 
I put 7 marbles in a jar. But... I had no marbles left!
 
Is there any point to this thread?

We do not do student's homework for them (there are many reasons to this) and so that's why we have guidelines for homework help. If you have a valid point regarding PF rules, then this should be expressed in the feedback forum.
 
Last edited:
ok. well. let's try with something other than marbles. what do you have a lot of around your house?
 
What the hell?
 
yes there is a point to this forum. If someone really does come in distress about something so similar to that what are we supposed to do?
 
Wellsi said:
ok. well. let's try with something other than marbles. what do you have a lot of around your house?

I have...
Water?
 
OK, first of all this ain't Philosophy, it's Feedback. So I'm moving it to the appropriate place.

Now on to the question.

Lord_Voltimeter said:
Suppose I ask for help with the question:
7 + 3 = ?

How can you answer this without violating the Holy Global Guidlines?
"Under no circumstances should complete solutions be provided to a questioner, whether or not an attempt has been made."

Well, as the Divinely Inspired Author of the Holy Homework Help Section of the Most Holy Global Guidelines, allow me to clear it up for you. o:)

An appropriate first response from a helper would be, "What have you done so far, and where did you get stuck?"
 
  • #10
cristo said:
Is there any point to this thread?

We do not do student's homework for them (there are many reasons to this) and so that's why we have guidelines for homework help. If you have a valid point regarding PF rules, then this should be expressed in the feedback forum.

But how would you help a student with this question?
 
  • #11
Tom Mattson said:
An appropriate first response from a helper would be, "What have you done so far, and where did you get stuck?"

I was hoping to discuss it in a philosophical vein, but oh well.

I would answer:
I wrote down 7+3 = ?
and then I got stuck.
 
  • #12
Lord_Voltimeter said:
But how would you help a student with this question?

Ok.. Please show your thoughts about this question. What have you tried so far?

Edit: MY typing's too slow.. I'll leave this to Tom!
 
  • #13
ok well philospohically... if there is a one step question... and someone gets stuck... how would u go about helping them
say 7+3 for example
 
  • #14
To SuckYaD***

I have just banned your account from this website, and I see that our Admin has deleted your posts. You will not be permitted to post obscenities here, and you will not be permitted to browse the Forums using an obscene username.
 
  • #15
OH! I have lots of fingers lying around!
 
  • #16
tom? this is something you can explain. It just seems absurd to not tell people answers when it is so simple. I don't agree with doing peoples homework for them, but this just seems absurd
 
  • #17
Wellsi said:
tom? this is something you can explain. It just seems absurd to not tell people answers when it is so simple. I don't agree with doing peoples homework for them, but this just seems absurd

It's hard to draw a line and even more to communicate that line to tens of thousands of members with different perceptions. So we just use a blanket rule and it's worked great imo.
 
  • #18
blanket being just don't finish a question for someone?
 
  • #19
blanket being?
Is this a new life form?
 
  • #20
blanket, COMMA, being the idea that one does not finish questions for someone else
 
  • #21
Lord_Voltimeter said:
I was hoping to discuss it in a philosophical vein, but oh well.

OK, we can still do that. :smile:

I would answer:
I wrote down 7+3 = ?
and then I got stuck.

Then I would be compelled to say that you have not attempted the problem. I would also ask you how your teacher explained "addition" to you. Working from that, I could try to find out why you don't understand it, and then explain.
 
  • #22
i personally don't remember doing additions at school, like being first taught them, but i do remember how to do them.

I remember in yr10 i did an equation involving the quadratic formula, and got the answer wrong. Later i found out i commited the stupid mistake of puttin 1 squared as 2.

If i was to post that question and my working on this site how would that work?
 
  • #23
Wellsi said:
tom? this is something you can explain. It just seems absurd to not tell people answers when it is so simple. I don't agree with doing peoples homework for them, but this just seems absurd

It would be pretty absurd for someone to be asking that simple of a question. Our guidelines also require that anyone under 13 have parental permission to join the forum. Since by age 13, such elementary math ought to be mastered, if a parent of a first or second grader allowed their child to join, hopefully they'd also be able to help them with their arithmetic. If for some reason they can't, then the approach certainly would be for them to tell us what they've tried...did they count on their fingers? Or use a numberline? Perhaps they tried counting pennies or marbles. Children ARE taught to add without being just given answers, so the same approaches used in the schoolroom can be used here. The point is that any question someone has to come here to ask ISN'T so simple to the person asking it. They do need to learn to work through it on their own, and to just keep handing them answers without guiding them to solve the problems themselves will keep allowing them to remain ignorant.
 
  • #24
Wellsi said:
tom? this is something you can explain. It just seems absurd to not tell people answers when it is so simple. I don't agree with doing peoples homework for them, but this just seems absurd

Well, let me ask you this: How exactly do you think giving him the answer will help him? They may have the answer to that one question, but it doesn't do anything for them in the long run. Addition may be simple, but there is a process to it. That process has to be learned.

In any case, Greg is right. We don't want this to be a place where lazy kids just drop off their homework problems and expect help and/or solutions to be handed to them. We have to have a single written policy in place, and our current policy is it.
 
  • #25
Wellsi said:
I remember in yr10 i did an equation involving the quadratic formula, and got the answer wrong. Later i found out i commited the stupid mistake of puttin 1 squared as 2.

If i was to post that question and my working on this site how would that work?

I would tell you exactly where your mistake was.
 

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