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In some recent questions, I came across two terms I didn't know before, namely MWF and TuTh classes. I do know now what they mean, and, I'm under the impression that this is a standard thing for colleges in the US (is it?).

Why is this relevant for the meta? I think that it's worth noting that math education in different countries is done (slightly) differently, and that good questions should reflect the describe the teaching situations as detailed as needed for giving an answer, which may include infos like number of students, type of exam if any, level of students, and (to get back to my initial reason of this question) avoid abbreviations.

How would you ensure that answers are 'on track' with the questions?

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  • $\begingroup$ MWF = Monday, Wednesday, Friday and TuTh = Tuesday, Thursday $\endgroup$
    – user106
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 8:45
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    $\begingroup$ @Helios :"I do know now what they mean". This question does not ask for the meaning of the abbreviations (I think I had my weekly share of asking what MWF/TuTh is). It's about how much we should explain about our teaching and learning situations and how much is so common that it does not need and explanation. $\endgroup$
    – Roland
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 8:50
  • $\begingroup$ sorry, just trying to help, missed that bit - am human, so do make errors $\endgroup$
    – user106
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 8:53
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    $\begingroup$ A similar issue came up in my question here: matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/186/… (see comments). -- I am against tagging questions with countries, so in the question one should specify such things in the future maybe? $\endgroup$
    – Markus Klein
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 9:00
  • $\begingroup$ It may also be useful for answers to specify which country the answerer's experience is based on, when applicable. This issue comes up a lot on academia.SE. $\endgroup$
    – Mark Meckes
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 9:10
  • $\begingroup$ @MarkusKlein - "I am against tagging questions with countries" - Why? If the question is with respect to how something is taught in a given country, won't that be important? $\endgroup$
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 11:11
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeTaxpayer: Sorry, the intention was different. I think, one should not use a specific country tag if it is only due to some abbreviations. Plus, most of the questions which came up until now are not country specific. In cases where the country plays an important role, one should of course use country tags. $\endgroup$
    – Markus Klein
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 20:43
  • $\begingroup$ To expand on the first part, a MWF class is typically an hour while a TuTh class is an hour and a half. This is because a course which is worth 3 credit hours needs to meet for at least 3 hours per week. If you are only meeting twice a week, the time in class is longer. Teaching techniques will change based on the amount of class time is available. $\endgroup$
    – David G
    Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 5:06
  • $\begingroup$ @Skystso: What may be of interest in this context is the fact that in Germany, university classes usually have a duration of 90 minutes. $\endgroup$
    – Roland
    Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 7:15

2 Answers 2

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I consider it as important that it is clear that there is no default context.

Yesterday, I ran across a formulation like "the country is [...]" but there was no indication which country. I pointed this out, and it was included, which is fine. I intend to continue to point out such things.

But, I have nothing against questions specific to some regional context. I only think it is imortant to make that context clear.

I also agree regarding the use of abbreviations with OP. One thing is that not everybody on this site is a native speaker of English and it could be nice if some attention could be paid to this circumstance. Another thing is the use of abbreviations that are not even universal in the English speaking world, as far as I understand, such as K-12 education. Why not use primary and secondary education instead, a completely standard terminology (possibly even more correct), a litteral translation of which will correspond to the same notion in a variety of languages.

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When things are not clear, we can ask in the comments. I think that will be more efficient and effective than trying to legislate ahead of time that people must figure out which conventions are not worldwide.

If you are not asking the community to legislate this, but just want your concern included in the meta site for later users to see, that makes sense.

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    $\begingroup$ This is not so much legislating ahead, but creating sensitivity. It probably isn't necesarry to include instition and country in every single question, but generally speaking providing more background information will help to provide more specific answers. I think that it would help if we had some rough consensus what doesn't need to be explained. $\endgroup$
    – Roland
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 15:31

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