My RHE 306 students have a paper due tomorrow. I tried to write an assignment on the "mapping a controversy" model. I thought that I had produced a fairly clear assignment, and I also thought that we had talked about the assignment enough in class. But today, during extra office hours, and tonight, when I am trying to do my own work, I have been flooded with questions about the assignment.

Don't get me wrong--I don't mind answering questions. In fact, I like knowing ahead of time (that is, before I get the papers) what kinds of problems/questions my students have had with the assignment. It is really helpful information. But I am sort of alarmed about the number of questions I've gotten, and the nature of the questions. Everyone wants me to tell them HOW to organize the paper, HOW exactly to cite the articles in question, HOW exactly to set up the quotations. Some of them seem paralyzed to produce much of anything without getting answers to ALL their questions and concerns.

The longer that I teach, the more I think that what I most want my students to leave my class with is the ability and the confidence to read assignments and figure out what is being asked of them. I try to achieve this, in part, by emphasizing PROCESS over product in my class (even to the point of creating a grading system that supports process). And I find myself fairly demoralized when my students seem overly dependent on me to provide a blueprint for their work.

I wonder, collective wisdom of blogging pedagogy, how other people approach the issue of autonomy. How do you encourage students to make decisions for themselves? To take risks?