Thursday, August 4, 2011

Week 5 - Supplemental Posting - Effort does not mean minimum, substandard, or no work

Hi All:

Grade for Effort
This is not my reflection posting for week five; however I wanted to comment on Max Roosevelt's article, "Students Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes" that Professor Pusch posted in the enrichment resources folder. The article basically states that today's students have a sense of entitlement and expect to get A grades for doing the minimum amount of work possible like just attending class and doing all the reading assignments. The author then has various pundits chime in with their reason(s) for the above expectation: (1) Cultural/social,psychological pressures (i.e., overbearing family/parents; competitive friends, achievement anxiety); (2) High-stakes testing school environment; and (3) Putting in a lot of effort.

The question I ask is how are we defining effort? Is it all about doing the least amount of work possible such as stated above? In the case of college/university students, is it about arguing with the professor at the end of the academic session or semester about why they should be given an A, although they did not submit any work or do just the bare minimum? Is it about threatening to have their parent(s) sue the professor and Syracuse University? Is it about stating that if they do not get an A, they will not be able to get into (insert name & type of professional school) or get (insert name of career/job/position title/award). I do not think this is the way effort should be defined. The above activities is what I call "the dark side of extrinsic motivation."

When students get ready to make a case about effort, they should ask themselves the following fundamental questions?:
  • Did I turned-in all late or outstanding assignments?
  • Have I spoken or written to the professor to explain my problem or concern?
  • Have I fulfilled all the requirements of the course (even if some are late) in the highest possible manner?
  • Have I actively participated in class (Face-to-Face platform) or on the discussion board (online platform)?
  • Have I tried to go above and beyond the minimal standard in any of my course requirements or assignments?
At the end of the day, when a teacher/instructor/professor goes to his or her grade-book, there has to be tangible proof, that a student was active, engaged, and committed to the class that goes beyond the minimum standard. In other words, the student has to show that that he or she did indeed make a strong academic effort to do well in the course.

Best,
~Aja

Reference
Roosevelt, M. (2009. February 18). Student expectations seen as causing grade disputes. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html

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3 comments:

  1. rob puschAugust 7, 2011 at 4:57 PM

    hello Aja,
    this issue of entitlement is a struggle for faculty. Last fall I co-taught CLS 200 where all assignments were podcasts (video and audio). The students came ill prepared, they seemed to think the assignments could be put together at the last min. They didn;t show up to class (oh, I have a big test. I scheduled a meeting with a group from another class... so many excuses). THEN, when grades came had the nerve to use the "but a B+ will look bad when I apply to grad school." (Honestly, that B+'s won't matter that much when applying to most grad schools so long as they overall do well.) During the semester they were told numerous times that their work was sub-par, but that didn;t change their behavior. The students who complained did speak about how much effort they put in. None of them appeared to care about the quality, it was about the grade.

    That is all about motivation. It reminds me of a comment one of the students in the motivation class made several years ago. He was a elementary school teacher. He commented they were told all kids should get some award no matter how badly they did because giving the kids awards would build self-esteem. However, the result was student who felt they were entitled to grades without having to do quality work.

    So yes, students should learn that it's not just about showing up to class and completing assignments, they do need to ask if they did quality work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aja_BrownAugust 7, 2011 at 6:20 PM

    Hi Professor Pusch:

    The situation that you described above is a refrain that is going on in my academic department. Many of the department's faculty members are quite shocked and surprised about this sense of entitlement phenomenon and students.

    I agree with you that quality work matters. This belief, I inherited from my parents because they personified quality and integrity in every job that they held over the years. I remember them complaining about the bad work ethic and poor job performance of some of their fellow co-workers. They just did not understand that mindset because they always told us kids to have pride in our work and to always try to do an excellent job.

    Best,
    ~Aja

    ReplyDelete
  3. rob puschAugust 12, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    Hello Aja,
    It is sad to see we are now seeing it in grad students! Wayyyy back when I started grad school in Chemistry, grad students didn't care so long as we got at least a B since one had to have a 3.0 or higher GPA to keep a TA/RA/GA position. I mean, A's were always nice, but no one stressed about getting an A-, B+ or B. What was considered important was our research, conference presentations, dissertations and publications. When it came down to moving on to get a job those are the things that mattered.

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