At 07:23 AM 6/1/2003 -0600, Ed
>
>It's an accident that a comparably passionate discussion over years on
>this list has been about student evaluations. The fiery debate here too
>seems again rooted in differences in emphases on respect and
>responsibility.
In my mind this is not an accident. These two topics are intimately
intertwined. If students are purchasing grades and diplomas, then they
will evaluate faculty accordingly. If they are purchasing guidance to
learn and grow, then they will also evaluate faculty accordingly.
Unfortunately, most students in college are purchasing grades and
diplomas. Anyone who thinks otherwise has either not looked hard
enough, or has been wearing rose colored glasses.
All children are born natural learners. If they were not, they would
never learn to see, move, walk and talk. This natural learner is still
present in all students. When they learn to skateboard, play musical
instruments, play sports, etc. they act as natural learners. That is
they learn from their mistakes and continue to improve.
However, most students have learned that learning is NOT a part of going
to school. In school they are to parrot the teacher, cram, memorize, or
do whatever it takes to get the best grades possible, with the least
effort. The few students who have not learned this lie, are the joys of
teaching. The victories of teaching in college are when we are able to
get a few students to realize that the lie that they learned is wrong,
and that learning IS art of the educational process.
The forces leading them to believe the lie of the game of school are
many, and include the following:
well meaning parents who tell students that they must go to school and
get good grades so that they can get good jobs.
Teachers who believe that they must tell students everything that they
must learn in lists of goals and objectives and that tests should only
cover what was covered in class. (I have heard of an educator who
believed that the problems given on tests should be IDENTICAL to those
given in class or homework. EVEN WITH THE SAME NUMERICAL VALUES!!!!)
TV and movies which tell them that learning in school is only for nerds
and if they want to be cool they should not work hard in school.
Peers, who have gotten bad grades and thus see the good students as
threats. I am not blaming those who got bad grades here, but rather a
system which values grades above all and works on a mass-production
approach which believes that all students should learn the same things
at the same rate.
The above forces lead students to believe that they must get the RIGHT
answer the FIRST time or they are failures, and that any faculty member
who gives work that they cannot master the first time is trying to keep
them from their goals by setting standards too high.
These students do not value "cognitive dissonance", which is vital to
any true, deep learning. This is then reflected in their evaluations of
faculty teaching.
Mike
Lafayette College
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