When Students Resist

How would you respond to this issue posted by a faculty member:

        "Within the past two weeks I have been approached by faculty and
administrators... at my university who say that while they are trying to
improve the
        way they teach by including more active and participatory
methods, they meet resistance from students who ask them to "just tell
them what they
        need to know" and to forget about all this "higher-order
thinking stuff."

What would you say to that professor? What would you say to those
students? How would or do you work to bring students' understanding of
learning in line with your learning goals for them? Your comments could
be helpful for others on the list. As background, here is a brief essay
from The Teaching Professor:

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Shifting Paradigms? Don't Forget to Tell Your Students

Aug/Sept 2004
By Barbara Mezeske, Hope College, MI
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The following essay was prompted by my recent experience at the 2004
Teaching Professor Conference. A panel of four students, in response to
the moderator's questions about how they learned, persisted in talking
about what teachers had done in their classrooms. Despite the efforts of
the moderator, not one of the four panelists spoke about her own
learning, or claimed responsibility for his own intellectual growth.
Education had happened to them all.

The move from teacher- or content-centered teaching to learner-centered
teaching is a radical paradigm shift for our students. Unless we
understand and acknowledge how different this makes the classroom
experience for them, our forays into new kinds of practices will be
misunderstood and met with resistance. In learner-centered teaching, the
balance of power in the classroom is shared by the teacher and her
students; content becomes not the end, but a means to promote learning;
teachers become guides rather than experts; the responsibility for
learning is shifted to the students; and evaluation is used to promote
learning, not merely to generate grades.

This is new territory for most students. After all, experience has
taught them that passivity is expected, even desirable: their teachers
generate assignments, lectures, and evaluations. They have mastered a
set of rules that privileges teacher action: get the right answer (the
teacher's answer); expect every action to merit some tangible reward
from the teacher (points or extra credit); work just enough to earn the
grade you desire, as defined by the teacher's standards. Our best
students have used this approach and achieved great success. They
graduate at the top of their class and leave college with job offers in
hand. Why should we expect them to abandon what has worked so well?

Their struggle is strikingly similar to the one most teachers face when
they themselves embrace change. Which of us would not feel anxious,
reluctant, even hostile, if told we had to retool all of our courses?
Which of us does not experience dissonance when we see evidence that our
teaching produces inferior learning? Like our students, we are products
of a teacher-centered paradigm where the expectation is that teachers
lecture and then test.

However, research tells us that deep learning requires students to be
engaged and that the role of the learner must be central. How then, are
we to bring our students along with us, as we shift from old practices
to new? We must begin by making the process of change a continuous open
dialogue. We must talk about learner-centered practice again and again
as a course progresses. It must become a philosophy that stands at the
center of our course design and practice, not at the periphery. Here are
some ways I think we can accomplish this:

Use reflective learning logs at several points in the semester. An early
log might ask students to respond to the course syllabus, taking note of
any element that seems unusual to them. Or, one might ask students to
strategize their approach to the course, to lay out their plans for
study and homework, and to make predictions about their performance on
course goals and objectives. In some cases, merely asking students to
think about their own learning is surprising to them.

Solicit and share feedback often. After the first test, ask students to
reflect in writing about what they learned from taking it. Ask them how
they prepared for the test, and how their preparation will change next
time. Gather the responses, share them in class, and talk about the kind
of learning that testing promotes.

Reinforce, again and again, that the course is about their learning.
Maintain a dialogue about their learning goals, and their perceived
successes. Always ask, "Did this activity help you to learn? How might
it have helped you to learn better?"

Be flexible. If we operate in a learner-centered classroom, then we can
expect any group of learners to have somewhat unique needs. Accept this,
and make changes as dictated by the feedback received from students.

The need to help students shift the paradigm of their thinking about
what should happen in class is critical if we are to transform them from
passive to active learners who think about ideas rather than about
grades. If we consistently reinforce the value of their own learning, we
can radically alter their thinking about what "going to school" means.
  
Contact Barbara Mezeske at mezeske@hope.edu <mailto:mezeske@hope.edu> .

Alan Altany, Professor & Director
Coulter Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning
Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC 28723 (U.S.)
Email: altany@email.wcu.edu <mailto:altany@email.wcu.edu>
Fax: 828.227.7340
CFC Web Site: http://facctr.wcu.edu <http://facctr.wcu.edu/>
SoTL at Western: http://www.wcu.edu/sotl/ <http://www.wcu.edu/sotl/>
MountainRise, SoTL eJournal: http://mountainrise.wcu.edu
<http://mountainrise.wcu.edu/>
 
 

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Received on Fri Oct 1 09:16:39 2004