edited by: TAMAR Y. SUSSKIND Oakland Cornmuniw College Auburn Heights, MI 48057
W C , Viewpoint A Note from the Chair of 2YC3
Today, more than ever before, the two-year college with its unnrecedented growth and its hiehlv diversified nroeram has
u
~.~~~
hisn new column, The 2yE3 Viewpoint, hopes to address issues, problems, and poinb of view that are of particular interest ~
~~
to two-year college chemistry teachers and of general interest to all chemistry educators. The followingpaper was presented to a group of community college teachers from Delta College, Michigan, at their Spring Professional Growth Development Conference. The theme of the conference was "Striving for Excellence" and the special topic was "Coping with Shifting Student Expectations."The paint of view expressed here may he a provocative one, at least in the context of the two-year college.
Coping with Shifting Student Expectations Tamar Y. Susskind Oakland Community College, Auburn Heights, MI 48057 The title, "Coping with Shifting Student Expectations" implies that students now in higher education have expectations different from previous students. Do we have evidence of this? Is it an impression that we have? Could it he that our expectations of the students is what has changed? We can assess ourselves hut in the absence of adequate data we cannot presume to assess the students. If for a moment we turn this topic around, we may get a little perspective, a t least, on ourselves. Everyone who has been teaching for more than five years is aware that, for a variety of reasons, the way we feel about our students begins to change. We often feel about our students the way we feel about ourselves. When we are young, new in the profession, vigorous and enthusiastic we demand a great dear of ourselves and assume that we can also demand a great deal of our students. As we continue to teach is it p&ible that we put out less energy and that our students therefore achieve less? Because of that, we ascribe to our students a lowering of expectations. If we mean the opposite, I have yet to hear it. Are the student expectations shifting upward or downward? If the shift of expectation occurs in what is expected of us as instructors that is one issue and a big one. But if the shift is one that includes the goal of an entire college education then we have vet another issue. Judeine from the flurrv of students taking business courses, data processing, computer courses, eoal of eduand robotics one would think that the ultimate " cation was to enable a person to enter the job market competitively. The students seem to look upon education more vocationally and to he more goal-oriented than ever before. We are expected as teachers to show them how to "make it"-that is, have a marketable skill. The question I would like to pose is: how do I (and maybe some of you) having been raised in a tradition of knowledge for its own sake face students who are not interested in the very values that drove me t o find my own education? How do I bridge the gap between the value systems: vocational skills versus pursuit of -knowledge? Thomas Lounshury, that great turn-of-the-century Yale 48
Journal
of
Chemical Education
educator once commented on "the infinite capacity of the undereraduate to resist the intrusion of knowledee." This " " infinite resistance to knowledge applies more than ever now, es~eciallvto the fields of science and. in narticular. chemistrv. I have spoken with students who take in telling me that thev have never had a chemistrv course. and furthermore hoped they never would. Other s~tudentswho have had m t : disastrous chemistrv conrse in hirh schml tell me they would never consider taking another. ~ g e Inmeet a class for the first time I'm apologetic. I trv to convince them that chemistrv is not somethingdreadfuc that it can he exciting, challengkg, and even stimulating. I tell them that learning itself is a chemical process and &though taking the course may not lead directly to immediate employment or a "pot of gold," i t may come in handy some day when they least expect it. It may help them make informed choices on scientific and technological issues facing our society. We are caught in the compromising position of having to teach skills without abandoning the development of the kind of mind that can think logically and reason effectively. Somewhere in my education I've come to believe in learning, in questioning, and in the human spirit. I owe it tomy students to let them know how much there is which goes beyond immediate gratification. In coping with these waves of dualistic tension-pragmatism versus theory, vocation versus academics, experience versus homework, now versus yesterday or tomorrow-I feel that the teacher must have the pervasive conviction that learning is in and of itself a highly valuable activity; a goal worthy of everyone's pursuit and one that draws a variety of rewards. T h e economic climate of the 80's. in which teachers must worry about enrollment, combined with our egalitarian open door . ~ o l i. c vhas forced us to make certain adiustments. I'm aware, for example, that it has hecome increasingly important for me not to fail too manv students. Because of that. our demands are lowered and there is an erosion of student expectations. It is known that people perform a t a level a t which you assume they are going to perform. Perhaps we tend to sell our
students short by descending to a lower level of expectation. Before long, they inevitably come to share our expectation of them. We know that students never, or hardly ever expect enough of themselves. Don't you think they know where the easy A's are? They can get by with a minimum of work, but in sodoing they deprive themselvesof an education. It isour .ioh to expect the best of them and 1 suspect we can uet it. It is the onlv wav the students will find thr hesr in themselves. ~eachers"mu&find their own way of expecting the best of their students. Most of us don't even know how little we expect of them. Getting hack to my earlier point: do I find myself expecting less of my students as a trade-off so that they will expect less of me? After all, I can pay them off fairly well. Haven't we aH been a little guilty of grade inflation? The result seems to be that students want better grades for less input. The question we face is shall we continue to acauiesce in the lowering of expectations by accepting the diminished demands of our students, a reflection of our own lowered estimate of thwr abilities'! I believe we havrh permitted it to happen and we have theability to turn it around. Altho~~gh weare invohed in a crisis where headcount in the classroom looms large and some of our jobs may he a t stake, I feel that we must do a balancing job. We must offer courses with substance and reward excellence and not mediocrity. A faculty member's enthus~asmand commitment to h h o r her subject w~llhave the grrutest impwt un students and they will in turn be motivated to dig in. Further, how do we cope with behavioral patterns that go
along with students' shifting expectations, e.g., the increased demand for make-up tests, extra help sessions, extra credit requests, the resistance to write anything except check-off multiple-guess answers, the apparent lack of discipline? These are real problems and coping with them is not easy. My experience has taught me to try to communicate, verbally and in writing, realistic goals with realistic demands to my students from the start. I explain my policies regarding grading system, make-ups, absences, etc. With this strategy the student hardlv ever tries to make a soecial ulea. And special pleas have to he very special indeed. i n thisbalancing act (and there always seems to be one), I try to be studentcentered but I also maintain a firm directiueness. Although student evaluations are not terribly reliable, I have found them to he helpful in improving my interactions with students. They are suprisingly candid and I believe we ought to consider themes repeatedly expressed therein. In conclusion. I must admit that this t o ~ i is c an enormous one. I t can be viewed in various ways. w e must consider teacher responsibility as well as students'. They are intricately intertwined. I would like to leave you with two general conclusions: 1) Be realistic-make reasonable demands on yourself and your students. 2, Acknou ledge the fact that stud~ntsnre job urlented, but du not In rhc process Iusc s~ghtof thc great wluc 01 Icarn~ngIn and of i t self.
Volume 61 Number 1 January 1984
49
