Day vs Night students
I feel that the "What's In It For Me" rationale only goes so far. My experience has been that day students are more interested in career objectives while night students are more interested in establishing an academic foothold -- which is to say, they want a degree that they think is attainable.
I don't mean to generalize, but as a percentage of total population, I feel that this observation holds true, at least in the Film and Media program. More day students take notes and ask questions. More night students take naps and are anxious to leave early. Classes appear to be necessary evils to them. If they could test out, they probably would.
I would be interested to hear other instructors' observations.
In my experience I have found similar issues. But I wonder if it isn't really the student perspectives or attitudes only, but also just when in the day that you teach a particular student.
Day students often attend class, then go to work whereas the opposite is more likely to be true for the night students. The reason I say this is that I have seen some of the night students in the mornings in later terms and their entire attitude is different.
Another example is that I had a schedule once where I taught the same course to a class at 8am and 6pm and the discussions were better in the morning, but the tests quizzes and projects were markedly better in the evening class because they did work and chose to go to school too. Many of the day students were good, but some were just students and had less accountability.
I am curious, what have other instructors seen?
Hi David,
I have experiencee that the energy level is much higher during the day as oppose to night. I have also observed that the night student seems to be more mature and serious.
Patricia
I have taught early morning, afternoon, and late night classes. It's like three different universes! The early morning students tend to be sleepy, so I like to start morning classes with an activity that requires getting up and moving around. My mid-day students are usually very actice, almost too much sometimes, so I will generally start with something that gets their attention, and makes them focused on the task of the day. My evening students tend to be more focused, attentive, and serious. I try to get right to business with them , and then early on, take a break after they wind down a bit.
Hi Tracey,
I tend to do the same things with my students. Each set is no doubt different. You handle the different sets extremely well.
Patricia
I teach at a career college, evening classes. The younger students certainly seem to have more energy than the more mature students. However, the more mature students, even though tired, tend to give more effort throughout the evening.
I think it also depends on the program, and when it's offered. I teach in several different programs; each has its own personality type, and energy levels vary among them as well.
Our Surgical Technology program only offers courses during the day, so I get all types in these classes -- some straight out of high school, some in their 50s looking for a career change, and all types in-between.
In my other programs, the evening students seem more dedicated and goal-driven, since many of them are already working in their career field, but are looking for opportunities for advancement. My day students tend to have non-career jobs, such as restaurant and retail, so they are not working in the field. These students may be just as motivated, but aren't sure what their future job will entail. I try to give these students an idea of what a job in their field might look like, day-to-day operations and project work alike.
I have to disagree. Night students seem to be more active and objectable in there conquest!
Hi Michael,
I must add that I feel as though night students appear to be much more serious about their education, and they are a lot more mature as well.
Patricia
Hi, Cynthia! Interesting, especially since I find the opposite to be true (that older students seem the more motivated). I don't know whether it's because older students have been in the work force many more years and see how the lack of a degree affects their career advances or whether younger students are raised in an atmosphere of low expectations (especially in inferior public schools), but there is a substantial difference in the generations' expectations.
Now that we're at 9.1% unemployment, the motivation of the younger students should be there--should, but I don’t have enough info or experience to comment on that. Unfortunately, the last six years of my professional career have been in higher ed administration, so I must rely on the opinions of my faculty who provide anecdotes of younger students still lacking motivation to do their work.
Hi, Joe! I think you’re right that the WIIFM (“what’s in it for meâ€) approach has its limits. I hate to sound old-fashioned, but whatever happened to the idea that some people like learning just for the fun of learning? Having a degree or working towards one can advance one’s career, increase a paycheck, and look good on LinkedIn, but there are many students I have had over the past twenty years who value learning just because they want to be part of the group of people who are labeled by the past participle "educated.†This is not to make it seem as though they are all educational snobs; they value knowledge in and of itself; they may also see that an educated person can converse well with others where an uneducated person may stumble over the right word to use or merely offer an innocuous “yeah†when someone else makes a trenchant point.
For me it always a delight—a sheer delight—when I throw out one of my nifty fifty-dollar words in a class and a student uses that term successfully and with pride. For example, when a student is able to describe his or her writing as “mellifluous†and can pronounce that melodious Latinism accurately, I can see the look of joy in that student’s face: he or she has negotiated a higher diction term that can replace the common and relatively ineffective adjective “good.â€
If this is pompous, mea culpa. However, I think the American education system needs much more refinement and challenge to match what South Korea and Japan are most eminently doing. Chronicle of Higher Education articles and postings on LinkedIn show the severe drop in American skills to negotiate difficult language and critical thinking concepts. Often, just relying on self-gain (which usually translates to an increase in one’s paycheck) just doesn’t satisfy.
Wow! How verbose!
