Personal Accountability of Students
One of the most difficult aspects that I have faced in teaching is when a student does not hold himself or herself accountable for their actions. Students who tend to do this typically will blame their hardships on the instructor. I try to conduct a crucial confrontation with the student explaining the facts without trying to judge the student yet this sometimes does not work. What other suggestions does the facilitator or the rest of the learners in this workshop have about this topic? Look forward to hearing back from some folks.
Jay Familant
Jay,
I also have intervention discussions with my students. I express my concern that they are not getting the education they have asked me to faciliate for them. Phrasing my concern in this way tends to open their eyes and remember that this education was a choice they made which in turn shines the light on personal accountability.
Toni Marek
Some people will always want to be the victim and students are no exception. It is easier for them to blame someone else. I have noticed that they have dodged many bullets by placing blame on others throughout their lives. I do not let them manipulate the conversation with the "poor me". I make it a closed end discussion with the consquences stated. I hope this helps
Paulette,
Thank you for sharing this perspective with us. You are right on with your approach in managing the students in relation to assuming responsibility for their own success.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I have had issues with this in the past, however I found that stating my expectations as well as my goals to meet their expectations of the class on the first day of class and having the sign that they understand them and give them to ask any questions. A kind of "speak now or forever hold your peace," moment. That now leaves it all up to them to be accountable for their actions or lack of.
Heather, I have to disagree with the approach. We use a syllabus the first day of class and a set of guiding principles to let all the students in a class know what we are planning to cover and what is expected of them to accomplish the class goals. At the same time we explain that we know that "Life gets in the way." and we expect them to communicate responsibly with us to address any issues that might come up.
I had a situation like this once with a student in a class that I was teaching. She came into my class on Microsoft Excel with a 4.0 GPA and she passed my course - with a "D". This meant her 4.0 GPA evaporated by the end of the course. This came because she did not take her final examination on schedule, but rather, deferred it to the last minute and then ran out of time when life issues came up.
She e-mailed me after the due date, begging me to re-open the test; I refused. It wasn't because I was being mean overbearingly harsh, but there was a greater teaching moment that would have been lost by simply capitulating to her pleadings.
Turns out, she was very disorganized as a student and generally as a person. It never came to bite her in the posterior until she hit my class. I wrote her a pretty terse response to her e-mail telling her that I really didn't appreciate her tone because I had, more than once, communicated the conditions for the test. To abrogate that would be a hit to my credibility. I was more than fair. She came to realize it was totally her fault, even though she was highly irate for my "lack of flexibility".
Whatever.
I took the hit on my evaluation, and she pretty much hates me now. But in these situations, the student needs to learn the consequences for failing to deliver as a student. These lessons translate to the real world, really more than the course content.
In other words, she'll never make that mistake again - and she'll be better for it. I can live with that and she will learn to do so as well.
Today's society seems bent on a sense of entitlement - that students are "paying all this money to be in school" and that we owe them a good grade. For me, the tuition is the "cover charge" to get into the class - they have to earn their grade through their hard work and adherence to my guidance and tutelage.
Sometimes, teaching them accountability means allowing them to suffer the consequences for failure. Experience is a harsh teacher - she gives you the test before teaching you the lesson.
Cheers,
-R
Rick,
Thank you for sharing this story with us. I like the way you handled this situation because it was a learning tool for her, because she paid a price for her lack of preparation and organization. Think if she did that on the job, she would be gone. As you experience is a harsh teacher that will give you as many lessons as needed until you understand responsibility and ownership of your destiny.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Rick -
A similar situation just occurred this past session in my class as well. I had 2 students that were doing well, and skipped the last day of the block, which included their final written exam. Because of that, one dropped to a low C, and the other fell to a D+.
The frustrating piece from my side is that both are very talented and could have finished the class with much better grades. I wanted to see them finish strong, but they set the stage for their own outcome.
I have both of them for the next class they will have in our program, and I know there is going to be tension, but it was their choice. Like you, I'm hoping they learn and grow from this.
-Matt
I also have them sign that they understand my expectations, go over all the rules and give them a chance to ask questions. I also post it on the portal for them, so it is pretty clear. Students come up with excuses for just about anything, though!
Marianna,
I like this method. I use it as well. It holds them accountable that they have received the information.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I so agree. The tone should be set from the very start. Accountability is one of the very first topics on the first day of class.
Rick and Matt:
Very frustrating and similar situation here. I have found that letting them know what my expectations are up front and not caving no matter what the excuse is the best policy. Life happens and there will be every excuse in the world but when you start making exceptions for this one or that one you are just setting yourself up to be walked on later. Unfortunately I learned that the hard way but it has made me toughen up.
Stacy
Hi Stacy:
I do believe that expectations should be laid down ad nauseeum so there is no question as to what the student and instructor's role in the class is to be. That's what the syllabus is for.
I tell my students that the syllabus is the Constitution of the class and does not get amended without an "act of Congress". And if it does, I promise them it will never make it harder on them - it will either be neutral or to their benefit.
Playground rule: Never change the rules of the game after the game has started.
By the way, I did say "instructor" expectations too. Students should know what they can expect from you, just as much as you expect from them - and they have the right to call you on it if you don't deliver on your side of the bargain. Tell them that. Empower them and you'll see that they won't have any trouble with your expectations of them - it's called mutual respect.
It's easy to get into the trap of management by exception - the FAA did this for years with the sheer number of exemptions they wrote to the aeronautics rules. So they took those exemptions, rewrote the rules, and went from there. Pilots now abide by the rules; exemptions are very difficult to even apply for.
So it goes in the classroom.
HTH
-R
I am not so far removed from the classroom myself, but it seems as though alot of our students don't want to take responsibility for their own learning and actually get angry if things aren't handed to them. How do you get a student to realize the importance of taking control of their own learning; it is hard to change a student's thinking level and to motivate them to aspire to something greater.
Christiana,
Good question and one we all struggle with. Do the best you can to engage the students, organize and plan well for your instruction and show examples of what success is. If that doesn't get some students involved then they may not be reachable. If you have done all you can to help them be successful then you can take comfort in that. In the end their success or failure is up to them and this is tough because many come with an "entitlement" attitude.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I agree that you have to be harsh at times to get students to take their assignments seriously. They do find every excuse in the book, and the only person they are hurting is themself! I always remind them that they should prtend that I am their boss and they are on the job. All assignments lead to their paycheck (their final grade)... What should I pay you if you did not do the job, only did part of the job, etc?..... Sometimes this helps to put it in perspective for them
Denise,
The more you can connect your students to the real world the more they are going to see the value of the content you are teaching and the skills you are helping them to develop. They have to see that they are creating a future for themselves and part of that future is their success in this course.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Holding students accountable is important if we are to prepare them for the real world!
VALERIE,
So true and so important for their career success.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
