Prior to starting my PhD work at VT, I worked full time at a private, elite four-year institution. One of my roles was to serve as an academic advisor. I met with freshman and sophomore students’ multiple times a semester until they declared their major (all undergraduate students except for “engineering track”-who come in to college undecided (no prescriptive classes, instead all must take diverse classes, and other requirements, until they declare a major in their second year (sophomore year)). If I could get a penny for every time I heard from the students that, “my undergraduate education is just a means to an end”, I would have several dollars by now. Anyway, what most of the students meant was that the way they view undergraduate education is that it is a stepping-stone for the next important thing that is waiting for them. For a majority of that student population it was: Medical school, Law school and or some other professional degree. Most of them were high achieving students and the way they experienced their classes, they way they engaged on campus (clubs and organization) and the people they networked with, all connected back to the question of “What do I need to do to get to that next step?”
From the beginning of their educational careers (high school or undergraduate), they have been trained (by family or teachers) to keep the end goal is mind, stay competitive, get the highest grades as you will be competing with other talented students (nationally and internationally) and find ways to give you an edge on others. That is not a terrible mentality, but what this process misses or lacks is the conscious involvement and imagination that Eric Liu and Scott Noppe-Brandon discuss. These students come in with too much focus on the next step, and not enough on the daily experiences. Some of these students miss out on all the other experiences that are thrown at them, or if they do engage it is not because they enjoy them but it is because these experiences will look good on the resume. For most of them college GPA is everything, because that number measures their success in college and their path to that end goal depends on how their grades reflect their intellectual capacity and if they will be able to get to that medical school or law school. This tunnel vision and competitive mentality forces them to see each class, each lecture and each experience as “get it done well now and you will never have to think of it again”.
This raises the question of – How do you engage students in classes and challenge them to learn for the sake of learning and not just for a high GPA that will get them in to the next step?
September 14, 2015 @ 9:38 pm
Ayesha, I completely agree with you. Too much of emphasis on the end goal leads to less than required focus on learning what is at hand. The classroom environment should increase intrinsic motivation of students i.e. students should be motivated to learn for the sake of learning something instead of learning something for getting a grade. One of the ways to do that is to reduce the emphasis which we put on grades as a measure of learning and success. We need to de-emphasize grades and emphasize learning so that students do not focus on the end goal rather than the journey which leads them to the end goal.
September 15, 2015 @ 2:21 am
Hi Ayesha,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Sometimes I get e-mails from students from my online classes, who sound desperate, asking for a meeting to discuss their “terribly low” grades that end to be sth like 98 or 97 out of 100. At first I was thinking these are just jokes, yet after meeting with some of them in person, I realized how the education system is actually harming the mental health of the students and wiring their beautiful brains with unhelpful ideas and visions. I liked you using the term “tunnel vision”, that I guess is one of the strongest tool of current “system” to create silent masses, focusing just on a dream of light that is in fact not really there..
September 15, 2015 @ 5:53 pm
Hi, Ayesha, your blog remind me of a recently popular concept of education: degree inflation. Students use college degree as a ticket to a good job, so more and more students go to college wanting this ticket. Right now we have way too many people holding the tickets but the seat is fixed. So employers have to raise their selection threshold to a higher level. Previous work that only need a college graduate right now demand a mater degree. Therefore college degree is not enough to guarantee a good job, so people are seeking a master degree. I do feel it challenging to motivate our students under such environment.
September 16, 2015 @ 9:26 pm
It is certainly a good point! Maybe what we are aiming to do (reflecting upon and trying to figure out new ways for teaching and learning) is really a little “subversive” strategy, viewing the current mindset about educational that you described. It make s me think that it is more important than ever – it is really sad to see entire generations limited by this mindset. Thanks for your input on this!