Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

Apparently college students no longer feel that they should have to work to receive good grades.  

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

There is a sense of entitlement here that they have absorbed throughout their early schooling. Everybody wins, nobody should lose, as long as they try real hard.   Here is a quote from a senior at the University of Maryland:

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” he added. “If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”

What about actually learning the material?  Where is the actual education?  

Professor Brower said professors at Wisconsin emphasized that students must “read for knowledge and write with the goal of exploring ideas.”

This informal mission statement, along with special seminars for freshmen, is intended to help “re-teach students about what education is.”

College should not be an extension of high school.  Any student interested in "higher" education should already know what education is. 

  

Full article: New York Times