Lecture 6
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Understand the Standards for High Quality Performance
Understand the Standards for High Quality Performance
Students who come to college have planned for this experience for many years. They have excelled throughout grade school and high school and have high expectations about their ability to perform at the same high level. However, many students encounter difficulty because of a significant difference in the “talent pool.” The authors of the book, Learning to Learn (Smith, Donald E. P., et al.), which was published in 1961, make the following statement: “Achievement in college is only partly a matter of capacity. It is, to a large extent, a matter of method.” The authors go on to say: “High schools have a wide range of talent. Thus the brightest may sometimes loaf and do well. But colleges select their students in such a way that the range of talent is restricted.”
Throughout this lecture, emphasis has been placed on the need to adapt. Such adaptation is especially important when it comes to evaluation. The level of competition you face now is higher than in the past. Not only is the level of competition higher but also the level of expectation on the part of your instructors. The students who are willing to engage the material and who develop a passion for learning are the students who will excel.
Common student work dodges
It is important to understand the most common mistakes that inexperienced students make. You could call the following three steps advice on how to be an unsuccessful student.
Idle conversation (indicative of a lack of
self-discipline)
- I’m only going to talk for a few minutes
- I don’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings
- I can't say "no".
- The professor is no good.
- The professor (the class) is boring.
- The professor has an accent so I can’t understand him/her.
- Everybody failed the test.
- It was a bad test.
Refusal to engage the material (indicative of passive learning)
- It's not relevant.
- It's too hard, too abstract, etc.
- There's no practical use for this material.
- Is it going to be on the test?
The attitudes represented in these examples are not exhaustive. They are manifested in myriad ways. Students need to be aware of their “thinking about their thinking.” Develop a sense of self-awareness. What am I doing well? What works? What doesn’t? Are the strategies that worked well in the past still working? If not, why not? What changes can I make?
For further investigation:
Covey, Sean The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1998.
Covey, Stephen. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons In Personal Change. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Freire, Paolo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” Shaping Discourse. Ed. April Lidinsky, et al. Pearson Custom Printing, 2002.
Light, Richard J. Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Smith, Donald E. P., et al. Learning to Learn. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1961.
Weinsheimer, Joyce D. Turning Point. Wadsworth, Inc., 1993.
