How Ideas about Intelligence and College Impact Academic Success Introduction There is a complete misunderstanding of education by college students in modern times. Students perceive their papers as a means to an end. Learning is considered to be the ability to absorb information from the experts and reproduce the same information on a test. With this kind of notion, students become very reluctant to tolerate any form of productive and active engagement, which is likely to distract them from the ultimate goal. Thesis: Instructors have failed to align their strategies with students, and each entity is pulling in a different direction, thus frustrating/instilling among the students, while at the same time compromising the academic standards.
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Explanation of personal opinion/thoughts paragraphs The education goals in the 21st century have tremendously shifted. There is more emphasis on transferable skills such as creative thinking, innovation, team working, and the production of universal citizens, among other skills. However, this does not appear to be happening in colleges. Initially, the teaching approach was majorly teacher-centered, and the learning was therefore, privileged to those who understood the system and were more familiar with the academic culture. This is something that was supposed to be phased out in 21st-century learning. Despite all the efforts directed towards this in the first world countries such as the U.S., they are yet to realize education goals in the 21st century. Even the teachers themselves are yet to understand what "student" means in the 21st century, as they have become a more complicated entity (Cox 16). Students now feel like failures, which have put the faculty in a dilemma as to whether they should lower standards or accept that most of their students will fail even the most basic courses. Students get to the extent of being helpless, and many of them fail many times. The counterproductive part of it is that there have been cases where students avoid both formal and informal assessments. Apart from the humiliation of failing the exams, the students fear being judged for not being college material or being good enough (Cox 21). I remember there was a time in my college when the end of semester exam results could be put on the notice board for everyone to see. This was one of my lowest moments because there were courses that knew I would not perform well, and indeed I did not perform well. Putting my shame on the notice board was one thing that almost made me drop out of college. The high stakes and graded assignments are considered to be summative assignments. If an assessment is deemed summative, there is likelihood that the fearful students will avoid the
risk of being exposed as unworthy of being a college student. This has implications because the faculty should consider low stakes formative assessments that give students ungraded feedback, thus providing an opportunity for revision and ensuring that they coach them towards improvement. Ideally, there is a mismatch between the intentions of the instructors and the expectations of the students. For instance, the instructors hold an assumption that a student who raises his/her hand or takes the initiative in some way is likely to be a successful student. These could be the students whose fears were guiding them not to ask the question, avoid the instructors, or not take the initiative. Another mismatch exists in the sense that the students come to class thinking that the role of the instructor is to provide information, while the students think that their role is majorly to put the information down, and they will have to record it for later use or exams. As such, the perception that the instructors have on pedagogy is completely lost on students. The classroom experience of the students in itself instils fear among the students. In most cases, students are unprepared and unwilling to engage in classroom discussions, reading, or even peer review writings (Cox 24). I remember very well the many times I expressed my frustrations with any work in class that I deemed irrelevant or disconnected from my grades. There is a gap between teaching and learning, which can be attributed to failure to adjust speaking, acting, and thinking habits. The students in a college also tend to be afraid to take the next step. Students sometimes flood in a classroom and look bored, and the instructor is likely to consider that as a lack of care. However, they may just be hiding, hoping that they can survive, or are utterly terrified. Some instructors will go to the extent of instilling fear. Such instructors cannot reassure the students that they can pass the course. What such instructors fail to understand is that anything that
crumples a student's confidence and causes him/her to leave not only the class but also the college. Conclusion In conclusion, fear in colleges is real, and there are various causes attributed to it. There is a misunderstanding between the students and the instructors. The students are at the receiving end as they end up dropping out or failing exams. A such, it suffices to say that instructors have failed to align their strategies with students, and each entity is pulling in a different direction, thus frustrating/instilling among the students, while at the same time compromising the academic standards. There is a need for faculty to analyze and develop their teaching to accommodate students better while not compromising the standards.
Work Cited Cox, Rebecca D. The college fear factor. Harvard University Press, 2009.