What is going on? Is this the long tail of the pandemic? Part of the country’s crumbling belief in higher education? Some combination of social media, smartphone use, mental-health crisis, and young adults’ general dismay at the state of the world? The reality of a less prepared, less wealthy student body attending colleges that still have not sufficiently adjusted to serve them?
The latest issue of The Chronicle includes a collection of articles — including one by Beth and one by me — that grapple with these questions. Beth’s story, Customers in the Classroom, explores the reasons behind and implications of students’ widespread view that college is a means to an end. This perspective stems from years of college being marketed to them as a way to get a well-paying job, and it animates everything from trying to talk professors into a higher grade to feeling disenchanted with the education they’ve been working toward all their lives. And it makes things awfully hard on professors who encounter risk aversion, cheating, and uncertainty about the purpose of higher education.
My story, Declarations of Dependence, sheds light on why so many students are struggling to do significant coursework outside of class. It features some professors who have taken steps to help, and asks if perhaps the conventional model of independent learning in higher ed will have to change.
We hope you’ll read these stories, if you haven’t already, and the other stories in our Teaching Gen Z series. And thank you so much to everyone who filled in or passed around our Google forms asking questions about these topics. We read all of your responses, and the observations readers share play a significant role in our reporting.
We’ve gotten some thoughtful feedback from readers — always appreciated — on our work in this series so far. But we’d love to hear whether these stories resonate with your recent experience working with students. And we’re not done working to help professors understand this group of students, either. If you have questions or ideas you’d like to see us explore, please let us know! beckie.supiano@chronicle.com and beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com
Making students feel they matter
Recently, I asked how instructors teaching large courses are signaling care and building social connection. Here’s a thoughtful example from Denise Apodaca, a master instructor at Colorado State University and a piano instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University. She teaches a Music Appreciation course at Colorado State with about 250 students per section.
“I don’t think the ways I make the class smaller is a time saver, but I ask the students to write reflections — samples of their writing in real time that reflect listening to a piece of music, a discussion point, or perhaps even just how their day is going. I respond to all of them. It takes me about four hours to do this, but I’m insistent and committed to having my students matter. It’s not their fault they are placed in a system of 250 students per instructor. Once I respond to them, even once, they come back to class and tell me they couldn’t believe I wrote them a personal message — that I made them feel that they mattered.
“Another thing I do is invite presentations for extra credit. It’s not for an actual grade, as I don’t want to require that every student does this. But students are invited to come up to the front of the class and perform on an instrument, or if they don’t know how to play, they show a video and speak about the form, the lyrics, and what it makes them feel. Soon, students sign up; their peers encourage and inspire them to present. It makes the class smaller, and people begin to connect and recognize each other for what they’ve given. We also sing and learn dances together; even with 250 students, it’s possible! And very fun.”
ICYMI
- Chad Raymond makes a case for how teaching should adjust in the face of generative AI in a recent Chronicle advice piece.
- James M. Lang has a friendly critique of Susan Blum’s new book, Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning, in a Chronicle advice piece.
- What would it really take to improve college teaching? Jonathan Zimmerman explores the challenge in an article for Washington Monthly.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
—Beckie
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