Name
Professor name
Subject
March 21, 2019
Super Secret Stories
Lack of knowledge and skills undermine the student's ability to pass college education. With the increasing number of students at colleges, the quality of human capital is influenced adversely. Professors at the face the challenge of handling a larger number of students in classrooms. The colleges are following the same criteria for teaching all students irrespective of their competency and levels of IQ. Professor X his essay, “In The Basement of The Ivory Tower” addresses the bottlenecks of college education that makes learning ineffective for students. Micheal Shermer in TED talks about students’ behavior in “Why Do We Believe in Unbelievable Things?” More emphasis on college on grades causes mediocre students to struggle more because educators are inclined to treat pupils equally irrespective of their varying competency.
Colleges are more concerned about grades than improving cognitive development. The educators in college face pressure from the admin to improve students’ grades. This has affected the quality of education because teachers don’t stress on enhancing skepticism or self-sufficiency in students. The professor argues, “when I fail nine out of 15 students, whether the college will send me a note either informing me of a serious bottleneck in the march toward commencement and demanding that I pass more students”CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). when more students of a class fail, the college pressurizes teacher to pass students. The argument reflects that the reliance of colleges on traditional ideology has lowered the opportunities for promoting skeptical thinking. This highlights the flaws of the colleges because they are only concerned about academic results but not on the reasons for low performance. When students are failing there is a need for adopting the right strategy for addressing their needs but colleges are inclined to choose shortcuts that could save time and money. Institutes have failed to identify the learning gap and reasons that undermine learning capabilities. Educators have also ignored the need for adopting a clear and effective framework for improving students’ competency.
Increase in the percentage of failing students affects the credibility of the educators. Colleges are evaluating teachers capability on the basis of students performance that poses challenges for the professor to pass students. The professor argues “commending me on my fiscal ingenuity my high failure rate forces students to pay for classes two or three times over” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). With more failing students the teacher is condemned of ingenuity and professionalism. The argument states that college' criteria for judging the performance of educators are flawed because they are based on academic results. The administration pays the least attention to the reasons behind failures. Under pressures, many teachers have adopted the strategy for working on grades. Even when students pass the exam they lack skepticism and critical approach required for entering careers. when teachers are evaluated according to the grades of students, they are inclined to pass more students. This is unfair because students who are low-performers never find their limitations and learning constraints.
Enrolling larger population at colleges increase the percentage of failing students. Because colleges are inclined to admit more students based on their idea of providing equal education, the quality continues to suffer. The argument claims, “no one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass" CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). Educators cannot manage larger populations in classrooms more effectively. The colleges are thus neglecting the realistic implications of enrolling more students each year. This reflects the need for reducing the number of students from each class because it is not possible for the teacher to assess learning competency of larger students appropriately. Admitting larger students promotes the concept of collective learning. The argument claims that individual learning is more practical for enhancing competency and cognitive learning. However, the presence of a larger number of pupils eliminates the possibilities of individual learning. The argument claims that colleges must focus on improving the quality of education rather than grades.
Colleges encourage mediocrity that suppresses the idea of exceptional performance. The strategy adopted by professors is to level all students at the base, denying the fact that students vary in terms of intelligence and skills. One major drawback of a college education is that "we don't like to admit that one student may be smarter, sharper, harder working, better prepared, more energetic, more painstaking simply a better student than another" CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). Colleges hardly provide an opportunity for the more hardworking and talented students for standing out in the class. Teachers and colleges have neglected the fact that some students are better and sharper compared to others. This affects the talents and spirits of the hard-working students negatively. They lack encouragement that could take them towards their goals and better futures. Prevalence of such mindset has acted against the bright students because they receive no appreciation for their better performance. The argument claims that leveling all students at the base level is against the idea of promoting competition. Students that perform better are discouraged when they receive no appreciation from the educators. This has adverse impacts on the students and deteriorates the quality of education.
The level playing field is a flawed technique for addressing students in classrooms. Youth exhibit differences in terms of competency, skills, and intelligence. Some students take more time in understanding or learning information compared to the intelligence students. Level playing strategy is impractical because it treats all students equally. “When I am at my best, and the students are in an attentive mood generally, early in the semester the room crackles with positive energy” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). The argument claims that students taking more time in learning must be treated differently from the ones taking less time. This strategy will allow educators to work on improving the performance of students by addressing their needs individually. This will save the time of the educators and the students thus leading to a more effective environment for learning. The colleges need to understand that students who are slow at learning need more time compared to the high-achievers. The argument identifies the role of the teacher in addressing the needs of these low performers and helping them in enhancing their learning capabilities. Struggling learners that are low average students are not able to achieve good scores and face difficulties in competing with normal students.
The desire of colleges to maintain high academic standards also undermines the quality of learning. The professor mentions, “financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). The argument claims that colleges neglect the larger implications of enrolling marginal students. They often lack capabilities to compete with the high performers. The adoption of various assessment techniques provides enhanced support to the students who are low performers. Educationists can adopt multiple intelligence and learning styles among students that reflect the need for different approaches to address issues of reading and learning. The procedure addresses the writing and reading needs at different levels. To address the writing and reading needs of students, it is important to assess the level of performance and their capabilities. The most effective measure is to address students according to their levels of learning, and different methods are adopted for such purpose. The study proposes that one of the main reason that results in ineffective learning is the inability of educationists to address students in a way that focus on what students need to most effective educators are crucial for identifying the needs of students and have profound impacts on building learning capabilities of struggling students.
The student's classification involves struggling learners, on- level learners and high achievers. The appropriate strategy suggests placing students in different classrooms according to the levels. The staff has an important role in the placement of students and place gifted students are designated classrooms. Similarly, high achievers, average and low average students can be placed in all classrooms. Placement of students in classrooms according to their intelligence level and capabilities is to assess the level of progress among students. The teachers apply more focused procedures over strugglers, and they receive more comprehensive instructions. The learning program for high achievers takes less time while for strugglers it requires more time. The argument states that teachers' instructions about reading will improve the ability of students and it decline the chances of errors. The low average and high achievers improve their reading and writing. The interventions improve the writing of students, and they were able to make better sense of grammar, sentence combining and summarizing.
Lack of student-teacher interaction creates a skills deficit. another flaw of the college education is that it hardly provide an opportunity to the educators for studying the beliefs of their students. It is difficult to change the beliefs of the students as Shermer mentions, "it's uncomfortable not to believe things" CITATION Mic141 \l 1033 (Shermer). Students who believe that they are intelligent or better performers don’t accept their failure. Even when a student receives a failing grade he exhibits disbelief, “I was so proud of myself for having written a college paper” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). This is because students have developed assumptions and they continue to follow them. Such beliefs undermine their ability to perform better in academics. It is thus important for the educator to familiarize students with their actual performance level and identify areas of their weaknesses. Beliefs based on false assumptions have detrimental impacts on student learning. Building strong interaction between students and educators can be an effective tool for eliminating the learning gap. When teachers will know the assumptions or beliefs of their students they can help them in overcoming them. “There was an enormous distance between students and professors” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). This undermines professor's ability to determine the issues faced by students. Most of the students continue to suffer only because their teacher fails to identify their weaknesses.
When students are differentiated according to their performance they will be encouraged to perform better. Shermer states, "we are pattern-seeking primates" CITATION Mic141 \l 1033 (Shermer). Reward strategy can be an effective intervention for enhancing learning. But when colleges are putting more pressures on teachers for good grades they discourage adoption of such strategies. Reward system is focused on treating students according to their performance level. Although it will provide an opportunity for encouraging the students it will not create inequality. Teachers must be able to use different approaches to evaluate the level of progress among students and compare the performance of students at the entry level and after the intervention. Criterion specific reward also works as positive reinforcement. The teacher identifies the behavior and criteria for reward. The strategy includes privilege rewards and tangible rewards that lead to positive feelings such as a feeling of or privilege. When a student performs better, he receives compensation that will generate a feeling of privilege.
Student’s inability to accept their weaknesses minimize the scope of their improvement. It is because "everyone wants to triumph. But not everyone can, in fact, most can’t” CITATION Pro08 \l 1033 (Professor X). They are doing great according to their minds and are unwilling to accept reality. Students also lie that they are doing well even when they are facing complications in learning. The argument claims that “sometimes we are willing participants in deception for the sake of social dignity” CITATION Pam14 \l 1033 (Meyer). This further increases the challenges for educators who really focus on improving the learning competency of students. Students believe that they will look dumb if they discuss their learning issues with the educator. This again reflects the importance of teacher's responsibility of determining student needs. It is thus important for the colleges to create an environment that will allow teachers to engage in interactions with the students. Direct communications provide information about areas where student need more attention.
Assessing all students with the same level of the playing field is a common strategy prevailing at colleges. This threatens the quality of education because educators are pressurized to provide academic results. The performance of the teacher is evaluated according to the academic results of the pupils so they are unable to focus on their weaknesses. Due to the higher number of enrollments at colleges maintaining an effective relationship between students and teachers has become more challenging. This undermines educators’ ability to addressing the needs of pupils individually. An appropriate strategy for improving learning competency of students is by treating them according to their skill sets. Everyone cannot triumph because students differ in terms of intelligence and potential. Building strong interaction between students and educators can be an effective tool for eliminating the learning gap.
Work Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Meyer, Pamela. Can You Learn To Spot A Liar? 2014. 21 03 2019 <https://www.npr.org/2014/06/20/321797472/can-you-learn-to-spot-a-liar>.
Professor X. "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower." The Atlantic Magazine (2008).
Shermer, Michael. Why Do We Believe In Unbelievable Things? 2014. 20 03 2019 <https://www.npr.org/2014/06/20/321798967/why-do-we-believe-in-unbelievable-things>.
