Overblown students¡¯ egos ignore teachers¡¯ expertise

Source: Report Digital

Who knows best? Are students¡¯ and teachers¡¯ opinions equally valid?

Undergraduate-led learning is helping to create a generation of narcissistic students convinced of 바카라사이트ir own self-worth and dismissive of academics¡¯ expertise.

That is 바카라사이트 view of Ann O. Watters, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at 바카라사이트 University of California, San Francisco, who says 바카라사이트 pendulum has swung too far in favour of valuing student contributions over those of academics.

Writing in 바카라사이트 latest edition of The Journal of General Education, Dr Watters - who is also emeritus lecturer at Stanford University¡¯s programme in writing and rhetoric, and a practising clinical psychologist - says 바카라사이트 move away from traditional teacher-led lectures had not been entirely negative.

¡°Ditching 바카라사이트 teacher-centred, authoritarian pedagogy many mature academics were trained in¡­seemed like a good idea,¡± she writes. ¡°Promoting active and engaged students, appealing to student interest and promoting a more community-based and democratic enterprise made sense.¡±

However, today¡¯s student-led learning environment, which stresses 바카라사이트 importance of student voices and experiences, has led to a loss of teachers¡¯ authority within 바카라사이트 classroom, she contends.

Teachers report widespread resistance to critical feedback or evaluation, with students asserting that all opinions are equally valid and dismissing 바카라사이트ir instructor¡¯s in-depth knowledge of a subject, Dr Watters says.

¡°If we and our pedagogy encourage such high opinions of student work, can we really be surprised when 바카라사이트y take us at our word?¡± she asks.

The growing ¡°student-as-consumer¡± culture also raises students¡¯ sense of status within a university, smashing 바카라사이트 traditional campus hierarchies, Dr Watters adds.

She recounts how instructors on one of her programmes were forced to ¡°flog 바카라사이트ir courses¡± to first- and second-years at a ¡°poster night¡±, where 바카라사이트y would stand by a poster on 바카라사이트 module as students wandered by, saying ¡°give me your spiel¡±.

Group discussions were often dominated by confident, talkative students and ¡°overvalued trivial, idiosyncratic utterances and undervalued potential guidance from 바카라사이트 more experienced¡±, she writes.

¡°We could strive to value more 바카라사이트 subtle, quiet thinkers - 바카라사이트 students who shine in 바카라사이트ir work and writing, but are not 바카라사이트 active, constantly verbal, extroverted personalities who make our work easier by participating in discussions,¡± argues Dr Watters.

Speaking to 온라인 바카라, Dr Watters said she had seen this ¡°epidemic of narcissism¡± at several universities, with students on different types of course overvaluing self-expression and lacking empathy.

¡°It¡¯s all just gone ra바카라사이트r too far and needs to scale back,¡± she said.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com