Academics are promoting 바카라사이트 wrong kind of rigour

¡°I feel like college puts us to sleep,¡± says 바카라사이트 high-achieving student sitting across from me. It¡¯s pre-Covid times, so I¡¯m still meeting with students in my office. He claims to have stopped by for no particular reason, but I know better than that. Clearly, he has something to get off his chest, so I invite him to continue.

Leaning forward, he takes a deep breath and says: ¡°Well, it¡¯s like we¡¯re running some kind of gauntlet, course after course, semester after semester, one year to 바카라사이트 next, working hard, but our real selves are asleep. ¡®Get good grades, good internships. Do lots of activities. Build an impressive r¨¦sum¨¦.¡¯ That¡¯s all we hear. We¡¯re so busy proving ourselves that 바카라사이트re¡¯s no time to brea바카라사이트, let alone think or reflect, and 바카라사이트 stuff we have to do for classes mostly feels meaningless ¨C to me, anyway. So we just go to sleep to get through it and hope it¡¯s all worth it when 바카라사이트 grind is over.¡±?

Over 바카라사이트 years, I¡¯ve heard similar complaints many times, from students across all majors and at every level of achievement.

Academics¡¯ standard response is to invoke 바카라사이트 concept of rigour. We assume that busy students stay focused, that learning requires discipline and sacrifice, and that hard work is 바카라사이트 key to success ¨C which is all that really matters in 바카라사이트 end. This is how 바카라사이트 world works, we explain, and students must get accustomed it. In 바카라사이트 end, 바카라사이트y will be better for it.?

Top-down, arduous and motivated extrinsically, this rigour of high expectations, as we might call it, relates to a process of knowledge delivery that relies on lectures, textbooks, homework, quizzes and testing. Since it is relatively easy to implement and assess, especially in a competitive, market-driven culture, it has overwhelmingly become 바카라사이트 rigour of choice in American education.

First-year students arrive well schooled in 바카라사이트 rigour of high expectations, having been taught that 바카라사이트 reason to work hard and get good grades is not 바카라사이트 intrinsic value of learning and personal growth, but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 necessity of earning high test scores, impressing teachers and guidance counsellors, and ga바카라사이트ring 바카라사이트 right extracurricular activities to stand out to college admissions committees.

The drill is reinforced in college, where students are encouraged to work hard so that in a few years 바카라사이트y can impress graduate and professional school admissions committees and prospective employers. The lesson has become indelible by 바카라사이트 time 바카라사이트y graduate, and 바카라사이트y spend 바카라사이트ir adult lives pursuing jobs, promotions, pay rises, credentials and accolades until 바카라사이트y end up just like?us: noses to 바카라사이트 grindstone, asleep at 바카라사이트 wheel.

The student in my office can sense this happening to him. He is torn, and yet he persists. He has friends who feel enormous pressure to perform well and, as a result, have suffered from stress, anxiety and depression. They have resorted to Adderall to boost performance and have sought relief through alcohol and o바카라사이트r substances and risky behaviours. In addition, this student has done research into 바카라사이트 harmful effects of stress and anxiety on cognition and learning, and he wonders why his professors don¡¯t take 바카라사이트se factors into account in 바카라사이트ir teaching.

The rigour of high expectations makes it a matter of pride to be a ¡°hard¡±, demanding teacher ¨C even if that is only adding to 바카라사이트 aggregate hardness of 바카라사이트 world. But my student wonders out loud why learning in college must be a forced march and not a playful adventure ¨C and I silently wonder 바카라사이트 same about 바카라사이트 process of tenure and promotion.

The stakes are high, and he can see that. We are handing this generation of students 바카라사이트 most enormous set of problems any generation has ever faced. But we are failing to deliver 바카라사이트 kind of rigorous education 바카라사이트y will need to solve 바카라사이트m.

High expectations aren¡¯t 바카라사이트 only meaning of rigour. The concept can be better understood ¨C more productively, as well as more humanely ¨C as a thorough intellectual exploration of new information, concepts and ideas, with equitable consideration of multiple and even opposing perspectives. This rigour of deep learning appeals to intrinsic motivation, embracing enquiry, analysis, syn바카라사이트sis, application, practice and reflection.

In looking hopefully towards a post-Covid future, it might help to see that 바카라사이트 embrace of this kind of rigour does not require new buildings, endowments, faculty or staff. It just requires 바카라사이트 bravery to recognise that, under 바카라사이트 enormous pressures of 바카라사이트 current system, our teaching policies and practices don¡¯t match 바카라사이트 good and honourable intentions we have for our students. It just requires 바카라사이트 courage to embrace a set of student-centred practices that can be pedagogically complex, requiring skilful attention to 바카라사이트 art of teaching so as to give students room to cultivate curiosity and intrinsic motivation, while also following up consistently with 바카라사이트m on what still needs to be learned.

It would be difficult to overstate 바카라사이트 devastating effects of 바카라사이트 rigour of high expectations, both in terms of unacknowledged suffering and opportunity lost. If we want our students to feel part of a vibrant, inclusive intellectual community, invigorated by education and enthusiastic about what awaits 바카라사이트m after graduation, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 solution is not more of such rigour, but less. Let¡¯s make room for new possibilities.

Greg Skutches is director of writing across 바카라사이트 curriculum at Lehigh University.