If I had those problems I would first begin to ask students what the problems were. I have run into many unusual circumstances which were responsible. For example I once had an African American student who was attending a community college in a racist suburb who could not get bus driver to reliably stop and pick him up. I jumped to the conclusion that he was apathetic and didn't really care.
My second strategy would be to ask how I could change my course to make it more interesting and engaging as well as appropriate to the students' skill level. For example, we were having a lot of problems with our general psych course. We found students were signing up to take a course that focused on clinical and personality theories. The order of topics was changed to do these chapters/topics first and use them to slowly introduce the experimental and more biological sides of the discipline. Starting where they were and gradually introducing less attractive material with a lot of justification in terms they could understand (liberal use of medical and clinical case material) made a huge difference. A third strategy that has worked when I found that absences and quality of work suffered late in the quarter. I then realized that almost every faculty member in the institution (Including me) had fallen behind during the term and was rushing to catch up. In addition we had all required projects and papers at this time and many had scheduled exams as well. That led me to front load my courses. I make huge assignments early in the quarter and lighten up later. If I do have projects due I try to make sure the reading and test assignments are minimized. I do use extra credit assignments in class as well as quizzes if attendance is a problem but I make sure these require as little out of class prepration as possible. I also tend to lecture more toward the end of the quarter in ways that don't expect students to have read the material to understand. I have them bring their books and we read hard sections out loud or in small groups and do a lot of text explication. I have never worked in a college setting where student apathy was a main cause of the problems you list. My teaching includes community college as well as larger universities and liberal arts colleges. It is generally too hard and too expensive to go to college to do so if you are apathetic. In fact I was a teacher's aid in an inner city junior high school and student apathy was not a main cause of student problems there either. Sorry to take up space repeating what others have communicated but I needed to vent. I have refrained from responding to each of the questions asked but I have run into reasons for each of the problems listed and apathy has not been the main cause in any case. In fact the only students I have had who showed all the signs of apathy turned out to be significantly depressed. Medication, psychotherapy and even light therapy was helpful in most of those cases. Bob At 09:42 PM 11/1/2001 -0800, you wrote: >For Retta and those who still are not convinced with >the problem of APATHY among college students then how >do you explain the following? > >1. How do you explain students constantly coming late >to class? >2. How do you explain students constantly leaving >early from class? >3. How do you explain excessive student absences "no >shows"? >4. How do you explain students SLEEPING in class? >5. How do you explain students non-participation in >class discussions? >6. How do you explain students never or rarely asking >questions in class? >7. How do you explain students not using office hours? >8. How do you explain students not showing up for >exams or quizzes "no shows." >9. How do you explain students not turning in >assignments when you give them ample time to work on >it and to seek assistance before the due date? >10. How do you explain students not taking advantage >of extra credit opportunities to earn bonus points to >increase their grades when they clearly need it? >11. How do you explain students not taking notes in >class? >12. How do you explain students not using >tape-recorders in class when you recommend it to them? > >I can go on forever....... > >Do you still think none of the above is attributed to >APATHY? > >There is one simple answer to all this and that is >STUDENT APATHY. But I should also note that apathy is >not only a problem among college students. It is also >a problem in our society and in the general >population. > >Payam Heidary > > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Find a job, post your resume. >http://careers.yahoo.com > >--- >You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bob Grossman Professor of Psychology Kalamazoo College 1200 Academy Street Kalamazoo, MI 49006 Psychology Department: http://www.kzoo.edu/psych/index.htm --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
