Students’ Reactions
By Prof. Jonathan
Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social
Sciences
Universidad
Latina de Costa Rica
Friday,
April 29, 2016
Post 260
Before
we get to discuss a bit about student reactions, let us consider the following
scenario:
You are
teaching a class composed of a very diverse group of learners. On the first
day of class, you see that you have younger students who have just started
college, and older, returning students.
One of the
activities you always do to start this course is to have students break into
groups and discuss what they already know about the subject, and brainstorm a
list of what they want to learn. You notice that the older students are very
engaged during this discussion, while the younger students seem bored or
distracted. One is taking notes as other students are talking, while others
talk about the party the night before.
After
class, you hear two younger students talking together as they leave the room;
one says, “I wonder if we’re going to learn anything in this class. Why would
the professor ask us what we want to learn? How are we supposed to know? If
it’s all like this, I’m going to drop this class.”
|
Now that the setting has been set, and
the situation is well understood, a prompt to find out what seems to be
happening is asked here. Would you have answered the question the same way I
did?
ü What
do you believe is happening in the scenario above and how might the instructor
respond? Base your posting on your reading and the multimedia activity.
The scenario is confronting us with the
different kinds of students we are to meet in our classrooms. First of all,
based on the level of maturity provided in the ethnography of the class,
hierarchical thinking differences associated with age are evident: Younger
students believe they are supposed to be “indoctrinated” by their professors
and not to question what they are supplied by instructors. Older and more
mature students are making themselves responsible for what they really want to
learn and how they want to apply what they are learning in their current or
future jobs.
Younger students, on the other hand, may
also experience hostile behavior towards older member of the community of
learning they are to be part of, the class and course they have enrolled. They
find themselves not really comprehending differences because they have not been
exposed to learners with various learning experiences or learning scenarios
where they have to think, process information, and become deep learners. But
more mature students are willing to accept the challenge of becoming autonomous
and long-life learners.
The only one behavior that puzzles me the
most is how and when these young students of mine, similar to the ones
described in this situation, mature and decide to become responsible for their
own learning.
At times I like to make my students move
into the spotlight in class to have them answer what we are studying, pretty
much like you describe when they cannot answer a question. This kind of
situation has a soothing effect in their mindset; that is, they somehow start
thinking about their future, especially when I get to talk to them
–individually- and have them question themselves if they really want to become
teachers (I work with the English Teaching Major). Once I told them that the
university is a nice place to make friends, but unfortunately, these friends
will not be next to them to help them out along the rest of their professional
lives.
Friday, April 29, 2016
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