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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm just an adjunct, teaching at a state U, so take this FWIW. I agree with A LOT of what the SLAC professor wrote upthread. Our populations have similar challenges. I hear similar reflections from colleagues.

I think everyone has pretty well covered that these young adults have expectations that they will be coddled. They don't know how to take notes, either from reading material or lectures, expect that they will get study guides, that reading through that at the last minute is sufficient to do well in class (it's necessary, but not sufficient), that the assigned reading is somehow optional, ....

I make myself quite available to help out my students, but am never taken up on this, until the end of semesters, when all of a sudden, half the class wants to know how they can bring their grades up, could I give them extra credit, can I read drafts of their work before submission, etc.  Then there are the thousand questions about how the grading actually works, what the class rules are, what's covered in class (!!!). Things that are explained on the first day of class, and talked about periodically.

Additionally, a lot of students have absolutely no idea how to interact with their teachers. One does not address their instructors as one would their peers (there might be exceptions for grad students). There is an expectation that emails use correctly spelled words, in proper context, with decent grammar, and punctuation. It's not the same as texting one's friends. Emails have to be signed with their name. One does not call in mommy and daddy if things go sideways. I could go on. If the parents just taught their kids some basic life skills, and instilled decent study habits, life would be so much easier.[/quote]

Interesting.. this is what I have found. Now that some classes are on Zoom or Teams kids can transcript the class, copy and past the transcript then edit it to make notes for the class. That seems way more advanced than 5 years ago, but that's just me.

There was a complaint that the professor was not clear, of course the professor disagreed. But we went back to the transcript and the professor said...

the key components of X are 1) 2) and #5... Hmm where are 3 and 4. Sure a simple mistake, but when asked what 3 and 4 were he was mad and said "take better notes", but the kids had the transcript... 5 years ago the kids would not have had proof and so the professor was wrong.

Then the same professor said there are 2 key elements to X so he names X, Y and Z.. but that is 3 elements. Then later in the transcript he said there were 3 key elements and named A, B and C... 3 totally different element.

When students answer the 3 key elements as X, Y and Z... they were marked down... but oops! back to the transcript.

I get it, professors now are being held accountable and it's hard but is it really the students?[/quote]

I think it's a combination of both, IMO.  Kids today expect someone to fix any issues they have, many have not learned how to deal with any issues that don't go smoothly for them.

However, yes many profs do make mistakes and are unwilling to own them.  
I can recall it happening several times when I was in college (at a T20 school, so largely smart motivated kids).  My favorite: had a basic writing class that was required.  I was taking it my 3rd year due to double majoring and not having space until then--so I was a junior and had written many papers by then, not the typical freshman in the course.  So for this writing class I took the approach first draft all I did was write, run spell check and make sure it was properly formatted and I had answered the rubric completely.  Then for next turned in draft I would actually edit it myself along with the comments the prof had provided.  Next iteration, I'd do the same thing---prof provided comments after each draft.  After the 2nd draft, literally every comment/suggestion to change marked in RED was a proposal to change my paper back to EXACTLY what I had written the first time.  So I (being the sarcastic smart ass that I was/am) met with the professor and took in my original with his markups and my 2nd draft with markups and basically asked him "so which way do you actually want it?  Because all the changes I made for 2nd draft were your suggestions, and now you want me to change it back to my original way based on the 2nd draft comments.  So just let me know what it is you really want me to do and I will do it that way".  Not sure the prof knew what to do---he was used to dealing with freshman in this course, and I was a seasoned junior who had written many, many 10-15 page more advanced papers already, so these 2-3 page papers were quite simple and easy for me.  So comments are helpful if there is thought put into them, but comments to suggest changes just for the hell of it are not.  [/quote]

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