Improving Communication about Effort

Thirty-six percent. That’s how much of their grade students believe should be based on effort (Altman et al., 2019). They said 38 percent in one previous survey (Adams, 2005) and 40 percent in another (Zinn et al., 2011). That was more than double the faculty response in each survey. In the 2019 survey, the researchers described this disparity as a “robust and enduring difference” (p. 205). Students also felt that effort should count most in required gen ed courses, which they don’t see as personally relevant. In those courses they reported that if a student was not “performing adequately” but trying hard, they should still get a D or a C (Altman et al., 2019, p. 205).

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One Response

  1. If a student is stating that they make all of this effort, but it is not paying off in mastery of skills, what is being done to help the student assess their study skills? Were they offered a seminar as a freshman to learn how to study at the collegiate level? Can this be made mandatory (I am an EdD student)? What is happening at your institutions? Thank you!

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