Education is expensive, we are constantly reminded. So is ignorance, goes the retort. We can only afford the former if we reduce the latter. Three recent government reports [refer to Web site] might help to do that.We certainly cannot continue to sit on our unexamined assumptions.
Barely half of 4,000 students surveyed found their subjects interesting. This is one finding from a study of first year students in seven Australian universities. Another is that only 53 per cent of students thought their teachers were interested in them and in the subject. The study is [by] Craig McInnes and Richard James [entitled] First Year on Campus.
Student discontent
Teachers have always enjoyed complaining about students. Now the students have voiced their own complaints. They are many, and some are profound. McInnes and James found that attitudes of students toward university were critical. These attitudes were associated with gender, secondary schooling, parental education, residence and age. None of this is surprising, but the results have implications for teaching and teachers. McInnes and James conclude that some considerable improvement in first year teaching could be achieved by addressing two fundamentals. (1) Above all else they recommend that teachers communicate early, often, and clearly the desired learning outcomes and (2) that they provide early diagnostic feedback.
Learning outcomes are the capacities required to complete assignments designed to develop these capacities. They include the ability to summarise, analyse, describe, and the like. Diagnostic feedback means a graded assignment returned to the student in time for the student to vary enrolment without penalty, i.e. by the HECS census. It ought to be formative, but summative is better than nothing.
When offered yet more good advice it is tempting to think of the reasons why these things cannot be done. But they can be done, and McInnes and James give examples.
