In “The Unteachables: A Generation that Cannot Learn” Flamengo discusses how grade inflation and a culture of self-esteem have made our students unteachable. Students are only concerned about a high grade, which we are giving out in ludicrous amounts. Students have had their self-esteem ballooned by teachers, family, and friends telling them how bright and gifted they are. This leads to unteachable students because they don’t easily see fault in themselves and can’t take criticism well and leads to reactions of fighting about the grade instead of trying to improve their learning. They don’t know how to recover from a failure and how to adapt for future challenges. Not only does it hurt weak students, whose deficiencies are not addressed, but also the bright students who don’t find value in easy “A”s they don’t hard work for or the inequity of working hard for the same grade as a student that works hardly at all. Here is the author’s conclusion of the current self-esteem education model.
“Rather than forming cheerful, self-directed learners, the pedagogy of self-esteem has often created disaffected, passive pupils, bored precisely because they were never forced to learn.â€
In ‘Are Students Really “Unteachable”?‘ the Warner argues that while some of what Flamengo may be true, most of this is just the biproduct of being 18, lack of formative assessment, and generally not understanding who the students are when they walk into class. Warner goes on to explain how he brings the students into the conversation about why they are in his class (read the Q&A in the article, its good).
I have gotten actions and comments from students that make them seem entitled. I certainly have seen a lack of motivation and self-discipline, which comes through in how passive they are about their education. It is frustrating, but I’m never shocked. Why should students be fully formed, active learners coming to college? Most haven’t been really pushed, most don’t know how the learning process works (either do most faculty), they have no idea how bright they can be, and no one has likely modeled for them what a good learning process is. Humans in general react to current events based on what their past experiences have shown them get what they want (or are willing to do), and students experience is what they are doing should work. I want to note that faculty mostly act exactly the same when they get to their first classroom, they teach the way they were taught instead of actively engaging their activity to see how it can be done more effectively.
I don’t feel like my students are unteachable, but most aren’t 100% ready to be taught. The problem is teaching them how to learn isn’t my primary (or at least only) task. I’m already fighting to get through the science concepts, skills, real world examples, etc in the amount of time I have with them. Additionally, I’m convinced that this growth process probably doesn’t happen in a semester; I’m hoping that maybe by the time they leave college they have progressed to becoming an active learner. So not only don’t I have much time to address this process, but I’m on average certain I won’t complete the task for my students during the course. That isn’t a reason to give up, just a reason to temper my expectations.
Now that being said, do I have students that are “unteachable” in the amount I have time I have with them? Maybe. I used to think absolutely not. I don’t think general chemistry is so difficult to wrap your head around it is beyond the I.Q. of my students. I have always assumed a motivated, hard working student with basic math skills can’t be successful (meaning average “C” or “B”, not excellent “A”). If a student was not able to reach average success, I chalked it up to a lack of effort rather than lack of intellect.
This last semester I really started to question this. I had a student who obviously was bright enough and worked ceaselessly, but she was not successful in the course. What she needed was a new way to learn and study. She tried a lot of different things I suggested (e.g. private tutoring, office hours, study groups, reading/recall tactics, working more problems, etc), but nothing broke through. Was she “unteachable”? Well she was for me in the amount of time I had. I just couldn’t diagnose and treat her problem fast enough. I hope that she learns from the experience and keeps trying new tactics, but I really don’t know how to take this except to believe it is possible to get an “unteachable” student. This isn’t the same broad paint brush of unteachable that Flamengo is trying to define; it is a very specific circumstance that is much more troubling. When a lazy student fails, I don’t lose much sleep. When a ill prepared, hard working student doesn’t succeed, I am sad, but I can at least see a reason. When a bright, hard working student doesn’t succeed, I start losing sleep. That is the truly disturbing “unteachable” student.