Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

[luckbox]

[MrCAPiTUL]

I have a question to ask the University staff at this point, because Paul brought up an interesting point when he said he still felt like an overpaid entertainer, at time.

My friend in Nagoya, who grew up there and now is in the University, she said that once kids get out of high school that hard work ethic drops substantially. She said in college, kids usually are more equivalent to an American H.S. in terms of maturity and the stuff they do (note, i'm not talking about graduate students). She said her peers are lazy and whenever there is a group project, you'll have one person who does all the work whilst the rest are busy dating, trying to find work, etc.

Through your experiences, do you find university work to be more challenging, as a result? What do you do to get your students engaged? Or, do you even have this problem?

[Glenski]

I've only just begun teaching in a university. My students are all science majors, by the way. There is no liberal arts program at my uni, so one would imagine that most students have a fairly serious sense of studying in general here.

Most of my classes have been for 1st year students, which means they still have a high school mentality about them, but I just finished teaching at a private HS, so I CAN see a bit of a difference. The biggest thing that strikes me at this point is that the uni students, for the most part, come to me if they have missed a class (or are about to) and ask for the assignment they missed. This never EVER happened in my high school, whether I taught 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year students there. NEVER.

Do I put the "fear of God" in them? I don't know. I try to instill in them a sense of responsibility from the start, and I make it clear that without a certain amount of work, they won't pass the class. Maybe the difference is not so much in attitude as it is in the simple fact that they can hardly flunk in high school. Even the student with the lowest grades gets a million chances to make up his losses, and even after that, if he has failed to come through, at my high school the staff STILL held a meeting to vote on what to do next, despite giving the student a millionth "last chance". (I might add that a couple of years ago, it boiled down to 4 or 5 students having failing grades, yet the image of the school seemed to be on the line, and failing that many was unthinkable. They gave the students the simplest assignment possible -- copy in English a few paragraphs without making a single mistake. Yet, even with this simple task, a few kids screwed it up, but the school passed all but one.)

This may lead to a discussion of the differences between universities and their policies in flunking students, but this seems to be a major point to me. That is, do they realize they CAN flunk in university?

In pair work or small groups, I DO see kids goofing off in my uni. I casually yet firmly tell them to cut it out. If this persists again, and it has, I let them know that their grade depends on using English in class. One of my co-workers maintains a daily list of 10 points for each student, and they earn the points only if he sees them being productive in the class. They hear from him if he thinks they aren't. These 10 points (x 15 for the number of lessons over a semester) add up to a significant part of their grade, and they know this. It's not easy to manage, but it's ONE way to prod the slackers.

Since most of my classes are with 1st year students, I can only relate what others have told me about other students at my uni. They say that the 2nd year students are the toughest, because they don't have that fresh-faced naivete about entering a completely different institution anymore, and they know what they can get away with. I guess I'll have to see if this is true for myself soon.

[PAULH]

Glenski, telling the students they can fail is a MAJOR incentive for them to come to class. Most do not want to repeat and its only when they get a failing grade do they realise you are serious. I will tell students verbally in the first class and give them a printed handout in Japanese of class 'rules' for passing the class. this includes grading, attendance, tests and use of phones etc.

I mentioned before that i teach a repeater class of students that failed their classes last year. theres about forty in the class. I had problems as many just bolted after I took the roll.

I knocked that on the head in the next class by telling them (in Japanese) that I already graduated and dont need to pass the class, THEY do. The lesson is for their benefit, not mine. They need to change their attitude if they want to get a passing grade. I now take attendance once at the beginning and once at the end of the class. The slackers seem to turn up more regularly now as they know I can fail them a second time and they are simply wasting their own time. If they show me doctor's slips I allow it but not if they are plain skipping class.

Students soon realise the buck and grade stops with you, not with a Japanese teacher or a JTE etc . Glenski, I know you were in a private school but at Rits they werent scared of you as they know they will graduate HS regardless.

I teach a second year class, they are not as 'bushy tailed' as first year's but its an elective class, i.e. they choose to take English and for the most part they are motivated and interested in English. You get a few slackers playing with phones and sleeping etc but i will usually give them a prod etc. second years are fun as they know a bit of English and if they have had a good teacher will let their hair down a bit. They are less inhibited and more willling to have a go. I will also try and include all students and at least make an effort to talk to them individually at least once. get them working on pairs or in small group work and try to mix up their speaking partners.

[PAULH]

[tokyo story]