Teaching and Learning from a Student’s View
This year at the CFT, we’re exploring the topic of negotiating student expectations about teaching and learning. We’ve found that when students and faculty have very different expectations, a variety of challenges can result, frequently leading to frustration for both teachers and students.
As part of our exploration this past spring, we recruited four undergraduate students to contribute guest posts to the CFT blog, sharing their perspectives on their learning experiences at Vanderbilt. We recognize that everyone’s teaching context is different, but we hope that hearing a few student perspectives on teaching and learning will help those in the teaching community at Vanderbilt reflect on their own teaching.
The students’ posts focused on expectations for grades and assessment and for freedom and responsibility:
- “What Does an A Mean?” by Xiaoyu Qi, Class of 2012
- “Freedom and Structure within a Course” by Mara Truslow, Class of 2013
- “Fair Attendance Policies” by Erin Baldwin, Class of 2014
- “Distributions of Grades” by Travis Meyer, Class of 2012
This fall, we’ll continue to pursue this topic, expanding our focus to include student expectations about writing and writing assignments and about appropriate and useful technology use. Check the CFT blog for future posts in this series. And if you know of an undergraduate who might be interested in blogging on these topics, please contact CFT assistant director Derek Bruff.
Image: “FBI Classroom,” Bill Erickson, Flickr (CC)
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