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It sounds like some of your fellow students are indeed rude and obnoxious (which would indeed drive me crazy!) but I take some offense when people are quick to attribute things like this to age; I'm no longer in my 20s, but when I was in college and in grad school I was attentive in class.
I think if I was a teacher I would kick out people who were openly sleeping, though. I hate it when teachers mandate participation, but do think that openly rude or disruptive students hurt the quality of education for those who are engaged and interested.
Being unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands so I am devoting my self to education over at the local community college. Being in my early forties I am older and more mature than many of my classmates. I am paying such close attention and actively participating in class.
I can tell my teachers are so frustrated at the lack of intellectual interest in many of the students. Many just put their heads down and draw pictures or text during class. Others refuse to respond when called on and others roll their eyes when the teacher tries to get enthusiastic about the topic you can tell he or she loves more than the students!
Again, these are not high school kids but people in their 20s and 30s. They appear to be passing the test and doing the homework assignments, and are passing but their lack of interest is kind of scary. Don't they know we are in a recession and only the best and brightest are going to survive?
Try going to the local thrift store and buy some small pillows , then pas them out to those in need , the embarrasment might just make them pay a little attention , if not at least they will be more comfortable ! Ha, Ha, ha.
I never participate in college classes. Of course, I never participate in any class really. I pay to hear the professor and his expertise on the subject, not some students. I for one do not agree with participation being part of the grade or even required attendance. This isn't high school. If I want to sleep in a few days I should be able to. As long as I know the material, it shouldn't be a problem. I am pretty sure this is the only reason I got a B in Ancient Greek my freshman year. I had the higest grades on all the assignments and tests. However, I believe I missed one extra day than what was allowed, and my grade was dropped a letter. Sure, it was stated in the beginning of class, but none of the other teachers actually followed those guidelines. I believe I had work or something. Sorry, but I had to pay for school somehow. Usually I didn't work during classes, but during the holidays all bets were off.
Being unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands so I am devoting my self to education over at the local community college. Being in my early forties I am older and more mature than many of my classmates. I am paying such close attention and actively participating in class.
I can tell my teachers are so frustrated at the lack of intellectual interest in many of the students. Many just put their heads down and draw pictures or text during class. Others refuse to respond when called on and others roll their eyes when the teacher tries to get enthusiastic about the topic you can tell he or she loves more than the students!
Again, these are not high school kids but people in their 20s and 30s. They appear to be passing the test and doing the homework assignments, and are passing but their lack of interest is kind of scary. Don't they know we are in a recession and only the best and brightest are going to survive?
Not everyone who has his head down is clueless. Nor is everyone staring raptly at the teacher attending to the class.
I had an abnormal psych class as a requirement for my degree. Because of my employment I knew about 95% of this stuff already, but I wasn't able to get out of taking the class. Spent most of my time writing care plans for my nursing practicals, or occasionally letters to my sister, but I sure looked diligent.
My youngest daughter could not listen to the instructor and make eye contact at the same time. She drew pictures, instead of taking notes-- but she has a near-perfect memory, and can reconstruct the class lectures verbatim hours later. Straight A student, on the basis of tests and homework. Drove one of her teachers absolutely insane, because he INSISTED all eyes be on him while he taught. (He was new; he eventually got over it.)
Long way around to say perception is not always reality, and if your classmates are learning, they're learning.
If they're not, it's another can of worms entirely, though probably not yours. This being college, probably whoever's footing the bill.
One of the most useful things I learned in college was how to sleep sitting up with my head and neck erect. It takes a little practice to get your head to balance just right, and once in a while it will flop down onto your chest and pop back up. When that happened I would rub the back of my neck and wiggle my head all around so it would look like I was rubbing out a stiff neck.
I had to develop this method because a lot of my classes were in a lecture hall and there was no place to put my head down anyway. I don't know if I fooled any of my professors, but at least I didn't bring a pillow to class like one guy did.
I did very well in college in a difficult major, but I honestly didn't pay attention in many of my classes. I also happen to learn best by reading, so, unless the instructor was interesting, lectures were typically a waste of my time.
If a student is doing well on the tests and obviously understands the material, why does the instructor care if the student sleeps in class? If the sleeping distracts the instructor, the instructor should find a creative way to solve the problem. Maybe have the student skip the lectures but meet one-on-one with the instructor to discuss the text once a week?
Ignoring what the teacher has to say and doing work provided, along with following examples in the book and figuring out math,science problems on my own, has saved me from dropping out of college. I don't do well with being pointed out, listening to someone that converts what the book has to say in a power point presentation. It's redundant and confuses me. I've never slept in any of the in person classes i've attended and was very interested, but it felt like a waste of time because the book provides all the information.
most college student I know prefer to sleep in their beds so I guess there is some provision for making attendance one of the requirments for passing--
frankly it surprises me--I think the student maybe has copy of the tests to study
also if the teacher made part of what occurred in class as part of the requirements--like pop quizes or written material--vs straight lecture--maybe students would stay awake
maybe the teacher needs to do more than just lecture
maybe the student works nights to pay for tuition and crashes when gets to class--maybe has narcolepsy...
Being unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands so I am devoting my self to education over at the local community college. Being in my early forties I am older and more mature than many of my classmates. I am paying such close attention and actively participating in class.
I can tell my teachers are so frustrated at the lack of intellectual interest in many of the students. Many just put their heads down and draw pictures or text during class. Others refuse to respond when called on and others roll their eyes when the teacher tries to get enthusiastic about the topic you can tell he or she loves more than the students!
Again, these are not high school kids but people in their 20s and 30s. They appear to be passing the test and doing the homework assignments, and are passing but their lack of interest is kind of scary. Don't they know we are in a recession and only the best and brightest are going to survive?
If they're passing, then they are demonstrating mastery of the material. The professor should pass them. It doesn't matter if they learned the material in lectures or knew it before they set foot into the class. What matters is they demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the material.
As I recall, attendance at the college level is optional. So is paying attention. It's their dollar and their choice. If they can pass without paying attention, more power to them. Their grade should reflect their level of mastery of the material not how well they paid attention in class.
At the collegiate level it should definitely be the choice of the student on what they value - after all they are paying for the experience
many scholarships are tied to maintaining a certain GPA - aside from that the only harm is really to the student themselves or their parents (or whomever is footing the bill)
I blasted every single teacher evaluation that included participation.
My job was to learn the material. That is the job of all the students.
The teachers job was to provide the information that was requisite to that class.
When you figure out your cost per hour the decision to me was one where I paid for the class, so I might as well attend.
It also made me upset when some idiot student would waste class time on real basic questions, idle chit chat with the teacher or it was all student led discussion. I'm not paying for their expertise or knowledge of how they spent last Saturday.
If they need the additional time or just want to chat with a prof. then go to their office hours.
No student should ever be dinged because they passed the exam and did well on assignments - regardless of how much they participated or seemingly paid attention. You develop the tests and assignments to judge knowledge. If they are too easy that is on you, not the student. However, their grade shouldn't be on something as subjective as participation.
with that said, if a student is being disrespectful a prof should be able to toss them out. If you are going to sleep in class, why bother showing up? Same with the kids who show up with 10 minutes left in a 2 hour lecture - thanks for wasting our time with your appearance.
One of my favorite professors taught my BLaw classes. His basic rule was that there would be an assignment due every class. Although participation wouldn't count towards your grade, you would need to share your thought process on the assignments given the nature of the subject. Talking through the assignment as a group helped everyone understand it and he really challenged people to think in a different manner.
He also stated that he'd assume everyone was adult and would have their assignments ready. Assignments were a substantial part of the grade, so if you did them you would do OK unless you bombed the exams (which you probably wouldn't if you did the assignments..........). If you didn't have the assignment done all you had to do was tell him before class and he wouldn't call on you to start off a question as he realized that things come up every now and again - no detriment to your grade.
However, if he called on you and you were unprepared and didn't say anything before class you would take a hit on your assignment grade.
I liked his approach a lot.
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