{"id":201,"date":"2023-03-29T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pcrest.com\/blog\/?p=201"},"modified":"2023-03-29T18:42:24","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:42:24","slug":"confronting-expectations-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/29\/confronting-expectations-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Confronting Expectations in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Students tend to like everything neatly laid out; they want to know exactly where they are; they don\u2019t welcome the introduction of multiple perspectives, especially when no master perspective reconciles them; they want the answers. But sometimes (although not always) effective teaching involves the deliberate inducing of confusion, the withholding of clarity, the refusal to provide answers; sometimes a class or an entire semester is spent being taken down various garden paths leading to dead ends that require inquiry to begin all over again, with the same discombobulating result; sometimes your expectations have been systematically disappointed.<\/p>\nStanley Fish, (2010, June 21). Deep in the Heart of Texas<\/span><\/mark><\/a>. New York Times<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Fish\u2019s concern is primarily with student evaluations of educators; his point is that the relationship between a present action or performance and a judgment of value is different in different contexts. As he notes, if a waiter asks \u201cWas everything to your taste?\u201d one can respond immediately and authoritatively. But when it comes to learning, the context is different. Being able to judge value for learning that has occurred must be based on the efficacy of that learning. Constraining the efficacy to the current classroom or semester is a dangerously narrow way to define the impact and import of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving aside the thorny issue of student evaluations and their questionable utility for the moment, let\u2019s deal with his observations about the aspects of learning that can so disappoint students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that students are prone to react the way he describes\u2026but what do we DO<\/strong> with our knowledge? We have generally lived longer and experienced more learning than our students. We can look back on our learning experiences and determine the learning that benefited us and the learning that, while interesting at the time, ultimately did little for us. We cannot take our experience and perspective and give them to our students. Instead, we feel rather like Cassandra, knowing what they need and how they\u2019ll be able to use it, but forever unable to convince them of those things. \u201cBecause I know best\/better\u201d is hardly a compelling argument and, unfortunately, appeals to a rather authoritarian if not mystical mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if we can\u2019t impart our wisdom, what can<\/strong> we do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider that asking,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat did you expect?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

after-the-fact<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

is never<\/strong> as helpful as asking,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat DO you expect?\u201d<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

at the outset<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put another way, perhaps we can target the expectations that students (and educators) have, with respect to learning. If we demonstrate and communicate openness about the actual course of learning \u2013 that it is not an act of continual accretion but very often an act of unlearning\/learning or performance\/assessment or thinking\/testing (two steps forward, one step back), are we not helping them have, if not more reasonable expectations, then at least an appreciation for the fact that their expectations may sometimes diverge from reality? If we focus on managing expectations, we are far less likely to \u2018ambush\u2019 students by allowing them to hold unreasonable expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do this, we must insist that expectations are made explicit whenever possible, on the part of the students as well as on the part of the instructor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Classification of Learning Skills<\/span><\/mark><\/strong><\/a>, the Cognitive Domain skill cluster Generalizing <\/strong>includes the skill clarifying expectations<\/mark><\/em><\/strong> (defining a desired standard of quality or outcome). And the Affective Domain skill cluster Practicing Intellectual Management<\/strong> includes the critical skills enjoying productive struggle<\/em> <\/mark>(<\/strong>finding satisfaction in working on unclearly defined problems) and managing dissonance<\/mark><\/em><\/strong> (seeking consistency when addressing unresolved intellectual conflicts). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How often do we embed any of those learning skills in course activities? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond this, how often do we consider elevating consciousness of those skills through discussion?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students tend to like everything neatly laid out; they want to know exactly where they are; they don\u2019t welcome the introduction of multiple perspectives, especially when no master perspective reconciles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[59],"tags":[60,62,61,14],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expectations","tag-classroom","tag-expectations","tag-frustration","tag-strategies","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/maze.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pcrest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}