Entitlement – “Attributing … failure to someone else” (a study of Entitlement)

Quotations from Max Roosevelt regarding the findings from the study:

Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.

 

 

Remedies stated by those interviewed by Max Roosevelt:

1.       The goal is to put the academic burden on the student. “Instead of getting an A, they make an A,” he said. “Similarly, if they make a lesser grade, it is not the teacher’s fault. Attributing the outcome of a failure to someone else is a common problem.”

James Hogge (associate dean, Peabody School of Education, Vanderbilt University)

2.       Professor Brower said professors at Wisconsin emphasized that students must “read for knowledge and write with the goal of exploring ideas.”
This informal mission statement, along with special seminars for freshmen, is intended to help “re-teach students about what education is.”
The seminars “are meant to help students think differently about their classes and connect them to real life,”

Aaron M. Brower (vice provost, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

3.       “College students want to be part of a different and better world, but they don’t know how.”
”Unless teachers are very intentional with our goals, we play into the system in place.” [bold added]

Prof. Marshall Grossman (English professor, University of Maryland)

 

 

Max Roosevelt, the author of this article, has gathered together very powerful quotations from those in academics, including the author of the study, and from students. These are a few from those in education:

“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it…”

Ellen Greenberger (“the lead author of the study”)

 

 

Details about this source

Article Title: “Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes” 

Study Introduced in the Article:Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” published in the “last year in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence”

Author: Max Roosevelt

Date:
February 18, 2009

Homepage: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html

 

 

 

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