Academic Entitlement

[marshwiggle]

Interesting article

Chowning and Campbell (2009) provide a clear and concise definition of AE: "...the tendency to possess an expectation of academic success without taking personal responsibility for achieving that success" (p. 982). Jackson et al. (2020) define AE as the "tendency for students to expect unearned academic success, undeserved academic services, and/or unrealistic academic accommodations" (n.p.). Moreover, Edgar et al. (2020) point out that college students, regardless of year in school, tend to believe that simply showing up to class and completing most assignments are sufficient for a favorable grade outcome. Faculty, on the other hand, largely believe that achievement and quality of work – rather than mere effort – determine students' grades.

Increased academic entitlement was associated with decreased engagement in and out of the classroom; poor social adjustment to university; poor academic emotion regulation strategies; a lack of appropriate classroom behaviors; and a greater acceptance of plagiarism, academic dishonesty, and incivility.

[Hibush]

It is high time for actual research to better understand the current manifestation of this phenomenon and to evaluate interventions to reduce the negative effects that it is having.

[dismalist]

I read the article. It is very interesting, is all correct in pointing to incentives, but gets only half the story, I think, the demand side of the story. It tries to tell us why students behave in certain ways without mentioning that we let them! Therefore, there is no reason for the student not to behave this way. Students are merely cost minimizing in attaining their goals.

The supply side, including the faculty, lets everybody graduate, somehow. The faculty is responsible for grade inflation -- the students don't give grades. The incentives promote such behavior. Student evaluation essentially means control of the asylum by the inmates. Pressure for retention to collect the tuition cash. And so on.

But that just means too many students are in higher education in the first place.

[Istiblennius]

Before I clicked the link and read the summary, I assumed "this article" about academic entitlement was the recent learning outcome rant in the Chronicle.  I don't intend to attribute characteristics to posters on this thread, who haven't said anything about outcomes-based assessment of student learning.

I do however, find it incredibly frustrating, when folks who would laugh at a student who says "but I'm a really good student" without providing evidence, then turnaround and gripe about assessment because they're just "really good professors". Of course students need support to grow in their learning and the article marshy posted makes some good points. I just think we all need to remember that students aren't the only entitled people on college campuses. 

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-terrible-tedium-of-learning-outcomes

[Hibush]

I read the article. It is very interesting, is all correct in pointing to incentives, but gets only half the story, I think, the demand side of the story. It tries to tell us why students behave in certain ways without mentioning that we let them! Therefore, there is no reason for the student not to behave this way. Students are merely cost minimizing in attaining their goals.

The supply side, including the faculty, lets everybody graduate, somehow. The faculty is responsible for grade inflation -- the students don't give grades. The incentives promote such behavior. Student evaluation essentially means control of the asylum by the inmates. Pressure for retention to collect the tuition cash. And so on.

But that just means too many students are in higher education in the first place.

Their main remedy is to not admit these students, so that does take them out of higher ed. But another essential is not to use student teaching evaluations in faculty performance evaluation, or at least very indirectly.

[secundem_artem]

All I've read is the abstract.  From the title, I just assumed that entitlement referred to the faculty.  Then again, I'm a tenured full so perhaps that says more about me than anyone else.

[marshwiggle]

I do however, find it incredibly frustrating, when folks who would laugh at a student who says "but I'm a really good student" without providing evidence, then turnaround and gripe about assessment because they're just "really good professors". Of course students need support to grow in their learning and the article marshy posted makes some good points. I just think we all need to remember that students aren't the only entitled people on college campuses. 

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-terrible-tedium-of-learning-outcomes

I totally agree. It makes me laugh that people whose careers require them to evaluate the competencies of their students in all kinds of different fields turn around and claim that their own competency is too vastly complex for anyone else to evaluate. (The problem with all kinds of universal assessment and the attendant bureaucracy is that the criteria produced are so vague and nebulous that evaluations are ridiculously subjective. Discipline-related criteria would be much easier to produce and evaluate more objectively, but that would prevent the one-size-fits-all approach.)

[financeguy]

When college costs have risen at a rate far in excess of inflation, there is no avoiding this. You can't treat people like consumers and then be surprised when they act like them.

[Anon1787]

When college costs have risen at a rate far in excess of inflation, there is no avoiding this. You can't treat people like consumers and then be surprised when they act like them.

Much of the expectation that modest effort will result in good grades is developed in "free" public K-12 schools, so a consumer mindset in attending college simply adds to an underlying problem.

[dismalist]

When college costs have risen at a rate far in excess of inflation, there is no avoiding this. You can't treat people like consumers and then be surprised when they act like them.

Much of the expectation that modest effort will result in good grades is developed in "free" public K-12 schools, so a consumer mindset in attending college simply adds to an underlying problem.

The politicians who co-determine content in K-12 do wish to keep the voters happy: Free day care is always welcome!

One positive result of teachers unions keeping schools closed during the pandemic is that voters didn't get what they were paying for and therefore got more critical. Part of that was seeing content on-line. I guess there wasn't much content.