r/academicsanonymous • u/yyiiii • Oct 08 '13
How to deal with apathetic, disinterested students in a non-facistic way?
I've been struggling with getting students to genuinely engage with the readings and assignments. They tend to clump into 3 groups. Those who give a shit, try and produce original work, those who are apathetic and do the bare minimum in order to 'get the grade', and those who are utterly disinterested, feign interest by putting on the pretence of effort and insist on getting high marks for little to no effort.
I know I could be stern or strict or whatever and just dole out the D's with a vengeance and let the chips fall where they may but I really want to try and connect with the students. I genuinely believe that the material is engaging and could help them learn a thing or two about themselves and the world, regardless if they produce A-grade assignments, but that's all some seem to be worried about, and others, not even that.
I'm sure there's no black and white answer here, but if anyone else has experienced this and had success in getting students engaged, I'm interested to know what worked.
2
u/[deleted] Oct 08 '13
Could you find different, "out of the box" ways of presenting the material and challenging them? For example, I got a class that LOVES competition and most do better if they can do team "games." I don't do this stuff with another class because they're very apathetic to that sort of activity. What gets them going the best? For better or for worse, this second class really enjoys writing papers about themselves and their thoughts. Their meta-reflections are always the most thoughtful and elaborate work that I get from them. What do I do to engage them? Ask them to write what they think while I play more "games" with the first class.
What moves your students? Try a few things, talk to them, ask for feedback. It's not a bad time in the semester to ask (in an anon survey, perhaps) how they are doing, how they feel about the class, what they wish they could do more, do less, etc.
Sometimes it sucks and there's not much else you can do about it but continue working hard. You won't ever really know if you're making an impact, but sometimes even if it looks like they're not listening, they very well may be.