How to deal with students who refuse to do anything except take exams?

Question

This is a follow up to my previous question. Some context:

• I teach at a new Fachhochschule-type institute, where my course is 5-day, 1 hour/day course to 20+ students.
• I am actively teaching, providing the material, and encouraging the students to always ask questions.
• My course is structured to have 4 days of lecture and 1 day of practical. In the practical, I explain a real-world problem and give the students graded exercises.

In week 1, the exercise in the practical was to prepare a half-page report on a short consultancy problem. I gave them 7 full days to write the report. No one asked questions or stated any concerns before the deadline.

The day after the deadline, only half the class had submitted on time, half of which only at minutes before said deadline. I was gobsmacked, since even half of the submitted results were very poorly made (one even stated, in the report, "excuse me, but I didn't understand anything"), by totally missing the point or even copy/pasting definitions without context from the lecture notes. In total 1/4 of the class actually proved that had sit down and worked actively on the practical.

The next day I explained that their actions were completely out of line, since in 6 months they are supposed to go in the workforce, and this behavior of completely ignoring and not giving notice to the professor would be very detrimental to their careers. I refused to evaluate any latecomer who did not advise me on time. My stern reaction did upset the students who didn't submit. I even received an 1-page email (double the size of the report) from one of the students claiming that my job is only to teach and their is only to take exams, and they are not obligated to do any extra work I give them.

Is there anything that I can do to improve the cooperativity of said students? Should I modify the final exam mark structure or organize the lectures differently? Since this is my first shot, I don't really know how to proceed.

Clarifications and Update:

• It is technically true that the student's grades (according to university policy) are determined by exams only.
• But, I am allowed to have practicals and other assignments count as part of the exam score. My mentor confirmed this.
• I think these students are bad apples because they are clinging to this technicality rather than doing the useful assignments (or at least respectfully letting me know of their concerns in advance).
• Based on the discussion here and with my mentor, I have decided to count the practical for extra credit only.

Answer 1

Welcome to higher education! Students will use formal assesement to guide their learning, and no amount of cajoling, or appealing to their sense professional or intellectual propriety will change that. Some students will always work above and beyond what the assessment requires of them, but most won't.

Assessment is how students comprehend what is the stated aim of a course. Instead of fighting against it, you might embrace it. For each learning outcome there should be an assessment that is aligned with that outcome - that is, it is impossible to successfully complete the assessment without have met the learning outcome. The learning activities are then designed to meet the outcomes. This might seem like "teaching to the test", but in fact it is the opposite: in "teaching to the test", the assessment defines learning outcomes, here the learning outcomes define the assessment. Biggs and Tang [1] refer to this as "constructive alignment". [1] is a good read for the evidence that students have more or less always measured what they are supposed to learn by what they are assessed on.

Thus you would ask "what learning outcome am I hoping my students achieve by this homework, and where is that assessed?". If the learning outcome isn't assessed anywhere, then it should be. If it doesn't meet a learning outcome then perhaps it shouldn't be set.

In practice we either make homework credit bearing (even if only a tiny percent of the overall credit), or, more frequently, ask an exam question that tests the learning outcome that a homework is aimed towards, and a student won't be able to answer without having done the homework. The final possibility is that the homework is practice for what will be tested in the exam. In this case you need to make this abundantly clear to the students. Even then, you will probably only get a fraction of the class doing it. The consolation is that this is the part of the class that deserves to do better in the exam and undoubtedly will.

[1] Biggs, J and Tang, C. (2011): Teaching for Quality Learning at University, (McGraw-Hill and Open University Press, Maidenhead)

Answer 2

I think your perspective on this is a bit skewed. Other answers have touched on why your assessment probably needs tweaking, but I'd like to address your general view on your students and what you see as their obligations to you.

First, it's important to be clear about your grading rubric at the very beginning of the course. It's okay to announce extra credit work in the middle of the course, but you still need to make that clear when you give out the assignment, not afterwards. You like comparing your course to the workplace, so imagine this: at the beginning of the year, you sit down with your supervisor and decide metrics for how you'll be judged at your review at the end of the year. You both agree on what tasks are important and will be used to rate your performance: task X will count for 50% of your rating, task Y will count for 30%, and Z will count for 20%. Now imagine a month later, your supervisor chews you out for not doing something that was never even mentioned in your agreement, and he tells you that it will be considered in your rating after all. That'd be completely unfair, right? Even if it was something he asked you to do, if he stated it was simply to increase your understanding of something and you wouldn't be paid to do it, then most people would consider that to be voluntary. If it's mandatory and will affect their grade, be clear about that at the beginning. Probably nobody would've objected if you'd done that.

Secondly, students don't have infinite amounts of time and energy to spend on your course. They may have multiple courses, families, jobs, spouses, hobbies, volunteer work, or any other number of reasons to not spend all their resources on your course. Moreover, it isn't a job, you aren't their boss, they aren't being paid to be there, and they aren't delivering anything that you need. So it is completely up to each individual student whether any particular task provides enough benefit (either in increased understanding or as points towards a certification) to be worth the resources it takes to complete it. This isn't unprofessional or a personal insult against you. It's simply rational prioritizing. If this causes them to have poor understanding or to fail the course, that's on them. They're adults, they can make their own decisions and accept the consequences. You don't need to chew them out for not doing extra work; that's unprofessional and inappropriate on your part. In fact, they can simply stop participating at all halfway through if they decide that's the best thing for them, and that wouldn't be unprofessional like not coming into work with no explanation would be. Grade them appropriately and move on.

Your obligations to your students are a clear grading rubric and the tools to succeed in your course. Their obligation to you is to not disrupt your class and to accept a fair grade for the work they submitted. (And you should both treat each other with general basic respect, of course, but that applies to all situations.) That's it. They don't owe you effort or completed assignments, and you don't owe them handholding. Give them the best chance at success that you can (within your own time constraints), and let them decide whether to take the steps necessary to achieve that success.

Answer 3

I guess that most of the students are obliged to take your course, right?

They do not come out of interest for the topic but because they need the exam.

I have first taught mathematics and later logistics at universities. While most of the mathematics students were interested in the topics, many of the logistics students were not.

At first, I found this disappointing and then I realised that it is legitimate to do not more than one is obliged to do to pass the course. I can try to make the course interesting but I cannot make somebody like it.

When I remember my high school time, I tried to be good at any subject, but there were some which I really did not like and for which I did the minimum amount of work to get the grade I aimed for.

So if three quarters of your course hand in work written in the hour before submission deadline or even don't hand in anything at all (I guess that most students have not even looked at the topic before the day of submission, so it is not strange that you did not receive any questions), just be happy about the quarter who did.

Answer 4

Your overall tone and emotional state sound extremely similar to my own, the first semester I taught at a U.S. community college. I note in comments you've said this is likewise the first time you've taught; and your description in the linked question of your "Fachhochschule-type institute... the middle ground between high school and university or industry" sounds pretty analogous to our 2-year community colleges.

At least in the U.S., the overall graduation rate nationwide for our institutions stands at about 20%. The majority of our students are not remotely ready for college work and have a very large challenge at succeeding in such a program; i.e., the majority are functionally illiterate, innumerate, possibly have learning disabilities. (I wonder what the success rate is at your institution? You should find out.)

Personally, my first two disaster moments were (a) assigning a one-page paper in the first week and assuming any college student could accomplish that (basically, none could), and (b) giving a test and seeing everyone just start openly copy answers off each other when I didn't know how to immediately start giving out punitive measures.

You'll need to digest and accept that this institution is not remotely like where you went to university, and the students are not remotely like yourself. In fact, is it possible that more students where you did go to school had similar attitudes, but you didn't know it, because you weren't receiving their work as the teacher?

Let's estimate that roughly half of your students won't do any advance work for any reason, whatsoever, no matter what you do. Whatever the exact proportion, it will be a large number and you have to expect that. The rest will only do work in direct response to specific point awards. You need to state those grading policies up front very explicitly, and highlight them. It will be the top driver for student behavior in the class. (In the comments/edit it sounds like you didn't specify a grading formula at the start of your term, and that's a major mistake.)

Will there be any students who act "professional" in the sense of doing extra preparation, advance studying, looking for extra material? In my experience, maybe roughly one or two per calendar year -- around 1% or less, when I'm teaching upper-level (2nd-year in the major) courses. You cannot expect or rely on this being customary, because it will simply never happen. You absolutely need to let go of your surprise or disappointment over this.

It's sad and painful and our students are human beings with their own hopes and emotional existence, and we should wish them well. But in cases similar to your institution, the best we can do is set up fair grading policies for fair work, apply them objectively and honestly, and know in advance that about half will be failing all the time. That's the job at these kinds of institutions.

Answer 5

In my experience, the only way to get students to do coursework activities or contribute to forums is to allocate some of the marks to those activities, and to make a minimum pass grade.

e.g. coursework 40%, exam 40%, forum contributions 20%, and a minimum score of 60% for each of the three components in order to pass, so 24/40 for coursework, 24/40 for exams and 12/20 for forum contributions.

Where I currently teach, we have assessable coursework tasks worth 50% and an exam worth 50%, however, if students have not completed weekly coursework activities, we do not accept their coursework tasks as we cannot validate that they are a student's own work.

Edited to add: but yes, you need to inform the students at the beginning of the course how things will be assessed, so in your case it's too late. Extra credit for future coursework seems like a good compromise.

Answer 6

If you hire a group of fruit pickers, and tell them you'll pay them to pick strawberries, but it'd be nice to get some apples. Would you be surprised that nobody picked apples?

You either need the assignments to form part of the mark, or you need to ensure that it's clear that the assignments will cover ideas that will be in the exam, which will not be taught directly in class.

Answer 7

I'm not sure of your exact locale, but some universities have resources that are free for the asking about how to be a better teacher. You may get some good advice here (including adjusting your expectations to include a theory of alien minds to people with a vastly looser work ethic), but some of the universities I've been at have some very good people who can offer you things academia.SE can't.

Answer 8

I perceive school, in parts, as a place:

• to learn things which are useful in later life
• to learn things which are not useful in later life
• to listen to things without learning them
• to meet with a reality different from your family, more "workplace-like"

You have students which are graded on the exam and you gave them extra work. It is their choice not to do it. If you were a robot that would have had zero effects on your future grading.

I am a human though, and when faced with someone who does not care - I am not well inclined to help them.

I will not be vindicative, but they should not count on any help from my side. If their answer is good, they will get good marks. If their answer is bad and they explain that they had a bad night before - well bad luck: this is life.

I believe that we are tip-toeing around students because they are offended by virtually anything. Tomorrow, in the workforce, they will be fired.

So help the ones who want help and let the other learn something from life. And be fair despite your emotions.

As for the last part (being fair): I had a teacher once I hated and he hated me. I had an exam where he could easily sack me. I got 6 questions, 5 were easy, one was horribly difficult. I did not have enough time to solve it.

He said "See, Mr WoJ, the last question was for brilliant students. You are not a brilliant student. I will just give you 20/20 (max grade) but if you were better, you could have had a few more points, above the maximum".

20 years later, when we met by chance, I told him that while we will never be on good terms, I sincerely appreciate his fairness and I respect him for that. I learned something that day.

Answer 9

Give them an F, and report the one who sent the snotty email for disrespecting a staff member.