Expectations and Responsibilities

1. Expectations and Responsibilities High School vs. College Student vs. Professor

2. What should I expect in a College class? • *College requires greater independent learning • *Courses move faster • *Critical thinking is required in every course • *Safety nets are removed from courses • *Studying longer and more efficiently is a must • *There are fewer chances for evaluation • *There’s greater anonymity, especially in larger classes • *You must be proactive

3. Situations you may encounter! • Professors who take attendance and those that don’t: You should still attend every class because attending class will help you with your understanding of the course • You will have to take an early morning class: Get your rest the night before and if waking up early isn’t for you, work with your advisor to schedule classes that work for you! • You will have to take a course or have a professor you don’t particularly like: Find something that you have in common or that you like with the content or professor. Remember, this course won’t last forever, but your grade will! • Cramming for a test: If you’ve applied your learning strategies properly, hopefully you won’t be cramming for tests. If you do, though, learn from this and study early next time.

4. Difficulty maintaining motivation: High motivation leads to higher academic success, so try your hardest to stay motivated by enlisting your friends and family to help keep you on track! • Personal problems or illnesses: Always keep your professor’s in the loop with any problems or illnesses that may keep you from attending or doing your best in class. Often times, professors can work with you to help you out. • Frustration: Try changing your learning strategy if you feel frustrated. If it continues to occur, ask for help! • Biting off more than you can chew: Stay organized so that you can manage everything that you have on your plate. If you can get help from others with some of your tasks, do so! Always stay on top of your due date so that you don’t fall behind, too. • Having problems staying/being organized: Organization is hard, especially if you don’t know strategies for getting organized. Be consistent with whatever you do choose to do, and if it doesn’t work, make modifications that will help you out!

5. Setting Goals and Sticking to them! • Short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals need to be set, realistic, and measurable. • Students, who set goals, will often use a learning strategies to achieve those goals. • Success when achieving a goal will result in higher motivation and confidence to tackle new and more complex tasks. • If you need help, ASK!!!

6. Professor’s Responsibilities • Invested a lot of their time to education and yours • They have various ranks and are constantly working hard to advance within their college • Even though many of them have advanced degrees (a master’s degree), some institutions require they have a terminal degree- a doctor of philosophy or education (PhD or EdD for short) • Professors can be titled instructors, lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors, or full professors. • For example, a full professor needs to demonstrate exemplary teaching, service to the college and community, have served at the institution for anywhere from 5 to 10 years. There is also a difference in tenure status. • A professor who is tenured has been with the institution for 5-6 years and has put together a portfolio for a committee to review . Not all faculty are granted tenure. • Faculty have to create the course you are taking, from selecting textbooks and readings, to creating assignments and exams, they are responsible for teaching you everything you need to know for that course.

7. Student example • Read through the following situation and come up with a solution(s): • In Wade’s biology class, the professor tells stories and shows videos a lot. It’s hard for him to take notes in this class because he can’t tell what’s important, so he opts out of note-taking and just daydreams. Since the professor isn’t “teaching”, he doesn’t believe he needs to pay close attention. Come exam time, his professor asks him to recall specific examples from the stories and videos shown in class. He can only recall bits and pieces and doesn’t think this is a fair assessment of what he knows. Wade is frustrated because he thinks this is a “bad” class with a “bad” professor.

8. Student’s Responsibilities • Read your Handbooks and syllabi, they are contracts between the professor and the students • Know the rules on plagiarism, excessive absences, and even in case of emergency protocol are all important to see in black and white • Know email etiquette, how to address your Professor politely • Know how to conduct ethically sound research • You are responsible for the grades you “earn” not the grades you “were given” • Keep up with your grades!!! • Complete all tasks the professor assigns

9. What is a “Task”? • A task is: • The type of activity you are asked to complete. • Is it an objective exam • An essay or short answer • Or a combination • Participate • Group discussions • Speeches

10. Thinking • The level of thinking required of you to engage in the task • Type of Task + Level of Thinking = Task Knowledge • Bloom’s Taxonomy provides ways to organize the kinds of questions students typically encounter in their classes. • Knowledge: list, define, describe, identify, match, name, what, who, when, where • Comprehension: summarize, describe, interpret, distinguish, defend, explain, discuss, predict • Application: apply, demonstrate, calculate, illustrate, show, relate, give an example or, solve • Analysis: analyze, explain, compare and contrast, select, arrange, order • Synthesis: combine, create, design, formulate, compose, integrate, rewrite, generalize • Evaluation: support, judge, discriminate, assess, recommend, measure, convince, conclude

11. How Can You Get Information About the Task? • Attend class every day • Write it down, then read it again • Consult your syllabus, plan assignment ahead • Pay close attention when your professor talks about the test • Ask a classmate for clarification • Ask the professor for clarification • Study groups

12. Professor Interviews • You will be visiting both of your professors during their office hours (check syllabus for info) • Use that time to talk with them to better understand what their expectations are from you in their class, ask if there are any pointers for you, or discuss any problems you’ve had with courses like this (LASSI card) • Getting to know you questions: • What type of degree do they have and what is their status on campus? • What goes into planning their courses? • After interview, write up a brief summary of your conversation and what you learned from that conversation. • Interview Summaries due: Sept 16-17