Page 36 Teaching Anthropology: SACC Notes VoL 7, No. 2 Fall-Winter 2000-2001

What do Students Really Want?Lloyd Miller

Des Moines Area Community College (emeritus)

I wrote an article for SACC's Sec-tion Column in the May 1997 Anthro-pology Newsletter entitled "StudentCulture vs. Teacher Culture" in which Idescribed the following implicit studentculture premise: "The less time and en-ergy involved in acquiring the grade, themore desirable the course." Actually, Ibased this article on my own anecdotalexperiences. Most colleagues said theyliked it and that their own classroomexperiences were similar. Student re-action was mixed. Some liked it; oth-ers felt that it didn't really describethem.

I read an article in the September1999 Teaching for Success newsletterby Elizabeth A. Butts from Montgom-ery County Community College de-scribing a questionnaire the author ad-ministered periodically to her studentsin order to see how she rated with them.She used three incomplete sentences,each followed by an extensive check-

list of statements that would completethe sentences. For example, "It helpsme when my teacher (check one)explains things in detail, gives manyreal life examples," etc." "I don't likeit when my teacher (check one) doesnothing but lecture, ridicules studentsin front of the class," etc.

This gave me the idea for creating akind of "quickie" ethnographic ques-tionnaire with similar incomplete state-ments, and having students completethem in as much detail as they wished.In this manner, I could get the views ofmany more students than I could inter-view. Also, they would be more can-did in their anonymously written state-ments than with me in live interviews.On the questionnaires, I asked studentsto complete the following three sen-tences and to write as much as theywished:1) I like it when my instructors...2) It really bothers me when my in-

Table 1

MOST COMMON BOTHERS

It really bothers me when my instructors:

• Go over a topic really fast, ask after they had their presentation 'anyquestions" so quick that you have actually no chance to go over it to seeif there are really questions, and then say "ok, let's go on."

• Go over the stuff too fast, expect us to do/study everything on our own,don't explain well enough for us to understand.

• Rambles on and on. When they have l&Q much info, to get across in onehour, that it doesni even make any sense. Boring lectures.

• Ramble off on other points that really have nothing to do with thesubject.

• Don't explain things, almost as if they assume you already know (thenwhy are we here?).

• Get off the main course subject & go into personal stories or waste timewith other activities.

• Assume you know how to do things and make you feel stupid if you don't.

• Put off the attitude that they don't really care.

• Put people on the spot.

s true tors...3) I really wish my instructors would...

Several colleagues and I adminis-tered the questionnaires to eight differ-ent classes in anthropology, Spanish andpsychology, a total of 143 completedquestionnaires.

I was hoping to discover some thingsthat I didn't already think I knew. Sinceethnography is a discovery procedureby which we ask open-ended questions,record what our informants say and de-rive new knowledge from their emiclanguage structures, I was really look-ing for some surprises. Perhaps I couldgain some insights that would be dif-ferent from the etic hypotheses in myarticle, and I could report them here asnew and important research findings.

First, I grouped the students' state-ments into academic and affective do-mains. Then I sub-divided each domaininto the three categories of like, botherand wish. After that I arranged re-sponses in descending order startingwith the most frequently mentioned. Itbecame clear that many of the likes andwishes were similar and the botherswere usually their opposites. I soughtout correlations across the three catego-ries (i.e., "I like it when the instructortakes time to explain material," "It re-ally bothers me when they go over stufftoo fast and don't explain," "I reallywish instructors would take more timeto see what problems the class has withthe material"). I also found some inter-esting paradoxes between what studentssay they want and their behavior as Ihave observed it. Table 1 here andTables 2 and 3 on the following pageillustrate some of the findings.

continued on page 38

Teaching Anthropology: SACC Notes VoL7,No.2 Fall-Winter 2000-2001 Page 37

What students wantteachers to do

Give them extra help,including personalized, one-on-one

Have a review before a test;

provide detailed studyguides

Write main points on theboard

Have class discussions,involve students, providevariety in addition to orinstead of lecture.

Table 2

Some Paradoxes

Students' observedbehavior

They rarely come by for it.

Most don't study or preparefor the review.

Most don't take notes andonly copy down what iswritten on the board.

Most are reluctant torespond.

Students wantteachers to:

listen

understand

be humorous

be sympathetic

be friendly, openand fun

have a goodattitude

Table 3

Key Affective Words

They don'twant teachersto:

make them feelstupid

put them on thespot

be unemotional

seem like theydon't care

Page 38 Teaching Anthropology: SACC Notes Vol 7, No. 2 Fall-Winter 2000-2001It seems as though in order to fulfill

the wishes of a majority of my respon-dents, the ideal instructor would haveto be some combination of DavidLetterman and Dr. Ruth! However,even if there were such teachers (andthere are—I've met some), I don't be-lieve they would entirely satisfy our stu-dents' expectations, this is because stu-dents' expressions of their likes, theirbothers and their wishes are emic state-ments that reflect some of the underly-ing premises of the culture they bringwith them to college.

Table 4 shows a list of student emicphrases describing what bothers them,together with suggested etic transla-tions.

Here's my favorite. You've all heardit many times. A student shows up af-ter an absence and asks, "Did I missanything important?'1 Of course, theetic translation is, "Did I miss anythingthat will appear on a test?'1

As I suggested in my "Student Cul-ture vs. Teacher Culture1' article, stu-dents behave passively toward theireducation and expect teachers to be the

The ideal instructor would haveto be some combination of David

Letterman and Dr. Ruth!

doers. Teachers "must lecture, explain,describe, entertain, persuade, convince(some might even say "sell") studentson every aspect of the course. Doingalso involves getting the students to acthowever the teacher wants them toact—discuss, write, think, read, study."

I realize that I'm not telling you any-thing you don't already know. My sur-veys uncovered no surprises. I foundnothing that I had not anticipated in theAnthropology Newsletter article. I sup-pose one should be pleased when thedata support the hypothesis. However,I'm not pleased with this aspect of oureducation today. I believe that both ourstudents and we educators are victimsof an enculturation process wherein thegoals of earning credit and degrees dis-place the goals of learning.

I've discussed these matters withstudents and many of them agree. Theypay lip service to the importance oflearning, but believe that ultimately thecredentials are the most important pas-

Table 4

sages to wealth, status and the good life.I tell them to study all the material, tofocus on learning the subject matter andthe grades will come. Nonetheless, toofew of them take my advice. They can-not resist gambling on the shortcuts,economizing on effort and energy out-put. They hope that, like dropping coinsin a slot machine, they'll "luck out" andget a good grade. When it doesn't hap-pen, they take solace in the belief thatsomehow their teachers let them down.The phrase, "My teacher flunked me"is more satisfying than "I flunked."

I can offer no solution to this prob-lem other than one I suggested inSACC's May 2000 Anthropology Newscolumn. In this little "fantasy" essay Irecommend that colleges and universi-ties abolish all credit and degrees in theliberal arts and sciences. We would nolonger function as "credentialing tax-onomists" for the world of work. Em-ployers would have to find other meansof evaluating their job applicants. Ofcourse, I don't believe anything like thiswill occur during my lifetime. On theother hand, prior to 19891 would neverhave believed that the Soviet Unionwould fall apart, so who knows? TA

It really bothers me wheninstructors:

give busy work

make tests too hard

are unstructured

are unclear

give vague assignments

want you to memorize

test on things not covered in class

expect us to do everything on our own

test over insignificant details

do not cover material from the book

get off the main course subject (rambleon)

give too much information

don't tell you what*s expected

make tests too hard

Etic version

a) Studying is hard work. I'm taking thiscourse in order to earn credit in order toget a degree in order to get a well-payingjob in order to live a comfortable life.

b) I'm a busy person. 1 (work, have afamily, deserve some recreation—like toparty, have fun, etc.)

c) Therefore, what strategies can 1 deviseto accomplish a) above with the leastamount of effort and energy output?