Week 5: Golden Rules

One of the golden rule that Tagg proposed was "Do what you want your students to do. Be what you want your students to be". So what we want students to do? Applying the Learning Paradigm rather than the Instructional Paradigm, teaching students a new way  of thinking about what they are doing, changing their perception about schools and their relations, expectations about schools, etc.

If instructors want students to see the academic world with a new lens, they, first of all, must be engaged in the Learning Paradigm. If we want our students to have a deep learning, instructors need to revisit what they are teaching. Students' achievement is the product of what we teach. If we, as teachers, perceive that grading system does not truly assess students' capacity, we must adjust the way we assess students. 

I also would like to address the issue of using standardized test such as TOEFL, IELTS to recruit international students. Administrators in American colleges still rely on standardized tests to evaluate international students, but the skills needed for academic preparation. Literature review also show that there is no clear relationship between the TOEFL score and international students' academic success. And it is advised that college administrators  do not rely only on TOEFL scores as the criterion for admissions. These findings are not new. They have came out since the 1990s. Why do admissions criteria stay the same for the past decades? How can we request students to be engaged in deep learning why HE institutions still stand on the Instruction Paradigm to assess them even before they become our students? In order to pass the test, and improve their test score, international students are taught the skills to get the best scores within a couple of months while their academic performance is not significantly improved. So, we are the ones who set the rules and we want our students play the game differently. Is it fair?

And I do not think it is only the responsibility of instructors. What if the employers still rely on grades to recruit staff? Those with a good CV, good transcripts of course will attract the attention of job hunters than those who don't. I strongly believe that it will be still the case for many years to come.

We call for using a new lens in seeing and teaching our students. I do not think it is only the issue of the institutions, faculty and students. It is also the issue rooted from the society's perception about what shapes a good employee. And, as Tag addressed, "we need to take some responsibility for what students become" (p. 348)