No one is arguing that higher education should be a breeze, or that structure is a bad thing. Moreover, structure seems to be a vital part of equitable course design, so shouldn’t we restore as much intentional and explicit structure to our teaching as we can? But now that we’re “post Covid,” order must be restored.
#INSURMOUNTABLE CHALLENGE SERIES#
One of the more prominent strands in the what-to-do-about-disconnected-students discourse has been a series of calls to “return to rigor” or “restore standards.” The logic is seductive: During pandemic pedagogy, we abandoned things like deadlines and attendance requirements, and instituted pass-fail grading - all of which seemed appropriate at the time. The causes of student disengagement are structural, and require structural solutions. They are important and necessary - yet insufficient. That probably sounds like I’m belittling those strategies. Many take a “tips and tricks” approach (“here are three ways to improve participation in class discussions!”).
#INSURMOUNTABLE CHALLENGE HOW TO#
There has been no shortage of proposals for how to fix this set of problems. It’s been hard to feel a sense of satisfaction in the classroom when disconnection and atomization rule the day.
In our present moment, however, teaching has become exponentially more demanding while the rewards have evaporated. Teaching has always been a demanding vocation, but usually those demands are balanced with the gratification of seeing our work have an impact on students.
At times, the impact of that discomfort is muted, but only because so few students attend class.įaculty members have been at wits’ end this academic year trying to come up with solutions. Discussion topics that used to trigger lively conversations now simply earn us blank stares and awkward silences. Students “ghost out” of courses by week six. One of the most confounding problems we face as faculty members is the “ stunning level of student disconnection” that grew out of Covid and continues to characterize our classrooms today.
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