I just started teaching my third class at a local college where I’ve been an adjunct instructor for just over a year. I’m teaching the same class on group psychotherapy I taught last semester. I developed the curriculum for this eight-week class. That was challenging and a lot of work. I didn’t realize how much work was involved when I agreed. If they ask me to do that for another class, I’m definitely going to ask for increased compensation. But I digress.
I enjoy teaching. Most of the students are enrolled because they have a genuine interest in the counseling field. Their interest is apparent in their engagement in the online discussion boards and in their thoughtful and comprehensive responses to the assignments. I enjoy reading their various opinions on the questions I pose.
Last semester, I failed two students because they didn’t do the assignments. This is an asynchronous class, so the eight weekly assignments make up a student’s entire grade. The two students I failed did the first two or three assignments, then stopped. Another student didn’t do the first assignment, and then asked me for an extension during week four of the class. Another, more motivated student missed a later assignment, then took the initiative to request an alternate assignment for extra credit, which I happily gave her.
An article from the James J. Martin Center on Academic Renewal reports that, “although learning is the shared responsibility of students and professors, students are the easier target” when students fail a class. Research suggests students study only 13 hours per week on average, or less than two hours per day in a typical semester.
I felt terrible failing students, but it was an objective decision. When I averaged out their weekly grades, one received a D and the other an F. The page where we enter our grades is automated; we enter eight numeric grades, and the system averages them out and converts them to letter grades.
A 2022 study led by Joy Rudland of the University of Otago (New Zealand) reports that fewer students are failing: “Junior members of faculty are less likely to give what they term low-performance evaluation (LPE) compared to their more senior colleagues, and secondly … [and] LPEs have decreased over the past 15 years; fewer learners are failing.”
Saying no to an extension after three weeks was more of a subjective decision, but still one that I felt justified in making. It mystified me why a student would wait two to three weeks to ask for an extension on an assignment. One of my policies is no extensions on the final assignments; faculty members have a deadline for when we have to submit our final grades. One student asked for an extension without giving a reason, then when I cited the policy that was laid out on day one, she told me her grandmother has passed away.
In the US News & World Report article, “10 Things Your College Professors Won’t Tell You,” Jackson Nimesheim includes, “They get skeptical of excuses. … Students whose circumstances are legitimate can take measures to prove the validity of their claims. For example, students who miss classes or assignments for a relative’s passing should consider sending their professor an obituary link.”
I was surprised when the professor who was my supervisor asked me back to teach another semester since I had failed these two students. I had gotten the feeling that this particular college, which has a large acceptance rate, doesn’t fail too many students. A study led by Marianne Mak–van der Vossen of the VUmc School of Medical Sciences in the Netherlands reports, “Supporting teachers in teaching and assessing professional behaviour and involving them in students’ remediation appears to reduce their reluctance to fail students demonstrating unprofessional behaviour.”
One of my students this semester is one of the students whom I failed last semester. I graded the week-one assignments the other morning and his was among them. He submitted an assignment that didn’t address the question posed in the assignment. I gave him 50 percent for submitting something and I wrote him a note that his response was off-target, and that I was proactively giving him an extension to re-read the assignment and resubmit his response. He has the option to attend Zoom office hours before the assignment is due or the option to reach out to me by email.
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I hope that he reaches out for support and that this semester has a different outcome than the last.