Academic blindness

It seems quite fair to say that the Bologna Process brought a more contemporary curriculum to European universities in terms of a more realistic life spam. Ten, fifteen years ago deeper and longer exposure to a broader range of topics was largely applied and understood as ideal education. But nowadays, whatever is the matter brought up in a conversation people can always excuse themselves and go to the loo to perform a quick google search in their smartphones. When retuning they should be able to ‘lecture’ on the matter to everybody around.  But if a process evaluation was able to change content and size in universities isn’t also time to review behavioural traditional academic ruling attitude?

There was a time where only students from wealthy families and good colleges were able to ingress in a university. Since then, with a global population growing around 1 billion per decade, people responsible for education have been adjusting the educational system from levels 1 to 6 in order to attend the immense variance of social cultural backgrounds and differences of purchasing power among population. Nowadays, there are more universities, a different selection of people to get in that follows the student history, and a larger range of coursers. But parallel to that, the professional market out there ends up for using these changes as selection criteria for hiring people. However, just being graduated, in most cases, is not enough as it is expected a first class or upper second grade. But if there is a visible chain of conditions to find a job why then up to one third of students potentially drop off university before graduation?   

It seems clear, perhaps, that somewhere in the educational reform timeline the pre-university system understood that some components should be learned at university while the university system sees that these same components should’ve been acquired previous to university time.

However, my university in London not only provides learning supporting sessions as they also provide peer mentoring programs as, according to evidences, it is important helping students to develop their learning skills so they can improve their grades, and experiences.  But what if the current system is too conservative and insists in keep applying a very old and traditional way of superior teaching designed for privileged people?  If only around five percent of all students in university levels reach first class grades and over fifty percent remind in and/or under lower second class, is grade improvement a reality for just a small percentage of students as first class grades seem to be?

In my point of view there are at least two very old traditional ideas associated to university that no educational system reform was able to change and they should’ve tried harder: University gives one a more refined societal status and university is all about self-learning. Indirectly, or not, one ends up feeding and strengthen the other.

What I mean is that first class students most probably had previous social, familiar, and educational well-structured overall programmes so their brains did develop in a way that prepared them for a more self-learning experience. Considering all the points brought up over the previous paragraphs it is more than time to revisit the teaching design for undergraduate programmes and adapt and adjust them to the new Bologna reality. It is time to face and talk about this awkward-should-not- mention relation between university education and how much it cost. Especially because we have a dramatically higher figure of less privileged students paying the same amount of money for a so called ‘guidance’ that in fact rely on a traditional bankrupted system.          

But how flexible should university guidance be in order to suit more comprehensively all groups once they all pay the same amount?  As I said, and also as example, my university already provides considerable help support, such as on academic writing and organising study techniques, for example.  This help is supposed to balance the allegedly natural difference among students by enhancing their academic experience and creating equity regarding their outcomes, which could justify more fairly the payment of same amount by all students. Then why students do not use these services or why when they do the expected grade improvement across classes not always is observed? Or yet, why as much as a third of the students in my university drop out academic life before graduation?    

Although I am sure we will find non-first class students with fine predicates knowing how to use all university’s types of support, my wild guess is that this group should also be no bigger than the ‘first class’. In fact, support classes are often near empty and many of my peers seem very disconnected to the academic reality and they actually look like to be taking the experience with rather contempt than responsibility. But please notice that merely pointing this behaviour out is quite dangerous; despite describing real observable behaviour, it leads people to rather obvious, easy, and shallow analysis regarding what could be happening with the student body. But another question pops out: how many more small groups representing five, eight percent, for instance, from this student body are out there?  

Universities should be more aware about the types of student profiles in their campus, rather than assume a general one. A university that has the largest amount of students going across first and second years averaging third class or so should not speak with an Oxford accent! A university claiming that because guidance and support has been available students are the ones to blame for their own failures is on the verge of just being taking advantage of these students. And when it happens within the school of psychology it is even more disturbing.

But this kind of speculations over student’s irresponsible behaviour or universities ethical issues is quite dull and unconstructive. So, it seems necessary to establish some grounds here. Let’s assume that the lacking of endeavour regarding some students is not related merely to irresponsible behaviour. Similarly, let’s also assume that universities are seriously committed in doing the best for all students.  Said that...   

Universities do know how hard it is the transition of a student to a more independent way of studying.  Universities really do try to make things easier by providing students with online repository websites where all information is make available. Also, they do introduce students to a more organised business environment by conveying all communication via email. By experience, university people know students eventually will evolve and get the pace until graduation day.  And here is the caveat! All these certainties seem to be conflicting with the students’ reality and from where I see, a series of underlying silently maladaptive behaviours start to build up from day one, misleading and contaminating the whole academic experience, leaving one feeling unconsciously unhelped and lost. 

While volunteering to Health Watch I came across a terrifying user complaint; her mother had gone to an A&E with severe stomachic ache. She was diagnosed with constipation and sent home. As her clinical status did no change past few days she was taken to another A&E where they diagnosed ovary cancer. Now, as revolting and scary as it sounds, it seems immediate to think of incompetence. However, think about the amount of people they actually save per day. Now think about the amount of people that actually go there in severe stomach pain actually due to constipation. In a case where a patient does not show more evident cancer symptoms, understandably, they will diagnose by the common expectation. The more one person do the same job or see the same thing the more automatic outcomes will be.        

Based on this, let’s evaluate the impact of this... automatic-pilot attitude over student’s reality:

Timing

A university is also a corporation and such as, it has employees; some are lectures and some are just administrative. But they all have responsibilities, carrier goals, promotions to chase, and projects to achieve. Let’s just remind ourselves here that a student first year at a university might correspond to a second, sixth, maybe twelfth year of a university’s employee who probably is used to the procedures and with the performing of tasks with some autonomy. How easy would be indeed to oversimplify a first year student needs?     

Most of information is conveyed via email or placed on the online repository site:  

• First year students’ reality regarding communication is far more interactive and attractive than emails by the use of Facebook and WhatsApp, for example. People not used to an office environment, people that haven’t yet had a real company/employee relationship will not infer, nor learn by osmosis, how important it is to look at their emails as a fundamental tool of work.
• The amount of general content sent via email to all students disregardless of their schools, or levels, or modules, meaning absolutely nothing to receivers, makes hard to build up a reliable relationship with this tool causing the loss of significant announcements occasionally.  
• Online repositories are often a confusing labyrinth and even the tutorials videos of how to use the online repository are hard to find.
• General information of how things work and even how things are done are displaced in the program as they are presented in a moment where the first year student has nothing to relate the information with.  Is is important to notice that students can go easily through 6 or 7 weeks genuinely convinced they are understanding  all the rules for writing a proper essay because in fact they do as they speak English and all tips make sense. However, due to the lack of exercise, practise, and feedback students often feel lost, ashamed and even betrayed as the task presents itself harder to be accomplished while time to submit it became short.
• Students are expected to make decisions regarding module registration or projects for next year in the middle of coursework and/or exams preparations.               

Lectures

Now, imagine all these disoriented, confusing people inside a room. Actually, most of the time, this room is as big as a lecture theatre. It is very impersonal and full of strangers that sometimes look or even smell stranger. It seems relevant for me to appreciate that for a largely number of students the university is a logical extent of their so far known student life. Therefore, they don’t realise quite clearly, if at all, the new type of relationship lecturers have with the university and with themselves. In a certain level, students still hoping to bind with their ‘teachers’ who until recently have been take care of them. In my university, and in my point of view, lectures don’t look like or sound like teaching or... lecturing. They actually look and sound like just an employee performing a task they exchanged for salary. And not just that, they seem to be very unhappy, perhaps tired employees.

• Although I must admit some lecturers are very professional and stimulating, I don’t need a whole hand to count those that does not entirely read up the PPS file contents. They simulate they are just using the PPS file as guidance, but honestly? Well, they are making a reading with adjustments.
• Although most of lecturers arrive in time, some don’t as they didn’t know in which room we were waiting for them. And they were not ashamed to tell us about these last minute internal arrangements.
• Some lecturers also love to apologise for how the PPS presentation looks as they actually finished its preparation very very late on the night before. And they were not ashamed to tell us about these last minute internal arrangements.
• Some lecturers answer questions even when they don’t understand the question. Many of us are foreigners with thick accents. It is not unusual to hear something like: ‘How did you get this value?’ and hear an answer like: ‘yeah, why not?’.
• This is my favourite: Imagine having a whole year of lectures in a lecture theatre with a faulty sound system! How expensive to fix that could it be? Despite many requests to do so!

Communication

Insofar, we have disoriented, confusing people forced to attend boring, disarticulated lectures provided by soulless creatures that look like they were just there to clock-in. Although this is no more than a teaser malicious statement (after all this is still a blog), what does ‘communication’ has to say about the issue?  

• There is an enormous general lack of verbal communication that might be associated to a list of acquired assumptions.  Because during the first semestre of first year some lectures were about ‘essay structure’, ‘how to’, or ‘never do that’ faculties assume that all of these became acquired functional information for the students. However, let’s just remember how displaced regarding timing this issue has been brought on already.
• Under this same list of acquired assumptions it also can be found important announcements or regular information that had already been sent via email or is available in the repository site. However, let’s just remember how displaced regarding timing it is what an inbox mail account really represents to students and how they really find themselves around the repository site.
• Real understanding of what one has been going through may take several months in order to the whole picture become clear and make a fine sense. Meanwhile, each time this person tries to complaint or express what the issue could be, the speech may come out truncated, incoherent, confused, or even devious. Some people actually do not realise that there is something wrong, they just feel it, and they just react to an uncomfortable feeling, therefore, with not much sense in their discourse. However, ironically, it does not need more than a couple of these weird sentences to the listener, somehow, seem to understand what is going on and come up with a fantastic motivational speech. It is possible that this incoherent, confused speech might be quite common among students, therefore, a quite common acquired reaction from listeners in that same list of assumptions. 
• Faculties do not present the available help and support classes by evidencing facts that really involve the student transition into university. In fact, the program is mentioned with a certain conditional tone in which is sort of implied that it could be good in case one need (which can also be interpreted like: in case you are getting behind and unfortunately you do not belong to the amazing five percent group, you have a chance to try to get the pace by using this opportunity for losers). The underlie message conveyed about support is not clear and much less positive.
• Faculties often don’t realise how meaningless or devious they can sound when talking about grade classes range. Please notice that a upper second class means that you still have a variation that may correspondent to as much as adding 39 points to your grade (in fact, it is less than this as apparently students would never be able to usufruct 100% within first class). If you had a 60 it means that there is much more to improve that could push you up to 88, for instance! Almost half of all! However, commonly, faculties will advise you with satisfaction in their speech that you should be proud as you have reached an upper second class. Yay! No one has the right in saying or establishing what is a good grade for you to achieve or a good class group for you to fit in.  
• Faculties and staff seem unable in answering questions objectively. Most probably to happen is the asker ending up with a URL direction, a journal article, or a book tittle where the answer can be found in (in one of its 145 pages!). If none of above can be provided they will send the person to the HUB (helpdesk). There is a visible embarrassment over commitment and engaging during conversations tending to psychological reversible attitude or shift of responsibility among some members of faculty.
• I am not able to tell you the total number of student representatives but I am pretty sure that 2 represent a very significant percentage of them. I had 2 experiences with 2 different SR; in one case I was casually dismissed, maybe, due to the amount and type of observations I was pointing out as I believe they required a different hermeneutic theoretical approach as in oppose to the one SR gang was willing to apply. The second one started a quite interesting debate with me, but as the ideas she was defending were completely opposed to mine whatever I had to say was ignored. A student representative should never judge nor choose with light heart which themes should be taken for further appreciation. When themes seem too sensitive or too discrepant from the general they should at least investigate amongst other people to make sure they are not isolated issues.  
• And of course, the old and good British polite way of saying ‘I am sorry’ to close a case as if it has solved or compensated any trouble one has been involved in. And that is all you get in this topic. I’m sorry.

Technicalities

This theme for me is the most relevant one. How people show the way they are developing their technical skills is the biggest component of how a student’s grade is affected. Whether grades count or not for the final mark they will be registered forever. I also understand that is through how well one technically becomes able to produce laboratory reports, essays, proposals, analysis, and etc. that this person will find compensation; that one will get that feeling that justifies the time, money, and individualistic compromised elements invested on or spent in it.

• The IELTS grade requested for non-English speakers is 6 and that is far from being compatible with the level of English expected from coursework one. The knowledge of the language, grammar and style, is what shifts the same content from one grade group to another.

• It is commonly know that writing well (whatever that really means) is a global problem. Many eloquent speakers sometimes struggle to compose a more refined piece of writing. Academic writing, as the name suggests, should be learnt and practice (as start) during academic time, at least during the first two years. However, from the coursework one, it emerges as a heavy target for criticism that in fact sometimes overcomes the evaluation of imputed knowledge (or at least feels like that).
• From the coursework one there is a sort of mystical-kind-of-game regarding essay’s titles that faculties love playing. Apparently, titles hold some sort of secret messages in between their lines and among the choice of words selected. If first year’s grades do not count for final mark, why such obscureness on what titles should look like and what lecturers expect from them? Why not use the first year to practise clearness and debunk how to understand essay’s titles? Why not take this year to exercise the celebrity ‘discussion’?  Why not discuss about forms of writing criticism? There is no learning in producing only one piece of work per semestre, which on top of everything it will be the piece providing one the grade.
• Lecturers fill us with tips to optimize or increase extra points in coursework. However, markers (whoever they are) seem oblivious to that and do as they want, and quite often we get contradictories comments to what we were advised to do. This is quite significant considering the small amount of work providing feedback.
• Markers’ grades are cast on stone! There is nothing anyone can do to undo the worst of the mistakes made for one of them. It is like a mob.
• Only scattered pieces of work produced per semestre are responsible for generating some feedback for future improvement of work, but they return with minimum and sometimes useless feedback. Even more preoccupying is the fact that accordingly to university rules, a marker’s evaluation should be reviewed by a peer to make sure it was fair. Whoever does the reviews do not point out the lack or the bad quality of feedback provided. It is very questionable and debatable.
• Lecturers provide us a matrix with criterias of how we are going to be evaluated, but most of them rarely justify their comments by this matrix. The matrix has also proven be highly subjective for comprehension as it totally relays on the personal level of knowledge and comprehension of each one. That highlights another topic that should be more explored in a teaching class so some standards could grow amongst the students.       
• The academic writing support team seems unaware, therefore careless, about their frequency type in relation to the techniques used within their classes:  I was in a group where none of us were not English native speakers. Instead of using the time wisely for teaching, long discussions were incentivised among classmates. However, participants had different accents and backgrounds, which sometimes made impossible, improbable, or even inadequate to hold conversations. Teacher’s corrections were like: ‘no, could be shorter’, ‘too long’, ‘it does not make sense’, which basically say nothing new and actually illustrates the original problems why that people was seeking help in first place!! (And allow me to add some extra !!!!!! because this one is too much!)
• The ‘write as a psychologist’ supporting classes, for example, were being held on Mondays for one hour and it was designed to attend the three levels altogether. Please notice that coming to university just for one hour class can be quite expensive for a student. It also brings up that a similar class only for third year students with a specific design to support dissertation could massively benefit them as the dissertation is a large part of the final grade.     

Surveys

While editing this text I had to go back and add this section after I have been prompted to do a survey while accessing my university’s online repository site.

• On my first year, by the end of the semestre each module was presented with a survey regarding that module. However, the surveys were applied at the very ending of the last session when students, obviously, could not stand one more second inside the room. On my second year they actually applied the surveys at the beginning of these sessions. However, only a shy and brief announcement requesting us to fill the surveys up were made. Surveys should be applied from someone not related to the student’s every day. There should exist a nice proper flammable introduction reasoning why students should fill that up. Why they should try to be as honest as possible answering that. Students just seem unaware to the fact that surveys can be their voices about the service they use!
• When answering the university general survey, it just caught my attention that more abroad subjects had options such as ‘strong agree’, ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, ‘strong disagree’, and ‘N/A’ whereas topics specifically enquiring about the university’s services more often had only ‘never’ ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ as options. Notice that one of these topics was asking to evaluate how often I had contacted with a specific service provided by the university. However, as one time does not constitute ‘never’ I was left with no better option than ‘sometimes’, which does not reflect my involvement at all. 
• Perhaps due to the allegation that students are irresponsible and careless beings that would never answer surveys during summer after the final exams surveys were made available in the middle of revision week and with expiration date. So they asked for undivided optional attention to answer a survey simply during the worst period for a student.  Timing issues again!

By the very end of the second year it became clear to me that faculties generally carry on a predisposition, a fundamental certainty that is not shared with the students. Because first and second year’s grades do not count for final grades there is no reason to be putting too much effort on it.  It is an attitude that saves them energy. It is an attitude that denounces a ‘I am an unhappy employee’ behaviour display. Furthermore, this attitude is reflected across the whole program throughout first and second years. It became clear to me when all of the sudden third year commitments emerged demanding such extra work and orientation from faculties, even before the final exams of second year.  However, as a ground has been established here regarding intentions, this attitude has got to be unconscientious and reflects, perhaps, an automatism; an automatic-pilot system. Under further analysis, it could even be seen as a positive perspective once this automatism indicates that everything is under control by comparison to the usual. Therefore, it means that students will manage to graduate at the end, or in my university’s case, 67% of them at least. Though, students in general are not able to experience this same sensation in relevant time.

Confused and lost students disguised as unconcerned cool juveniles, shamed to be exposed by their very psychological status (maturity), are truly willing to get around the mythical university learning by attempts in figuring how to do a good job under tremendous pressure. Conversely, a whole invisible and dense wave of unconcerned, perhaps relaxed attitude is projected against them by the very same entity that put them under pressure. From day one, the excitement for new subjects grows into confusion and develops into feeling lost. As one is still uncertain of what it is expected from he or she, hope and dedication decreases by each unexplained grade, each improper feedback returned. 

The feeling that one has not been tailored for that starts to taking over silently and unconsciously.

Nonetheless, as a final note, both attitudes from students and faculties seem not to be exclusive to my university campus. A couple of months ago, papers brought to our attention that only one out of ten domestic complaints is actually investigated by police, despite the campaigns promoting the importance of complaining. Similarly and consistent to that is the NHS Choice online website, which is actively open and receives comments and complaints daily that are seen or analysed by no one. Additionally, some days ago the London chief for transport actually used the word ‘shit’ to describe the suburban services. He also said to be incomprehensible that people haven’t yet presented a petition against rail franchises. These examples represent the same types of attitudes previously pointed out here; companies not doing their jobs properly and users not knowing how to demand for the service they actually are paying for. Within the right extension, these examples denounce institutionalised already existing social attitudes that I am sure can be linked to what is happening inside my campus, helping to explain, perhaps, what seems isolated faults.     

In conclusion, some small groups of students cope fine with university because they have had better previous structure, but the current system seems oblivious about how to deal with the remain groups. Some groups are not happy with their outputs, but they don’t see that is worth to complaint, and others are struggling, but have no idea why or what they could do. However, the existence of different groups should be indicative of different approaches for a common well (is useless offer bicycles to solve people’s transportation problems when these people are afraid of cycling. Help must correspondent to the reality of who are experiencing difficulties). The allegedly irresponsible behaviour presented for so many students can be a direct aversive reaction to an inconsistent system that drop a huge load over their heads at the same time they act as there is no reason for such preoccupation. Excessive confidence and assumptions plays definitive roles in maladaptive attitudes that are reinforced every year while they cover this massive wave that in fact presses students’ motivation and reshape their behaviour negatively.  While a social project could be looking into increasing effectiveness and efficiency through a realignment of all education levels in a long term, another short term project could be looking into enhance and improve first academic years by pedagogically teaching a student how to become an academic person whereas at the same time a professional attitude could also be consolidate by all this experience.   

Have all nice week.

Eduardo Diverio-Marques