Here's one necessary way to increase college graduation rates. Ban teachers from speaking ill of students and young people.
I teach faculty. From my classes, I estimate 15% of teachers openly speak ill of students and young people.
Two problems with that: 1) there's nothing wrong with students and young people today. 2) The big problem is that it inhibits learning, completion and success.
Can you imagine pilots coming on the loud speaker and calling their passengers wimps for the minor turbulence? What if doctors went on the radio and called their patients unworthy of their cure?
Students get the message they are bad. Other teachers are negatively affected. We know success is motivated by positive encouragement and lessened by discouragement. We know students can learn more if they are told they are smart.
Ban teachers from speaking ill of students and young people. It's one of the new recommendations for Enabling Learning and Completion, a new chapter in the forthcoming Fourth Edition of Advanced Teaching Online. It's also overdue.
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