Student responsibility for learning

Adolescence, Spring, 1993 by Charles S. Bacon

One girl did distinguish between learning and getting good grades. She gave the following definition of student responsibility for learning: "To get their work done and do it as best you can. You should learn what you're doing, know what you're doing." When asked what she meant by this, she said that students should not just learn something to please the teacher or to pass a test; they should actually know the subject.

Try or Make an Effort

Try or Make an Effort was also included by 27% (n = 14) of the students. This category was exemplified by a boy in study skills class who said, "If they |students~ try hard enough, they can accomplish what they want. Usually they say, 'It's too hard,' when actually it's pretty easy |to do well in school~." One girl in the keyboarding class elaborated on the notion that students do not really have to do everything in order to do well in school--a "good enough" perspective: "You can't be perfect. You can try your best. You have to get most of your work done. Try as hard as you can."

This category was very closely linked to Do the Work. It was also closely linked to the Learn or Study category in that making the effort was sometimes seen as synonymous with studying or learning. The students we interviewed believed it was important to at least attempt to complete their assignments, and as long as they handed something in, they apparently felt that credit for effort was somehow due.

Responsibility as Something that Is Given or Taken

In all but one of the five classes, one person mentioned responsibility as something that is given or taken. In the one exception, two students mentioned this category. Overall, based on an extremely small sample (six students) who mentioned this category, students saw responsibility as being taken. Only one of the six saw responsibility as something that is given. That student perceived responsibility as being something one can "earn," as one might earn a prize. All the others mentioned or implied that responsibility to some extent involves making choices. That is, students must decide that they are going to do their work and then get it done. For these students, and some others, there was an awareness that they are the only ones who can get the job done and, very consciously, decide whether or not they do it. A girl in keyboarding class said, "They make their own decisions. They have a choice between wanting to study or not."

One student saw responsibility as something that can be given. According to him, students will not acquire responsibility on their own; they must be given responsibility by a person with power or authority: "Responsibility is something that has to be earned. It doesn't come naturally."

The other students saw responsibility as something that a person must "take" for him/herself. The student has to provide some of the driving force behind completing the work.

The small number of students who mentioned this category becomes more significant by virtue of the fact that we did not see students "taking responsibility" for their learning. They were content to blame someone else for their failure to complete assignments successfully.