Opinion
Student-faculty communication critical in student development
October 23, 2015
Feedback of academic progress, or lack thereof, is essential to a student’s self-assessment of the successes or failures resulted from the effort put forth to achieve their educational goals. When students are unable to receive timely feedback on their work, they lack the ability to improve upon their mistakes prior to the due date of the next assignment. This is an impediment to student's learning and should be taken more serious in the future, both by students, who often provide a negative attitude towards professors who are not well mannered in time, and professors, who find frustration in both the work that piles up, as well as the hounding of students eager to learn of their grade.
Gretchen Toman, M.A., is a skilled anti-procrastinator. In French 201, she is quick to grade exams, essays, journal entries, as well as other class materials in a timely manner. Toman posts grades on D2L in the same swift fashion. For instance, an exam given at one o'clock on a Wednesday was corrected, and posted online by eight that very same evening. To other faculty members' credit, the one o’clock class of French 201 only has eight students, however, that also may be cause for even more praise given to Toman. She seemed to have acknowledged that, while there was only a minuscule amount of exams to correct, it still didn't suffice to wait another day. When discussing this matter with Toman, she was informative in that a pile of only eight exams will soon rise to a pile of many, many more if one is to procrastinate. Thus, Toman exemplifies the Kate Spade brand's "she is quick and curious and playful and strong."
One way to improve student-faculty communication on the matter is to continue to praise teachers who excel in the area of swift grading, while minimalizing the expressions of negative attitudes towards faculty members who lack a successful reputation of punctual student feedback. This movement towards positivity and praise might bring rise to professor's desires to increase their productivity while cutting down on their procrastination.
Melanie Meyers is a student at UW-River Falls.