'Entitled' Students Expect Grades for Effort, Attendance

This study demonstrates an attitude of entitlement that has reached into the arena of education. It underscores the need for parents to be intentional in teaching their children to become responsible, and the earlier the process begins, the better.

Most university students believe that if they're "trying hard," a professor should reconsider their grade.

One-third say that if they attend most of the classes for a course, they deserve at least a B, while almost one-quarter "think poorly" of professors who don't reply to e-mails the same day they're sent.

Those are among the revelations in a newly published study examining students' sense of academic entitlement, or the mentality that enrolling in post-secondary education is akin to shopping in a store where the customer is always right.

The paper describes academic entitlement as "expectations of high marks for modest effort and demanding attitudes toward teachers."

The study reveals that students who are academically entitled are more likely to engage in academic cheating, exploit others, shirk hard work and display "narcissistic orientation."

The study, which surveyed two groups of approximately 400 undergraduates aged 18 to 25, is published in the November issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Among the findings:

The study asked approximately 400 undergraduates aged 18 to 25 whether they agreed with these statements:

• If I have explained to my professor that I am trying hard, I think he/she should give me some consideration with respect to my course grade - 66.2 percent agree

• If I have completed most of the reading for a class, I deserve a B in that course - 40.7 per cent

• If I have attended most of the classes for a course, I deserve at least a grade of B - 34.1 per cent

• Teachers often give me lower grades than I deserve on paper assignments - 31.5 per cent

• Professors who won't let me take my exams at another time because of my personal plans (e.g. a vacation) are too strict - 29.9 per cent

Source: Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6f8e11db-6ed2-4e17-b271-1368cc9bd123

Comments

[Mone]

we live in a world where too many people think they have all these "rights" to all sorts of things. vacations do not rank at the top of my list for rearranging an exam time (at the instructor's expense). you've got to give up something. I'm glad the number on that was low, but not that it was not low enough. as far as "entitlements and rights" are concerned, no one has the right to be just plain wrong.