Why is it that students don’t do their homework? What motivates the decision for a student to ignore a task that has been set before them to complete? Why would a student make up reasons for why they were unable to complete their assignments? While I don’t claim to know all of the answers to these questions I certainly see potential clues every day I go to work.
If we haven’t met allow me to introduce myself: I’m Kyle and I’m a dad. I’m also a Ph.D. student. I’m also a teacher. I’m also some other things. What’s important, however, is that I walk the delicate line being a student and a teacher at the same time. The student’s problems seem more reasonable to me because I’m a student, but the teacher’s outlandish demands also make sense because I am also a teacher. This simply means that I know how “the game” works. I know the ways that students lie about homework because I’ve seen fellow students who do this. I also understand the importance of deadlines, classroom management, and responsibility. Today I’m going to talk about Reason #1 for not doing homework: “busy work.”
I’m going to blame both teachers and students. One thing that teachers do is assign homework for a grade that is referred to as “busy work.” You know the type of assignment: it is barely relevant to the course itself or to the students’ continued learning of a topic. This is, sadly, the fault of the teacher (or perhaps the educational system in general). There is another side to this though. Students are not (generally) able to decipher the differences between an assignment that is truly busy work and one that is (perhaps) off-beat but valuable. In addition the students will, throughout their adult lives, be asked to perform repetitive and often meaningless tasks as employees. They will also be asked to perform tasks that do not have a clear function or outcome.
On collaborative tasks your small part of the whole may seem irrelevant or meaningless, but when the whole is brought together your part may be integral to the final product. My message to students is this: Do the work that is asked of you. My message to teachers? Give relevant work.