At the beginning of the semester, many students are treated to the usual policies regarding attendance, class participation and due dates for assignments.
But one professor at Middle Tennessee State University has devised a new way to get these points across to his students.
During the holidays, Mark Anshel, who teaches a graduate course in research methods at Middle Tennessee State, compiled a “Ten Ways To Fail This Course” list, detailing study habits most professors discourage.
Included in the list are such practices as telling yourself the course is meaningless, missing as many classes are possible, arriving to class starving, pulling an “all-nighter” the night before an exam, plagiarizing, getting defensive if your work is criticized and doing as little reading as possible.
Anshel said he was inspired to create the list after working with students for more than 20 years, but especially after working with students in the past two years at Middle Tennessee State.
“I saw students behave in a manner that was very self-destructive,” Anshel said. “While they wanted to achieve at the highest level, they seemed to have no idea what they were doing that created the opposite outcome.”
Anshel said he thought of the “suggestions” after he tried to think of ways to change his students’ bad habits.
“My intent was only to influence their behavior, and to get them to re-think their typical habits that are self-destructive,” Anshel said.
Danny Weathers, a University marketing professor, said he thought Anshel was presenting the same information professors usually do, only in a different manner.
Weathers said he had never thought about using the method in his classes, but thought it might be an interesting approach.
“I would certainly give it consideration,” Weathers said.
Anshel said, while some students take the suggestions seriously in class, some continue to defend their current academic habits.
University students had varied reactions to hearing about the list.
Lindsay Cale, a kinesiology freshman, said if a professor gave her such a list, she would laugh at it and not take it seriously.
Katie Paine, a psychology freshman, said she thought a list such as Anshel’s would be a change of pace from the usual information given at the beginning of the semester.
Joric McCoy, a chemical engineering junior, questioned whether the method would actually help students and wondered if a humorous list such as Anshel’s would help reduce students’ stress levels.