Take Personal Responsibility for Your Education
Taking personal responsibility for your education is empowering. It puts you in control of maintaining your motivation and making smart choices. For instance, if you don’t see why a particular assignment is important, you can find reasons to care. If you keep missing class, you can set two alarms so you’ll wake up on time. If friends want you to go out the night before a test, you can say no.
WRITING PROMPT: Remind students that they are their own coach by telling them that they are responsible for creating an all-star academic team. Ask them to evaluate their own performance as a student so far this term. Would they make the team? If so, would they make first string? If not, what steps could they take to become more successful academically?
By taking responsibility in these ways, you drive your learning and your personal growth. You also prove to yourself that you value your education, and show respect for your instructors and the classmates who depend on you to complete group projects and assignments. Taking responsibility for our actions isn’t always easy, but every college student — and every professional in the workplace — needs to do it.
In the next section, we’ll explore four ways you can take responsibility for your own education: cultivating a growth mindset, taking an active approach to your learning, navigating the transition to college life, and reflecting on how you think and learn.
Develop a Growth Mindset
Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck proposes that there are two types of students. Those with a growth mindset believe they can improve and further develop their skills.4 They assume personal responsibility for their success and learn as much as they can from their failures.
Growth Mindset: The belief that one can improve and further develop one’s skills.
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By contrast, students with a fixed mindset believe they can’t improve their talents, skills, and abilities, and they tend to see themselves as victims of circumstance. Take Maya, who turned in a project late and was penalized one letter grade. She blamed work and family demands (she has three young children) for missing the deadline. She didn’t reflect on her behaviors or learn how to manage her time more effectively; as a result, she continued to struggle to meet her deadlines.
Fixed Mindset: The belief that one cannot improve one’s talents, skills, and abilities.
When you have a growth mindset, you take responsibility for setbacks rather than blame others for them. You examine the behaviors that led to the failure, identify what you could have done differently, and apply those lessons to the next situation. For example, if Maya had adopted a growth mindset after losing a letter grade, she might have identified behavior changes to make in the future, such as exchanging work shifts as a deadline approaches or working on assignments when her children are in school.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to think about a situation that didn’t work out as they had hoped. At the time, did they view the outcome using a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? If they viewed the outcome using a fixed mind-set, invite them to reframe the situation using a growth mindset instead. What would they do differently?
If you blame others for setbacks, you miss an opportunity to become more competent by learning how you can improve in the future. Adopting a growth mindset is a win-win situation: When you fail, you take steps to improve, and when you succeed, you get the credit for making a positive change. Either way, you become a better student and get more value from your education.
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Take an Active Approach to Your Learning
If your high school was like many, it had a passive learning environment. Teachers were considered experts who imparted knowledge, and students memorized the information that was presented. By contrast, most colleges encourage active learning, in which instructors create a learning environment but students are expected to think critically about course material, engage in classroom discussion and debate, and apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems and settings. To foster a growth mindset, embrace active learning. Instead of simply attending class and listening to your instructor, identify and use learning strategies — methods for mastering important course material.
Consider Cody’s experience. Cody is studying to become a certified medical assistant and is taking a course in medical terminology. While studying one evening, he encounters an unfamiliar term: neuropathy. He decides to puzzle out the meaning rather than Google the term. To do that, he recalls information he learned in his biology and anatomy courses: Neurology is the study of the nervous system, and pathology means “disease.” He combines these two pieces of information and determines that neuropathy means “a disease of the nerves.” By doing this, he has adopted an active learning approach: connecting past learning to this new term to figure out its meaning.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask a volunteer to name a class in which he or she is struggling to stay focused. As a group, discuss specific ways that the student might use the suggestions in this section to become more engaged in that course. Have the student try out these suggestions and report back about h0is or her experience.
As you read this book, you’ll find dozens of active learning strategies — from the best ways to schedule your time and preview your textbooks to tactics for effective note taking and paper writing. Not all strategies work in all situations, but if you experiment, you’ll figure out which ones work best for you with each course and assignment. In the meantime, get a head start by giving these strategies a try.
CONNECT
TO MY CLASSES
Pick an active-learning strategy described in this section and explain how you’ll apply it in a class this week or next.
Get involved. Asking questions in class can help clarify content you find confusing. Briefly summarize what you do understand about the topic: Then ask about the parts that are unclear. For instance, “You said that alternative energy sources, like solar or wind, have influenced the debate about global warming. But can you please describe the scientific research going on in those areas?” Form or join study groups to discuss assignments, brainstorm possible test questions, or debate ideas you’re learning about in class.
Look for connections. What you learn in one class often relates to something you’re learning in another or to an experience you’ve had in the past. As Cody discovered, connecting new, unfamiliar material to other material is a powerful active learning strategy. When you make such connections, you’re more likely to remember what you’ve learned, allowing you to use your new knowledge long after the class ends.
Seek applications for your new knowledge. Look for ways you can apply what you’re learning to your personal life, your current job, or your future career. As we discuss in the critical thinking and goal-setting chapter, applying what you’ve learned is an important critical thinking skill and makes the concepts you’re learning more concrete.
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Navigate the Transition to College Life
We’re all accustomed to some degree of personal responsibility in our lives, but in college, personal responsibility is a whole new ballgame. For one thing, in college you probably have a lot more independence — and therefore more responsibility — than you had in high school. (See Table 3.3 for common differences between these environments.) Take Theo. In high school his parents woke him up each morning, and his school days were highly structured. In college it’s up to him to set his alarm, go to class, and study for tests. Theo — not anyone else — must structure his own time and make choices that keep him on a path to success.
CONNECT
TO MY RESOURCES
List your most important responsibilities this term. Identify two resources, either on campus or in your community, that can help you build a plan for managing these high-priority responsibilities.
If you entered college a number of years after graduating from high school, you’re probably used to personal responsibility. You may have several years of employment under your belt and have a family to help support. Still, you’ll likely find yourself accountable for new kinds of decisions when you start college. Vicky is a good example. A first-year student, Vicky has a job and two young children. She’s used to caring for her kids and earning a living, but now she has another responsibility: staying focused on her studies. Only she can decide how to balance her various responsibilities as she pursues her degree.
| In high school | In college |
|---|---|
| Your time and schedule was structured by others. | You must manage your time and choose how to spend it. |
| You were told what to learn and often how to learn it. Learning was teacher-focused. | You must figure out what to learn and how to learn it. Learning is student-focused. |
| You needed your parents’ permission to participate in extracurricular activities. | You must choose whether to participate in co-curricular activities, and which fit best with your academic, personal, and other goals. |
| You could count on parents and teachers to remind you of your responsibilities and to give regular guidance in setting priorities. | You must set your own priorities and take responsibility for achieving them. |
| You attended class 5 days a week and proceeded from one class directly to another. | You often have hours between classes and may not attend classes every day. Much of your work will happen outside of class time. |
| Most of your classes were determined by school counselors. | You must choose which classes to take in consultation with faculty and academic advisers. Your schedule may look easier than it actually is. |
| Students are not responsible for knowing what is required to graduate or tracking their own progress. | Students are expected to select their own majors and/or minors and are expected to learn the graduation requirements for their programs of study. |
| Summary: Students are told what to do and corrected if their behavior is not in line with expectations. | Summary: Students are expected to take responsibility for their path and academic success, as well as the consequences and rewards of their actions. |
Credit: “Common Differences between High School and College.” Used by permission of the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center at Southern Methodist University.
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FOR DISCUSSION: Invite the class to share apps they have discovered for their smartphones that assist with managing the demands of being a student. What features do they like? What would the ideal app look like if it doesn’t already exist?
Think about Thinking and Learning
If you’re an active learner, you monitor your learning and adjust your strategies based on your results. You’re also aware of how you think and learn. Scholars call this awareness metacognition, which means “thinking about thinking” or “thinking about learning.” For instance, you’re engaging in metacognition if you notice that you have an easier time learning biology than learning European history, if you discover that one study strategy works better for you than another, and every time you reflect on your ACES results.
Metacognition: Thinking about thinking or about learning.
To get a better sense of how metacognition works, consider Cholena’s experience. She just got her first writing assignment back in Freshman Composition, on which she got a C–. Instead of getting frustrated or losing hope, Cholena reflected on her instructor’s comments and how she had approached the assignment. She asked herself, “How did I approach writing the paper, and how did that work out for me?” She also took the paper to a tutor in the writing center. Together, they discussed her writing strategies, the instructor’s comments, and approaches she might take to get better grades. All of these actions involve metacognition.
Research shows that metacognition promotes learning.5 Students who reflect on their approach to coursework remember more information, apply that information to new situations more effectively, and get higher grades. To make use of metacognition to improve your performance in school, try these strategies.
Plan and organize. Set learning goals, and preview assignments so you can decide how best to approach them.
Monitor your progress. Check your progress against time lines you set for yourself. Troubleshoot problems. Ask yourself whether you’re doing your best work or whether you could improve your effort.
Evaluate your results and make adjustments. Consider how well your learning strategies helped you achieve a goal. If you weren’t as successful as you had hoped, plan how to change your strategy the next time.
These metacognitive strategies may seem familiar because you’ve seen many of them before. Critical thinking, goal setting, and decision making also call for you to evaluate your learning, apply new knowledge, reflect on your results, and make changes as needed to get better results. Since these skills are all connected, you can use them over and over again, in any setting.
Take a moment now to assess your metacognitive skills. What are you thinking about as you read this section of the chapter? Are you daydreaming, contemplating all the assignments that are due in your other classes, or pondering what to make for dinner? Or are you considering how these concepts can benefit you, be useful in other courses and assignments, and help your future career? If you reflect on both the content you’re studying and the processes you’re using to understand and apply material, you’re on your way to becoming an active learner who makes good use of metacognition.
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ACTIVE LEARNING AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY LEAD TO SUCCESS!
spotlight onresearch
As you’ve discovered by now, your instructors expect you to complete assignments outside of class on a regular basis. Homework assignments help you learn course content. They also encourage you to become a more independent and active learner. And research suggests that being this kind of learner can boost your odds of succeeding in school.
In fact, researchers Anastasia Kitsantas and Barry J. Zimmerman set out to answer a key question about types of learners: Are students who take responsibility for their homework and who believe in their ability to complete assignments more successful than those who don’t? Their research findings suggest that the answer to that question is yes. In their study they surveyed more than two hundred university students to see how responsibly the students made plans to complete homework assignments and how strongly they believed in their ability to finish the assignments. Students with high self-efficacy who actively planned how to complete their assignments earned significantly higher grades than the other students in the study.
How did those successful students demonstrate responsibility? They took a series of steps — steps that you can take — to set themselves up for success:
Designating a regular place to study
Estimating the time needed to complete assignments
Prioritizing tasks
Completing assignments on time
In addition, the most successful students believed in their ability to
Take notes
Find help when they needed it
Use many different learning strategies
THE BOTTOM LINE
When you take responsibility for completing assignments and believe in your ability to complete them, you’ll get the best results.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Question 3.1
1. When you receive a homework assignment, what steps do you take to prepare to complete it?
Question 3.2
2. Where do you prefer to study, and why?
Question 3.3
3. What steps can you take this term to make sure you turn in assignments on time?
A. Kitsantas and B. J. Zimmerman, “College Students’ Homework and Academic Achievement: The Mediating Role of Self-Regulatory Beliefs,” Metacognition and Learning 4 (2009): 97–110.
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