We often complain (at length) about the fact that students don’t prepare properly for class. I am beginning to think that in part it’s our fault, not theirs. We simply don’t make it worth their while. Time is a scarce resource. Student’s, like good economizers, will allocate it to the activities which are most rewarding. My inference is that most of them probably have very high discount rates, which means that consequences far in the future will have little bearing on decisions that also have relatively immediate consequences. Which may explain why telling them to prepare or they will live to regret it in 10 years time when this material becomes important for their professional lives is not going to work.
However this semester I think I have found something that works for me in the short run and I believe for them in the longer run. Evidence: for my last case discussion, of 107 students enrolled in my three sections, 78 came to class and 77 of them had prepared the case. As an instructor I benefit from their preparation because 1) its much easier to have a case discussion when we are all know what we are talking about and 2) they will benefit because the discussion will make much more sense if they know the case.
All I did this semester is to adopt a rule, (which I enforce quite strictly) that anyone who has not read the case can’t be part of the discussion and should go home and do something more productive with their time. I ask each of my students individually if they have prepared. Those who admit to not being prepared, I ask to leave. Some don’t consider this a sanction (those are probably the thirty I didn’t see last class); the rest, who are keen to learn, do; so it works quite well for everyone, or seems to. All I have done is provide an incentive to those who want to learn that is much more salient than some tale of woe of the future consequences of not preparing properly. I think it’s a win-win.
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