The New York Times is reporting some scary stuff about students’ expectations for high college grades just for showing up or doing the reading.  Others are equating effort with the reward of a high grade. 

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading …

James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said: “Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ 

In line with Dean Hogge’s observation are [the survey’s] test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” he added. 

[Brower] said that if students developed a genuine interest in their field, grades would take a back seat, and holistic and intrinsically motivated learning could take place.

“College students want to be part of a different and better world, but they don’t know how,” he said. “Unless teachers are very intentional with our goals, we play into the system in place.”

THIS IS WHY WE IN LIBRARY LAND TALK ABOUT STUDENTS NEEDING TO LEARN TO ASSESS BOTH THE PROCESS AND THE PRODUCT.  See how this student confuses the two? The student equates effort (process) with the summative assessment (product).  The students wants credit for the effort (process), even if — maybe especially if — the product misses the mark.  Is this a realistic life skill? That “trying” is enough? After all, if the new stimulus package fails, will anyone give credit to politicians for “trying hard”?

These ideas are jostling around with Carol Dweck’s video interview I blogged about a few posts ago.  How we help students deal with the reality of a product-oriented society while also investing in the process, when society judges only the product? It’s a big question … one I can’t answer right off …

Image: AASL Standards + Photofunia’s image generator

This is a must-view video for all of us.  Dweck’s research probes the perils of empty praise and reinforces much of what the AASL Standards tell us about building students’ dispositions and self-assessment skills.  Don’t miss this or Dweck’s book, Mindset.

One of her key ideas is that we have a responsibility to help students develop a growth mindset (in which students believe that they are on a continuum of growth and can continue to build skills and expertise) instead of a fixed mindset (in which students believe their intelligent is pre-determined and cannot change, as in, “I’m smart, so I should know how to do this, and I can’t, so I’m frustrated” or, “I’m dumb, so that’s why I don’t get this - I give up.”)

Her work is so, so powerful, especially for those of us who work in upper middle-class environments in which there is some pressure to demonstrate “good parenting” or “supportive teaching” by praising — or over-praising — our students.

View it here.

In a story that Sara Kelly Johns points out has been brewing for nearly a year, New York Times reporter Matoko Rich creates a profile (both an article and a video labeled “The 21st-Century School Librarian” of one school librarian in Brooklyn and her effective role beyond reader’s advisory to information fluency.

This follows up on a late December story on a school librarian’s many efforts to improve her collection, which I blogged about here. 

I congratulate everyone at ALA who  has been working to get these stories out and the librarians featured in these articles.  But I can’t help but think that neither article completely defines the “21st-Century School Librarian.”  It’s  just showing the tip of of a much bigger iceberg. 

(Added note: after reading about others’ takes on this article in the NY Times’ comments and elsewhere, I went back and read it again.  I realize where the source of my “wanting” is — it’s the video.   It makes a huge statement about showing 21st-century librarianship and then shows students working alone on teacher-created worksheets, which reinforces the very stereotypes that the accompanying article tries to dispel. The video could have done so much more to promote the ideas behind the AASL Standards. Where do we see students self-reflecting? Guiding their own learning? Working collaboratively? Practicing the development of dispositions?)

So what else does it mean to be a 21st-century school librarian?  It’s something at the forefront of my mind for two reasons: first, Judi Moreillon and Debbie Abilock and I are looking at the many facets of our professional practice for the November/December 2009 issue of Knowledge Quest, and secondly, I’ve got another project up my sleeve that will be revealed in Fall 2009 that’s making me read and reflect on our many roles. What about the school librarian as …

• Professional developer?
• Change agent?
• School leader?
• Advocate?
• Copyright adviser?
• PR agent?
• Member of a professional learning community?
• Technology advancer and reassurer?
• Book club organizer? 
• Teacher just like every other teacher?
• Teacher unlike other teachers?
• Listener?
• Instructional designer?
• Collaborator?
• Volunteer coordinator?
• Supporter of student-centered experiences?
• Guide from the side?
• Inquiry sherpa?
• Club advisor?
• Modeler of a life full of curiosity and discovery?
• Creative coach?
• Assessor of student learning? 
• Reflective practitioner?
• Ongoing learner?

Not to mention these essential skills….

• Laminator fixer? 
• Source of secret chocolate stash and bad librarian jokes?
• Person with the messiest office in the building?
• Printer cartridge changer?
• Person you go to when you need a roll of tape or extra staples?
• Person who untangles cords of all provenances?
• Furniture rearranger?
• Duster of shelves?
• Book repairer?
• Shelver?

PS - Check out Joyce Valenza’s interpretation of the same article.