Thursday, November 3
MODULES 16/17 POST 1
1. In the work-avoidance goal section, I had a little bit of confusion. I understand how and why complaining about assignments, being off-task, taking the easiest path, and not contributing in groups are all examples of attempts at avoidance of school work. But I would never have grouped "pretending they don't understand something" in with the others. When I think of that strategy, all I can think of is Lindsay Lohan in "Mean Girls," acting dumb so Aaron Samuels will tutor her. Maybe it's just because I am always trying so hard to be/seem smart, so acting incompetent seems like the epitome of counterproductive.
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I see your confusion.... I think that pretending they don't understand something may be a way to get out of the responsibility of contributing. If you're in a group, typically group members look to the individual that they perceive as most knowledgable to take the biggest responsibility. If you say 'Oh, I totally don't understand this section', you get out of the responsibility and blame if the group fails.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are trying to avoid work at all costs, pretending not to know something is definitely a method that some students may use. If a teacher calls on a student in class who wants to avoid work, the student can simply say "I don't understand this part, can someone else explain it?" Which throws the question back onto the teacher and can make them feel like they need to ask another individual who can explain the information to the student. Also, like Jackie said, being in a group, the student tells the members that they don't understand a majority of the project and how to do it. This can get them the easiest assignment, or someone else to help them out to do the work for them.
ReplyDeletePretending you don't understand something is the best way to get out of work. I know when I was a kid, I used to pretend I didn't know how to do some chores so I didn't have to do them. I like what Rebecca said about group work. You're not going to give a hard assignment to someone who doesn't understand the material. Think about this problem in a math classroom - a student will come up to her and say thy don't know how to do a problem so that she will walk them through it. Unfortunately, they knew how to do it, it just looked hard and thy knew how to get around doing it. The easy way out is having someone do it for you.
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