Managing Expectations

The idea of managing expectations is one of my “big” things. I guess it stems from teaching consumer behaviour and services marketing, but it is just one of those logical things that many people forgot to do.

I was thinking about the post regarding Masterton websites. While I do have fond memories I guess it isn’t the most exciting place on earth! So by not having good online content are they actually managing people’s expectations? I think you need to encourage people somewhere before you start worrying about their expectations though.

This brings me to my students. I am finding it very difficult to manage grade expectations. It doesn’t seem to matter how much you try to let them down gently or give constructive criticism, every time they don’t get an “A” it is as though their world has caved in. I find this all a little difficult as I try to encourage and motivate them the best I can, but the disappointment seems to last a week or so. Last semester one of them actually didn’t talk to me for a week or so after he received a “B+” rather than anything starting with an “A”. It is possible there is a great deal of unseen pressure on these students to “succeed” and unfortunately this translates into an “A” grade on everything.

The fact is most of these students are just genuinely nice people. They do try. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is to study content courses in a second language while you are still going through the process of learning that language. The one that always gets me is math. I have enough problems with it anyway, but put all those equations and concepts in another language and I think that is the stuff of nightmares.