Covid has a big effect but it’s not the cause of all problems. The academic bar has been going down for quite some years before covid.
From 2012 to 2018 I taught as adjunct in a local university. My students were pre-service teachers (undergrad students in training to become K-12 teachers). I taught a capstone course where I guided the students in conducting a research project, something like “what are the effects of a certain incentive to encourage 3rd graders in reading?”. The majority of those students were also doing student teaching, where they shadow (and assist if capable) a real teacher for one semester. The entire course was structured for the project with timeline, weekly check-in, peer discussion, online and in-person reflections, etc. Anyone with average executive skills should be able to follow the steps (ask school admin for permission, ask main teacher for corporation and collaboration, recruit students, collect data, analyze data, compose report, etc.). By the time for data collection half of the class were behind schedule. The week before the project was due half of the students would email me asking for extension or modified grading rubric (basically less work for higher grade). The most frequent “reason” I received was “I’m doing my best”. Apparently they believed that since they did their best, they deserved an A. They are teaching in K-12 schools now.
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