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Whose Responsible for Learning?


Quora Question: If a student gets a low grade, who is responsible, the student or the teacher?



My Answer: This is a joint responsibility. The student needs to put in the effort required to learn and the instructor should do their part to facilitate the learning.


This can mean:


  1. Creating/finding engaging, thought-provoking lesson plans to help stimulate student curiosity.

  2. Using a variety of teaching strategies to support a variety of learner.

  3. Using peer tutoring as a strategy to help the most students possible.

  4. Identifying a particular student’s learning challenges, meeting with the student and, if applicable, a learning support team (parents/guardians/resource teachers) to find ways to provide additional support for that student.

  5. Sometimes the low grade stems from an emotional challenge the student is having so a referral to the school counselor can help.

  6. Addressing student’s fears of being stupid. (Stupid sounds offensive because it is but this is the word they often use). This is a common student concern especially in math and chemistry. I have found that teaching all of my students how learning happens at the organic level (neurotransmission/making synaptic connections) helps alleviate this fear and students become more confident. They begin to understand that they are not stupid at all, they are simply not taking the steps necessary for their brain to truly learn. I teach them those steps and they LOVE learning this. It is an uplifting experience for me and for them!

  7. Allowing students to review/edit/resubmit their work. In this way they LEARN and they improve their grade.


Final Thought: It takes two to tango. Teaching/learning is a team approach. Yes, the teacher can and should do all they can to support the student but at the end of the day, the student still has to DO something!

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