Miscommunication often happens between people, whether it involves the different meanings of words or the lack of words all together. There have been times when things have been miscommunicated between two people, it happens all of the time. For example, I have had teachers in High School that were not clear on some assignments that they wanted us to complete. My senior english teacher for instance, would give us examples of previously written papers, some written by her and some by her students, and would expect us to then write a similar paper without explaining what her requirements were or telling us what she is grading for. She gave us a rubric but most of the time it said "student successfully completed the requirements of the paper" and, " Student had an addequate introduction". Her rubric did not explain what we had to do either. When we asked her what she wanted she said "I want a paper just like this, explaining about a life experience." She would not give us any other information. So I just assumed she left it open ended for us and I wrote my paper the way I thought she wanted it done and ended up receiving an F on it. I asked her about it and she said that it was not even close to what she was looking for. I replied, "Well you didn't tell us what you wanted specifically, I did not know what form to right it in, if it is suppose to be a research paper or fictional piece, you did not clearly explain anything to the class and your rubric did not help clarify anything. The whole class was confused."
She replied with "Its all in the way you interpret it, that is what I wanted you guys to figure out." I thought this was rediculous because if this was the case, why did MY interpretation of the paper get me an 'F' ? I asked her the same thing and she avoided the answer. The next day I checked my grade online and it said I got a B on the paper.
I think that she didnt realize that she didnt communicate well with us until I confronted her about it, but even after she realized she was wrong she would not admit it. This is why clear communication is so important in everyday life.
My question: Has a teacher/ professor/employeer every been unclear with you regarding what they want for a particular assignment or task?
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Yes. In my english class now, when she assigned our first paper she only 'recomennded' that we use the writing lab. Howver, after we handed in our final draft, and noticed that no one had actually gone to the lab, that's when she said to us that she "told" us that we "have to go". This was very frusterating because that is not what she said the first time, and i had already put in a lot of work to the final draft of my paper, and now i had to re-do the whole thing. It is very frusterating when teachers are not clear.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have had a few teachers that have been unclear. One that stands out in my mind is my english professor last semester. If someone were to ask him a simple yes or no question, he would go in a round about way to answer it. Nobody ever knew what we had to do, when things were due, etc. It was very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteTeachers are not only unclear about the assignments but many times they are unclear about what they expect, how they're grading your or what concepts should be included in that class. It can be very frustrating. My English teacher is a great example of what a GOOD teacher should do. She gives us grading rubrics (graphs/tables) with specific expectations on it. It tells us exactly how to get an A.
ReplyDeleteYes, I see this happen all the time. Right now I am getting ready for a dance presentation and my instructor has given us very vague guidelines and it is very frusterating to try and put all of this together without real guidlines for the presentation, plus my grade is relying on this project.
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