Guiding Principles in High School

Guiding Principles in College   

You will usually be told what to do and corrected if behavior is out of line.

You are expected to take responsibility for what you do and don’t do, as well as for the consequences of your decisions.

You will usually be told in class what you need to learn from assigned readings.

It’s up to you to read and understand the assigned material; lectures and assignments proceed from the assumption that you’ve already done so.

High School is a teaching environment in which you acquire facts and skills.

College is a learning environment in which you take responsibility for thinking through and applying what you’ve learned.

Mastery is usually seen as the ability to reproduce what you were taught in the form in which it was presented to you, or to solve the kinds of problems you were shown how to solve.

Mastery is often seen as the ability to apply what you’ve learned to new situations or to solve new kinds of problems.

“Effort counts.”

Courses are usually structured to reward a “good faith effort.”

“Results count.”

Though “good faith effort” is important in regard to the professor’s willingness to help you achieve good results, it will not substitute for results in the grading process.