I'm not saying it's anybody else's fault

I was advising a student on the phone today who failed a math course this semester. "What happened with MATH444 this semester," I asked. "The teacher didn't teach the class in a straigh-forward way," he replied. "He didn't really tell us what we should study."

To me, this is the classic case of a student refusing to admit that he does not want to take responsbility for his own learning. Even though he didn't perform well on quizzes throughout the semester and took no initiative to get help from the professor or anyone else, he still felt he had to explain how the lack of "good" teaching contributed. Sure, the teacher "knew his stuff". It's just that he "didn't teach the course in a way that non-professional mathematicians could understand."

And what about the student who performed well in the class? "Most of the students don't work and can stay on campus to meet with a study group. I don't have the opportunity to meet other students in the class since I work off campus."

How much time did you spend studying for your math course? "All I do is study. I don't go out and party like other people." Okay, but on average on how many of the seven days of the week did you study math? "Every other day." And how many hours on those days? "3 to 4." And what did you do during those 3 to 4 hours? "I studied."

The conversation went on like this for about 15 minutes. I advised the student to get advice from the Learning Center on campus. Advice about time management and effective studying. The student finally agreed, but I wonder whether he'll be able to get past the apparent inability to accept responsibilty for his own learning.