Education is the Only Business Where the Customer is Satisfied with Less of the Product

Abstract

Faculty members need to be vigilant to avoid a slide toward decreased efforts in the classroom. The demand for “good teaching” may not come from the students in the class, who have many activities taking up their time and are often satisfied with a course that makes minimal demands; however, even tenured faculty members should strive for higher standards, including maintaining high expectations of the students. One of the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education, as espoused by Chickering and Gamson, is “communicates high expectations” (1); that is, students tend to put in the effort necessary to meet expectations, so it makes sense to set a high bar for performance, even though it may take extra work on the part of the instructor.