Get Your Students Hired
The two common fears are class mates being smarter and not fitting in. When coming into our school here, we get a verity of students. Some of our students are coming here to learn something new. Their back ground may include Military, Accounting or many other life experiences. You never know what back ground people have brought with them.
Some students are afraid of being accepting by others. Some of our students are younger and still like to play games and pick on other people. This is something that all staff member watch for in our learning environment.
Martin--
Excellent advice and it is certainly a benefit for the 'mentoring' students as well. I have found that it reall solidifies their understanding to have to explain it to someone else. The other students also benefit from having a different spin on the explanation.
Susan
The trick to handling the more advance students is to utilize their skills and have them help the other students with their in-class projects. I find this a benefit to both me and the slower students. With an average class of 25 to 30 students, I can get pretty thinned out trying to help all the students in class. I find that the more advance students seem to enjoy helping and may present the material from their point of veiw and communicate in such a way with the slower students that the slower students understand the material.
No matter who you are every student has some kind of fear when starting something new especially school or a job. Some may feel they are not smart enough while others may have a hard time adjusting to a new environment(location, other students).
Val--
That is the question of the century (or one of them). It is, as you know, extremely challenging to teach a class with such a diverse level of academic preparedness. Some people have found success with engaging the advanced students in assisting those who are struggling.
Susan
The comment that students may have a fear of other classmates being smarter really strikes home. This could hold back a lot of prospective students. Then once in a class you can see the possibility for some to struggle with this; especially if there might be younger students or perhaps even working in the field already within the same class. It could make them fearful of asking questions or even asking for help when they really should be receiving some. The safe class environment is a must so that all students can participate and overcome this negative expectation. How do you make sure the more advanced students do not overrun the class or make the less advaced students feel this way?
I agree Dave! If we can identify a student's fear and address it by helping them aquire confidence in those areas, not only will they learn and perform better, we reinforce their decision to stay in school...increasing retention!
That’s true. Students can be afraid of all sorts of things. It could be something like being away from home for the first time or rooming with someone they don't know. To the regular class problems like reading out loud, making a mistake in front of a crowd etc...
Ronald--
That is true. I think more and more people are uncomfortable with this because they do it less in school than we did! I'm sure you do all you can to help maintain their dignity.
Susan
Shawn--
It sounds like you address this head-on. I think acknowledging that fear is very helpful to students.
Susan
Some of the students bigest fears are reading out load !! and haveing people laughing at them when they speek !!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you understand that most everyone has a fear of failure, you can understand students are no different. Students fear they might fail, and once you discuss this fear with them, they become more confident in their ability to move forward. You must make the student move their focus away from their fear of failing and focus on taking one step at a time.