Earning the students respect
Respect from the student is not just given to you because of your title or perceived power over the students. It's earned over time once the students see genuine passion and credibility for the subject.
It's oaky to have fun and be humorous, but I know that there must be a continual flow of information applicable to their career goal. There is an art to finding the balance. I remember when I first starting teaching 14 years ago I had a hard time saying I don't know. I thought I had to always know the answers because I was the teacher. However, the students see me as more authentic if I tell them I don't know but will look it up and let you know.
My students are truly my instructors.
James Morgan
Rebecca,
Good strategy. It isn't a big deal when the instructor doesn't know the answer. By using your approach both the students and yourself learns the answer because you sought the answer out together.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Regarding the issue of fear of not knowing an answer. When posed with this type of situation, I simply state, lets look up the answer together, take the time to find the answer and if another student comes up with the answer and reference when they found the answer, then it is discussed until the student who originally asked the question is satisfied with the answer.
James, I totally agree that respect has to be earned. I have 30 years experience , 15 years with CEC so most of the students either know me or know of me. I like to make learning fun, use a little humor.The students see me as human, fair
and authentic, even after I tell them that my class is a dictatorship, not a demoracy and I am the dictator.
Hi James,
I enjoyed reading your discussion thread. I wanted to make a couple of brief comments about your post. First, I agree wholeheartedly with your statement that respect is not simply given to an instructor due to his or her title or power over the courseroom; respect is something that instructors must earn from students.
The other topic point I wanted to comment on is the fear that some instructors experience when they don't know the answer to a problem or question. I have always found that instructors who answer honestly are respected and admired more so by students than other instructors.
Hi Michelle,
Your career experiences have put you are in the position you are in so by sharing them you are illustrating that you know your field and are focused on sharing it with your students. As you mentioned it also helps with the development of respect and rapport. Good way to start a class.
Gary
I feel like devoting a reasonable amount of time to speak about my professional history of my subject earns alot of respect from my students because then they know that what i'm teaching is also practical and comes from experience.
Right on James! I have been teaching for 3 years and continue to learn new things each semester. I mainly teach business and accounting courses so I have the challenge of teaching some of the more difficult courses.
It's greatly important to win over the respect of your students so they pay attention and are open to asking questions. I also normally do a lot of assignments together to assist students with visualizing how to do the problem, etc. I find students really enjoy this.
James,
I am glad I read your post because I had this situation occur recently during my first week as an instructor. I was asked a question that I thought I knew the answer to, but not with 100% certainty. I gave the student my response which I admitted was an educated guess, but told them I would look it up and let them know during the next class period.
I had been unsure if that was the right thing to do, so thank you for easing my mind about that. It's nice to know that instructors are allowed to be human, and even continue to learn themselves.
Jessica
