Getting personal
I find that most of my students that struggle with the course material have things of a personal nature that are serving as a barrier to the learning process. With younger students it tends to be social issues and with older students it tends to be time issues due to family or work. I do not want to invade a student's personal privacy to discover what their learning struggles may be. I find that if I can't get the student to open up about personal issues, I am at a loss on how to help them. Any strategies to approach personal issues would be greatly appreciated!
I do agree, my older students it takes more time with them..
Jeremy,
Be supportive and work to earn their respect. If they respect you they will often strive to do well in your course as well as using you as a part of their support system.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I am experiencing similar issues with my students. I have several that I do not think are performing at their full potential because of personal issues.
There is a strong risk of learning too much about a student's background to the point that it jeopardizes the faculty-student relationship and, indeed, the learning environment.
Christopher,
This is a very good way to help such students to have continued success. They need to be able to concentrate on their studies and in many cases as we know their personal lives don't allow for such effort.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I have recently been working with a few of my students that have some home/personal issues that have taken there focus away from class. I have inquired with mixed results. But one of the approachs I have use is to allow some individual teaching time at school so the students can work on projects and reports with out the interference on the home life. In these discussion we work on different learning plans of these students.
