fear of the unknown
Most of the time it's the aniexty that is worse than the act itself of failing, like taking these quizzes and feeling really small, because the question was worded tricky or subjective.
Michael, great post. Some instructors do not take the time to ensure students feel secure and to provide a true learning environment. If students feel they are being evaluated they do not respond the same as they do when they feel they are part of the overall learning process. Thanks for sharing.
James Jackson
I have many students in my Web classes who feel intimidated by the material and they really need to be put at ease and assured that they can accomplish the task before them. After the main project has been completed, I always get students who confide how nervous they were when the class began. I feel it is my job to provide the security and level of autonomy that will allow every student to be successful.
Beth, great point. For some students the only positive influence is what they get in the classroom and in association with their institution. For those of us that are blessed with several positive influences in our lives we tend to not understand that not everyone will have such resources. Knowing your students and understanding where they receive positive feedback can be important and allow for a much better understanding of how to influence them within the classroom.
James Jackson
I feel like at our school the fear of the unknown for our students comes from never completing anything in the past so therefore they are actually afraid to succeed than fail because failure is what they are used to in the past. SoI believe this can get in there way. I also think failing quizzes and things like that do not help the case.
Gregory, outstanding post and brings forward another key concept with respect to how we measure success. Not all students will achieve the course objectives but we want ALL students to maximize their potential. The more we know about our students the better we can determine if they made progress during their time under our care. Grade point average or final course grade is just part of the overall measurement process, it is just as critical that we measure progress based on the students past history. Eventually the student that appears to be under achieving can catch up and even surpass their peers but they may require additional attention to reach this level of material mastery.
James Jackson
Agree that instructor needs to make sure students feel at ease as much as possible. This is about security, so as instructor I need to understand what makes students insecure. In the module I just completed I recognized that some practices, such as clearly explaining objectives and expectations, are not just nice to know but help students feel more secure, or at ease. This probably helps them focus more easily on the content instead of their worries about whether they can perform up to expectations or accomplish the objectives. I think visual depictions of processes to supplement verbal descriptions help a lot of students grasp concepts more quickly and move forward.
Stephen, excellent post. A great instructor is also a coach and project manager. Keeping the students on task and within the guidelines of the lesson plan is not just an option it is an absolute requirement. Students need to be told what is going to happen, then trained how to make it happen and then review on what just happened. This cycle and repetition is standard in higher education and has proven benefits in countless research studies.
James Jackson
You must make the students feel at ease at all times. If they fear anything in the classroom whether it may be failing, or misinterpreting the question(s) in the classroom or on an examination it is the professor's job to make the students mind at ease and set them up for success with reinforcement and to make sure the student's are always at task and keeping engaged in the lesson.
Fear of the unknown in some cases is motivation to avoid, in other cases motivation to investigate, It's our job to motivate to investigate
Eric, great point and I like your comment about tricky or subjective questions. One of the things I always discuss with students is in the real world the problems they will encounter rarely are well defined or fit exactly into a nice topic where something they read in a text book will resolve the issue. Most of the time the situation itself will be a bit tricky and highly subjective and will require good problem solving skills. This is in part why problem solving should actually be a class taught by all institutions. Some actually have such a class but not all. Thanks for your post.
James Jackson
