I am currently a student myself and I always tell my students I understand what they are going through. I also share with them the mistakes I made as a rookie fresh out of school. I find this reassures the students that they can do it if I did.
I had a student that suffered with self doubt due to having a strong accent. I talked with her and reassured the student. She is a different and more confident student.
I actually have a student this block who is the walking definition of self-doubt. He used to question everything he did and every step he made, but through working with him he has really come a long way. I pointed out to him that he's a natural cook and that he has great instincts in the kitchen.
Between these comments and my diligence with him, he finally started realizing that he does indeed have some natural abilities. he even got his first kitchen job in an upscale restaurant.
Where I teach, our students are predominately A-Type personalities and they feel they are already the best at everything. Then they come to this course and they are challenged intellectually. This causes many of them to begin to doubt themselves. What we do to mitigate this is to conduct group discussions that enable them to share their knowledge. Because of their personalities, they like to talk about their experiences. When they do so, I try to relate their experience to the subject. This usually helps them find a correlation that removes their doubt and helps them excel. In my experience, a good instructor can always find some correlation that will help the students realize that the lessons they are learning are in fact tied into some experience they have. Once the link is apparent, the students embrace and enjoy the lesson and they do well throughout the course.
I want my students to realize they are all speacial and they are all different and to believe in themselves
A lot of times in my classes I teach the students the basics concept of a topic and I tell them that once they learn the basic...once they learn the concept..... they will build knowledge upon that. One day I was walking towards the library and I saw a man sitting on a bench close the library main entrance. As I was getting closer to the library the man stood up like he was waiting for me. I was getting scared because the man started walking towards me and when he was close to me he told me..... "I learned the concept" .
I did not remember who he was but we started talking. He told me he was my student many years ago when he was a young man and he was thankful of the concepts he learned in my class. He told me that now he was teaching "the concepts" he learned in my class at an institution of higher education.
I was scared of the man at first because I did not recognize him but then I was happy .......very happy I was able to help him when he was a young student.
I starts with the student feeling comfortable in the enviornment. They need to feel like it is ok to make a mistake. Once that mistake is made, you take that golden opprtunity to "teach". They are very receptive at that moment. You use analogies, you verbally quiz them using the "wait" method. Let them know what went wrong and why. Their confidence and securtiy levels climb high, and they relax and the information seems to come easier to them. I have used this approach time and time again and is very effective.
I teach a very rare subject known as sugar blowing and sugar pulling; tall, fragile works of art. A required, yet often feared, course at my college. My students are almost always filled with self-doubt about my class knowing that they have to build such delicate, sugar sculptures. Within five days the students create and present their sugar showpiece. The techniques are simple when broken down into small steps and then put together to make fun shapes with sugar, like birds and flowers. Many students find they love the craft once they have successfully finished their first piece. The students discovery of a new potential skill, aka the light bulb moment, is definitely the greatest gift a teacher can witness. We can change lives forever with just a week of interaction. These are the moments we savor.
Barry, first let me say thank you for your dedication and hard work. We need more like you in our industry. A lot of research has been done in the area of cognitive psychology within our sector of higher education and according to Dr. Joe Pace from The Pacific Institute it takes at least 11 positives to make up for a single negative in the life of our students. Think about this for a second and how it relates to your comments. For those students that are constantly around negative influences they may need dozens of positive experiences to make up for the amount of negative energy in their lives. Through affirmations and positive self-talk we can teach students to be positive and for them to actually feel good about themselves. Continually find ways to provide positive ways to accomplish your desired learning outcomes. There are no wrong answers while learning but we can lead them to the more correct ways of thinking. Great post and a very important topic, thanks for sharing.
James Jackson
Mr. James Jackson
Yes one of the greatest rewards in teaching strategies is not created self-doubt but confidence in the classroom and brings students to success but failure, has a teacher you must creed a fun environment and prepare students to success
Eric Andre
Hello,
I teach for in the second poorest state, for the junior college that services the five poorest counties there in. I have a wide variety of students who spend some part of every day trying very hard to make me believe that they are stupid... sometimes outright saying "I'm Dumb."
The other day, the 22 of them were taking a simple quiz... in this case I broke up their midterm into three quizzes and a practical... so no one task actually counted for too many points. And the three written sections took three hours because of the constant arguments of how I don't know where the atlantic ocean is... etc. Finally I told the to throw all of their tests away.
I told them that in all of the time I had been teaching, at different levels of education, I had never had a class with this much potential. I told them that if they would stop using the words that other people used to hurt them, "stupid", "dumb," "ignorant" and actually thougth about how much they had in their heart and head that they could prove these people wrong and do more with their inner strength and stubborness than anyone who would want to tear them down.
I also told them that the reason that I had finally moved home, is because I was in their shoes at the same age. I heard the same hateful voices, and I decided that I would prove them wrong.
I then told them to take out a peice of paper and we were going to retake the test... and in 10 minutes the three written sections were done and all but two scored a C+ or higher.
Many days I have to fight to wash those dreadful words out of their heads, before I can even attempted to fill them up with knowledge. IF anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.
Lloyd, well stated and this is an example of instructional scaffolding (Sawyer, 2006). Over time they will not be as dependant upon your direct support as you will have delivered enough of your knowledge to them that their own sense of what is appropriate will take over. Keep up the great work.
James Jackson
Ariana, well done and right on point. So many students feel their situation is the more difficult road to travel and feel others have the easier path. Truth be told, everyone has their own set of struggles and rocks in their roads. Regardless of the rocks, they can all be reduced to pebbles if their is desire and a willingness to move forward and make use of the resources available. For some students just providing them some skills in time management, project management and stress management can provide the tools essential to being successful so be ready to find those students and have some resources they can use to move forward.
James Jackson
Virginia, great job and through these actions you provide a safe environment for your students to engage and to learn. Keep up the great work.
James Jackson
Dixie, great point and instructor self-doubt can turn into burn-out. What actions do you take with your peers or supervisors when you feel you are getting a bit burnt-out?
James Jackson
Patrick, can you share some of the ways you show encouragement and positivity in your own classroom? Thanks for anything you can share including specific examples and any noticable results.
James Jackson
I have dealt with this on many occasions with my students and at times it made me feel as if I was just not getting through to them correctly about the experience at hand. As a culinary Instructor, we try to enhance student passion for cooking and show them reasoning’s behind certain techniques. One obstacle of self-doubt they seem to display at times is trusting their own judgment as to proper taste profiles and proper cooking procedures. Yes, some approval and reassurance is need to fuel their fire, but some over display their self-doubt and look to constant approval as their way of self-rewarding recognition. “Well Chef tasted it while I was cooking it, so the end product is going to be good even though this is the sauce for a roasted chicken that I poached insteadâ€. So by noticing and looking from past experiences I attempt to help them grasp the overall concept as well as the reasoning when I demonstrate various cooking items.
Teaching adult students coming from different background can be a challenging. Students often compare themselves to others who in some ways may have an advantage. My job is to help students find their strenghts and teach them to use those strengths to their own benefit. For example, I've had older students feeling self-doubt because they have been out of school for some time now. They compare themselves to the younger students who just came out of high school and claim that it is easier for the younger students because they are used to school. I remind them that on the other hand the older students have been out on the world for a while and therefore they have the advantage of experience. They seem to assimilate better when they put this idea into perspective.
Timothy, do you ever share your experiences as a student with your students? Sharing your own experiences can sometimes give them confidence that they are following a good track and can accomplish the required tasks of the course as you are a living example. Sharing of such information can also enhance the security students feel within your classroom as they gain confidence that you know how best to direct them since you shared similar experience when you were in their shoes.
James Jackson
I had a student working on a self imposed project and they asked me periodically for assistance. I often used encouragement to persuade the student to persevere to complete the project. They were so pleased with the outcome and text me a photo of the finished project alon with praise for motivating them through out the module.
