Karen, you have a great set of examples you can share with your students. The more relevance you can bring into the classroom the more learning will take place. I have seen other legal courses actually create mock courts and assigned students different roles to better help them understand how the legal system works. Such exercises can really accomplish a great deal of education in a very short time.
Regards,
James Jackson
Linda, you mention a critical issue in teaching with respect to students not reaching out for help until they are deep into problems. This is why it is so vital to build early relationships with your students and create as many instances as possible early in the course to gauge their understanding of the materials.
Regards,
James Jackson
Stephanie, what a fantastic post and incredibly motivating. I hope everyone in this discussion thread reads this and gains some insight from your words. We as humans tend to become more like the things we think about so a positive person tends to have positive things happen to them while those with negative thoughts tend to have negative things happen. By being that model of positive behavior, you provide great leadership for your students and become a mentor of sorts. Most people I know can think of someone in their lives that motivated them to great accomplishments and the one behavior that always stands out in these individuals is they were always positive and modeled the behavior others wanted to emulate. Through such coaching and servant style leadership, we can break down the barriers students have and can also transform self-doubt into a "Yes I Can" attitude.
Regards,
James Jackson
John, very well stated. It is all about building a bridge to understanding and eventually learning. If your students feel it is OK to fail and feel secure in your environment they will then begin to remove the self-doubt and come to a self awareness that is very exciting to watch as an instructor.
Regards,
James Jackson
Kendall: I like your approaches. I find that if I teach them a "trick of the trade" that makes them feel secure in the material as well.
Mr. Jackson: I teach law courses and ethics in both the business undergraduate and graduate level schools.
I know the first night no matter which class it is the students are concerned that they will be expected to "know the law". I usually try to put them at ease by asking a few questions about their lives, i.e. do they have credit cards? cell phones? drive? Do they realize that the credit cards are contracts? That driving over the speed limit is illegal? That not quoting borrowed information in their papers is unethical and illegal?
It helps them to not be scared of the subject matter and perceive the class as a learning tool.
I keep my eye open for the student who doesn't do well on a couple of test. You can just see their self confidence go down. I've learned to step in and offer a couple of days of tutoring and many times that's all they have needed. So many times they won't ask for help until they are really buried. If I can get in there early I can hopefully help them unclog whatever was blocking them before. This way I have a student who can truly find their full potential.
In my English classes, I have had two cases of students overcoming self-doubt that stick out in my mind. Both were older students returning to school for a career change.
One student was terrified of MLA format. He was convinced it was impossible for him to learn how to successfully cite borrowed material. I worked with him in tutoring after classes, and he would get it right when I was helping him (asking questions and taking it step-by-step), but when he was asked to do it on his own, he'd freeze and say, "I can't. It's too hard." Eventually, I called attention to his negative thinking--I pointed out that he had just completed a citation with me. He told me he was always told he wasn't good at this kind of thing. We talked a lot about positive thinking and believing that he was good enough. He passed the course (with decent MLA in his final paper!), and stopped by my classroom the next term to thank my for helping him regain his confidence in himself.
The other student was also an older returning student who was struggling with the basics of writing (paragraphs, topic sentences, etc.). I found again that working with her and letting her talk about the factors that influenced her opinion of her abilities, as well as encouragement and working to change her self-talk, helped her regain confidence. She cried when she passed my class with simply a C. She was so happy just to prove to herself that she could complete the work.
I've found that a lot of students can hold themselves back because they doubt their own abilities. I tell all of my classes that every single person can learn to write. Then I encourage them throughout the class, offering extra help to those who want it. I try to make positive comments on every essay I read and point out to students where they are successful. My negative comments I try to phrase in positive ways (things like, "Great transition here! Can more be added to help introduce the new information in this paragraph? That might make this topic sentence even stronger"). Often, seeing where they are successful and realizing that their successes are recognized helps motivate them to try harder in areas where they aren't as strong.
Many students today come to me with little or no
experience in pastry arts. This may be their first time making something as basic as a muffin.
You must really demonstrate and explain each step in the process. I can easily tell when a student needs assistance while making an item. As an instructor you must watch them carefully and be ready to step in at all times. All students like children learn through repetition.
By encouraging and engaging your students you will find that self-doubt will diminish rather quickly.
Thanks for sharing this great technique Michael. The use of simple analogies to help build a learning foundation is a great skill that not all instructors use. Students need concepts they can understand and relate to more complex concepts. By providing them mental images to compare with the more complex concepts the are better able to make the connection and understand the more complex concept. This skill is used a great deal in the K-12 environment but is incredibly useful in higher education well. I have also seen some very creative exercises done with simple and everyday items like building blocks and puzzles. A puzzle with 1000 pieces uses the same process as a puzzle with 4 pieces, it just takes longer to constantly repeat the process to find the correct location for all 1000 pieces. One is not harder than the other but one may take more time.
Regards,
James Jackson
Great post Greg. I really like your use of analogies and breaking down more complex concepts into simple steps. The scaffolding technique you describe has been included in a number of research projects and I am providing just one example for anyone interested in learning more about this valuable technique.
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Vol. 7, No. 3. (July 2008), pp. 165-179
Regards,
James Jackson
Kendall, great job using a simple approach to build more confidence in your students. Too often this simple approach can be overlooked by instructors. By building a few "pre-designed" success exercises, your students will feel more confident working on the more complex concepts.
Regards,
James Jackson
William you bring forward a very critical skill in teaching of complex systems. By breaking things down into simple and non-threatening tasks, students have more time to properly take in the bigger picture and be relieved of the stress that can come from looking at a larger and more complex task.
Thanks for sharing.
James Jackson
Most people have self doubt about their abilities to acheive/acquire something. If you break the subject into smaller components it's easier for the student to relate and builds character. For example I use building a house as a way of explaining starting the goal and the finished product. You start with a foundation which is essencial. Without it, your project is useless. Then you build walls, then add windows and doors, then a roof. The next thing you know you have a house. Just looking at the house by itself seems overwhelming to the untrained eye but once you realize the expert starts at the same location everytime and finishes the same way you find the formula for building the house is the same for an expert builder or a person learning.
Michael, can you share some information about a time when you had to directly overcome a self-doubt issue with one of your students? What was the situation, what actions did you take, what outcomes resulted?
Thanks for any information you can share.
Regards,
James Jackson
I teach a few challenging topics in the National Security areas. For many of my students, this is the first deep exposure to this level of material and there is a lot of self doubt.
I break the lessons into several parts and use a lot of analogies that help the students relate the material to something they enjoy or in which they have experience. By bridging the gap between the material and what they know, they grasp the concepts which leads to application of the material.
Another technique is to pair up several students. I make sure at least one of the students has a solid understanding and allow him/her to explain how they grasped the material. We transition to a team game where each has the opportunity to excel. I make sure there is no wrong answer to the particular question and allow the group as a whole to expand on unfinished concepts. Collectively, they always seem to do very well and it really helps with anxiety and self doubt.
Greg
Most students fear math and doubt themselves on whether they should take the course or not. They put the class off until they are just about to graduate, since the course must be completed in order to graduate. Some students literally walk in and say, "I have always been bad at math, how hard is this class?" In the beginning of the course I refresh them on math they have already learned and the students really like being re-assured that they already have a knowledge base in math, and gives them confidence to tackle harder concepts. Once a student understands it, they are eager to help their fellow students, they are proud of themselves and want to give a fellow student that "AH-HA" moment. Which as a teacher, you get such joy in seeing that moment occur in students! I also take a difficult problem, and have the entire class work through it together, and at the end when they finally get it right, they are excited, just knowing that they completed a tough problem, really breaks down the walls of self doubt and shows the students that there is nothing to fear when it comes to math.
definitely success is defined in many ways. it's not always about winning or being on top of the list. sometimes it's about the realistic goal one sets for themself and achieves it.
Thanks for your feedback Erika. Testimonials are a great way to help students understand they can be successful no matter what obstacles they encountered earlier in their education experience. I also like to reference biographies that detail the situations of someone in the public eye that may resonate with a particular student. I have heard of other instructors that have even assigned reading such sources to students as extra credit or some type of class project to get students to read about others that had to overcome obstacles and eventually achieved great things later in their life. Just one simple example is General Colin Powell. As a young child his parent's considered him a troubled child and even evolved into a troubled teen but was able to turn things around and went on to be a very prominent person in US History. No matter your military or political views, his life story is very relevant to many students who did not do well in high school and had to overcome obstacles in their life.
Hope this all makes sense.
Regards,
James Jackson
I have experienced many students who were not as successful in high school. This is often due to self-perception/ belief in their abilites/ and feedback from other students/ parents/ and instructors. In order to help the students find their full potential, I encourage them to believe in themselves and put effort into their work. I often give an example of an individual that I know that didn't do well in high school, had a lot of self doubt, and upon learning to believe in themself went on to become a doctor.
