How do you make it okay to be overwhelmed?
I teach a subject that addresses a specialized area of practice (game audio development) within a broader professional field (audio production). By its nature, the specialization requires advanced development of challenging technical skill and higher-order thought.
In all fairness, it is not a likely target for a majority of my students. Many of them pick up on this early on: they tune out and turn off. I am working to develop presentations and activities that offer learning objectives more easily generalized outside of the specialty. But I feel strongly that it would be a disservice to the students to entirely gloss over the most important, characteristic aspects of the subject.
Do you have techniques that you can recommend for presenting very challenging lecture material in a way that allows students to feel comfortable knowing that they will not be held responsible for having fully absorbed or assimilated the information?
Looking back at my favorite teachers, they have all offered "a finger pointing at the moon," showing me how far I have to travel, and suggesting that the reward is commensurate with the distance. This approach only worked because I was able to distinguish between the moon, and the material that was actually going to be on the test. How can I communicate to my students that it's okay to be a little overwhelmed, that sometimes they're actually supposed to feel that way?
Thanks in advance!
Stephen
Hi Amy,
Great suggestions! I love how you do all you can for your students' success. Students need to know from us as educators that college was no cake walk for us either, but if you hang in there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I like to tell my students that nothing but good comes from hardwork. They have to keep pushing in order to make it.
Patricia Scales
Stephen,
I teach in a nursing program, which covers ALL aspects of nursing care from ethics to every age in the life span, in a one year program. At almost any given time, a handful of students are overwhelmed, even if the subject matter is not, like your example, something extremely complex that not many of them will use.
To answer your question, I did teach a course last semester in a quite specialized field of nursing that I do not anticipate seeing most of my students choosing in their career path. For the more complex concepts, here is my suggestion: Give an assignment such as a presentation to the class, with specific instructions, a grading rubric, and a specific deadline. For those students who are grasping the more difficult concepts more efficiently, or who seem to desire to use those concepts once they enter the working world, add on an additional aspect to the project for bonus points. It could be anything from a trifold to a 3D creation and so on. Several of my students also really thrive on having the opportunity to do a more hands-on visual project to help them grasp the concept, and the extra bonus points are an added incentive.
My other advice would be to literally tell them that it is okay to be overwhelmed. I often talk to my class and recant stories of my days in nursing school, often filled with sleepless nights, tears, and confusion to let them know that I truly empathize with them and that I am a human as well. Then I gently remind them that almost all of the information being presented to them is completely new or builds upon new knowledge from a previous semester, and give them a kind but firm pep talk about toughing it out. Lastly, I occasionally offer group tutoring sessions for extremely difficult concepts, or I will find additional online resources, etc. to give them as supplementary material.
We are all overwhelmed in school. Learning about your students and adapting to their needs, giving incentives, and being available to them should lesson that feeling.
I hope that helps!!
Amy
