Phase shift

[rebeccmeister]

So I think that, in the past 1.5 weeks or so, my students have started to go through a critical freshman year phase shift. It's interesting to observe and wonder whether anything that I've said or done has contributed (I mean, I hope so, but I'm not so arrogant as to think I deserve any credit whatsoever).

This involves things like having more students show up for office hours to ask questions, and having more students ask questions during lectures.

I mean, it could be because we've gotten into topics that I've taught a million times before: the cell cycle, mitosis, meiosis, Mendelian genetics, etc. I know what kinds of things students find the most challenging about these topics, and I also know how to assess their understanding of these topics.

It could also be due to repeated urgings and encouragement to switch up their study strategies (including an extremely direct "learning reflection" question asking them each to think about what they're doing well as students, and what specific things they plan to do to become better students).

It could simply be because of the dynamics of how things work during a student's first fall semester: getting through the first set of exams, learning how to live in the dorm, where now we're at a point where they've figured out that this ain't high school anymore and they need to do things differently.

Regardless, this makes my life more fun, even if it does mean more of my free time lost to one-on-one face time and less flexibility for getting my own things done. (in my heart of hearts, though, the one-on-one learning is still my favorite)

There are still some students who are struggling, and I don't know that I'll be able to reach them and get them to a point where they will be able to earn a passing score.

But it's progress.

Comments

[rainswolf]

That's awesome. I only teach freshmen and haven't noticed such a shift, but I hope to soon...midterm grades were due today.

Do you have struggling students who you suspect have an undiagnosed learning disability? It kills me they're likely struggling more than they have to, but there isn't a ton I can do about it.

[rebeccmeister]

There are definitely occasions where I've wondered about learning disabilities. But here's what I try and do about that:

1. When introducing things on the syllabus, I have a section that talks about resources for students with learning disabilities. But when I talk about it, I also point out to the students that many students don't even know they have a learning disability when they get to college, so if they wind up discovering that they have one, it's never too late and they can always give me documentation and change their class arrangements partway through the semester. This opens up the door for them to think more broadly about learning disabilities, both for themselves as individuals and for the sake of the whole classroom.

2. I've been putting a lot of work into encouraging the students to take advantage of resources outside of lecture. This helps for the self-aware students, but not for some of the other at-risk ones who are struggling because they aren't engaged. For those, my general strategy has been along the lines of: give student a look over the tops of my glasses (metaphorically) and say, if you want to pass this class, we need to make some changes and you need to come and meet with me. I have a much easier time in a one-on-one, engaging with a student on their level to talk through what we can do to help them achieve to their fullest potential.

It took me a while to get good at step #2 - a couple of semesters of teaching the same class, before I reached a point where I discovered that I could predict who was going to pass and who was going to fail, after only 1 or 2 assignments. And it's really important to catch those students as early as possible before they get too overwhelmed and fall too far behind.

I also wouldn't claim that this is a perfect system, heh.

[annikusrex]

This makes me feel very warm and fuzzy. I believe you have teaching powers not yet discovered by humankind.

[rebeccmeister]

On Sunday night I was talking with my mom about why she's so good at working with children, and she said that so much of what goes on with kids simply has to do with the emotional state of the parents - kids pick up on that and then their behavior is a response to it.

The same thing is totally true of students and their profs - students key into their prof's emotional messages and that affects how they approach their studies and what they learn and remember.

...I actually try and strategically use a full emotional spectrum - channeling in a little bit of disappointment is sometimes useful, but cheesy humor and mirth also help.