Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/1178974
Chuck West, PhD, LMFT Full-Time Faculty, Department of Marriage and Family Sciences TEACHINGTIPS 6 The best have said: much I have learned from my teacher, more from my colleagues, most from my pupils. The wise judge everyone with scales weighted in their favour. I love this quote. I have learned so much from my students. Therefore, instead of a "teaching tip", I prefer to think of this as a "learning tip" it is my goal to learn something from each of these amazing students with whom I have the privilege to work. When I think about how much I have learned from my students, I am humbled. And, although I often did not think so at the time, the most challenging students have been some of my best teachers. Before I go any further, I am not suggesting we coddle students. I think that students learn best with clear feedback and policies. And, yes, it would be great if all students were in a set of circumstances where they can easily learn, be curious, and open to all our amazing feedback. But many are not. I had a student that was late on some early assignments, but she communicated well about this and usually turned her paper in a day or two late. I asked her if we could meet via Zoom to talk about what she had submitted and she was open to that. In that call I learned she had lost her husband a few years ago, and it continued to impact her work as a student. She felt both a huge sense of loss and a feeling of powerlessness. This was an amazing opportunity for me to not only learn about her loss, but also to understand better why she struggled with getting assignments in on time. First, it was not due to a lack of desire but, ironically, too much desire – her goal was to turn in meaningful work because she wanted to be someone who could meaningfully help others. Second, she admitted she often read feedback from professors as indicating she was somehow inadequate, should not be engaged in this learning process. She suffered from what some have called "imposter syndrome," the sense of only pretending to be a student. And this feeling of being an imposter invited her to work even harder to turn in meaningful A. C. Grayling, The Good Book: A Humanist Bible