T6: Student Responses

After three or four exercises, you may find that student responses become an issue. This course requires ultra-active learning, engagement, and critical thinking, rather than passive learning, lectures, and tests. Most students are familiar with passive learning and find active learning uncomfortable. Some students are encountering a whole new way to learn; even college-age students struggle with being a beginner yet again.

Additionally, something happens to students’ brains in this process, and they find it quite disconcerting. I swear their brains are being rewired in some manner. The process generates strong emotions and subconscious effects that can scare students; you may find these responses challenging to handle. In fact, these responses are the primary reason I say teaching this course is hard. You must deal with the strong responses and help the students move past them.

Those responses can be quite strong, and the most common one is anger. It usually comes out in a student saying, “You are not teaching us anything!” When a student is saying—and sometimes yelling—this at me, I know they are not getting the adaptability part. Older students respond well to a conversation on active and passive learning. Sometimes, a barrage of questions will help them see what they are learning: what do you do first when encountering a new software? How do you figure out what terms to search for? Many times, reminding them that emotional responses are common at this stage helps. They are feeling weird; their brains are not working right. These things scare them, and we must allay those fears.

Students also may feel afraid and overwhelmed. Some become almost hysterical, saying they cannot continue. It helps to remind them such feelings are part of the process and that the feelings will leave eventually. Reminding them to breathe, to give themselves a break, also helps. I encourage them to recognize how much they have already done.

Once I recognized these emotions and began warning students about them, new emotional responses emerged. A big one that showed up is apathy. I have learned to warn students about this one as well.

Knowing that these emotions and responses are part of the process is the most powerful weapon against losing students at this point. I do everything I can to engender willingness and perseverance in my students, keeping them focused on the end goal of learning adaptability.

As an instructor, I find it important to remember this is part of the process: it is not me. If students act this way, it does not mean I am a bad teacher. Quite the opposite, in fact. These strong responses are normal. After years of experience with the course, I would worry if such responses were not happening because I would know students are not making the tough breakthroughs.

This course requires patience both for the students and for yourself. Watching students walk through these strong responses can be uncomfortable, but when I see them get the “click,” it is well worth it.