COVID, violence against BIPOC, and the upcoming election have many of our students facing extreme stress, isolation, and anxiety. When faced with such strain, it can be difficult for students to learn (Immordino-Yang and Damasio 2007). To help, try to give students agency in your classroom using the following suggestions: Ask students to co-create assignments or exams. Create an anonymous, no-points Canvas quiz asking “What can I do to help you learn during this stressful semester?” Give students options in how they demonstrate they’ve completed a learning outcome. Throughout the course, center empathy, connection, and community.
Source:
Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen and Antonio Damasio (2017). We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education. Mind, Brain, and Education 1(1): 3-10.
Susan Siena
If the university really wanted us to do this, we would need to have smaller class sizes! This is just about impossible with the numbers of students we are assigned.
Greg Siering
I do think some of these things are tougher to do in larger classes, and I agree that class sizes are a significant challenge during our current remote teaching situation (as we typically wouldn’t have such large classes in traditionally online programs). That said, I think we can scale some of these approaches, knowing that we don’t have to respond to each student. For example, asking that question about “How can I help you learn during this stressful semester?” might lead to a few changes that require minimal/moderate work but high impacts. I am thinking of language like, “There were lots of great suggestions, some which are more easily implemented than others. A few of the top concerns were X and Y, and here are some changes that I am going to try to respond to those issues.” Students know you are listening to their collective voices, even if their individual idea wasn’t implemented.