Addressing Students' Needs: Getting to Know Your Students

Adapted with permission from Shari Saunders and Diana Kardia, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan.

Responding to Student Identities

• Invite all students to contribute to class discussion, even if you assume that the discussion is more relevant to some students than others. 

Students (regardless of background) do not like being forced to serve as the spokespeople for their groups. Students also do not appreciate being expected to know everything about issues relating to their groups or dealing with the assumption that all students from their group feel the same way about an issue.

• Be sensitive to the experiences of visibly underrepresented students in your class. 

Students with identities that are underrepresented may face certain challenges that unfairly compromise their learning environment. For example, students of color may be penalized because of the stereotypes associated with the way they look and dress. In a biological science course, after 9/11, an American Sikh student did not feel safe attending class due to the backlash against people who appeared to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent. He had even received death threats. The professor did not allow him to retake a test, and this unfairly affected his motivation and grades.
Students from underrepresented groups may also feel pressure to portray themselves in a good light so they do not reinforce stereotypes about their groups. Whereas "majority students" can slack off from time to time when working within groups, occasionally show up late to class, or be absent without peers attributing their behavior to membership in particular groups, students from underrepresented groups often sense that their behavior is interpreted as a reflection on their groups. Although there may be little you can do to relieve this self-imposed pressure, you can be thoughtful about your interactions with these students and make an effort not to publicly discuss students' performance or behavior.

Inequities in the Classroom

• Be aware of gender dynamics in classroom discussions. 

Even when women are in the majority, men may sometimes consciously or unconsciously dominate class discussions or interrupt women. Monitor the occurrence of this behavior and encourage women to speak up, at the same time as discouraging men from dominating the discussion.

• Be careful not to respond to comments in ways that students might interpret as dismissals. 

You should give sufficient attention to (a) students' comments that differ from the majority of students' views or your own views, (b) students' views that are based on experiential knowledge, and (c) women's views in predominately male classes or traditionally male fields. Be aware of differential feedback given to students who differ on some aspect of their social identity (gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, etc.). For example, you should notice whether you speak down to women or "brush off" their questions, yet give men responses that are informative and detailed.

Conflict in the Classroom

• Respond to classroom conflict in a manner that helps students become aware of the "learning moment" this conflict provides. 

Heated discussions need to be facilitated in a manner that does not result in hostility among class members and a sustained bad feeling in the room. You can avoid these outcomes by encouraging students to tie their feelings and conflicts to the course material and by looking for underlying meanings and principles that might get buried in the process of class conflict. Students appreciate tensions between groups in the class being recognized and effectively addressed.

• Recognize student fears and concerns about conflict. 

Students enter a class with different levels of experience and comfort with conflict. It is important to normalize the experience of conflict in the classroom, particularly in classes that focus on controversial topics. This can be accomplished through explicit discussion of student experiences with conflict, and through the use of structured discussion exercises.

• Maintain the role of facilitator. 

One of the challenges of teaching is maintaining the role of instructor under a variety of conditions. For example, you can get caught up in expressing your own perspective in heated discussions, or can become overly silent in discussions that go beyond your own knowledge base or experience. While these responses are understandable, such role abdication can create chaos in the classroom or force students to fill the abdicated facilitator role. In order to avoid this outcome, you should examine your typical responses to conflict. It can also be useful to find ways that you may admit your limits with respect to content areas while maintaining responsibility for the group process.

Even the most well-intentioned people make mistakes. As instructors, one of our jobs is to make the classroom a place where all learners feel confident enough to participate. This involves challenging our own assumptions as well as those of our students. One way to do this is to be aware of subtle behaviors that make some students feel unwelcome or excluded.