What to do when they aren’t responding to your tried-and-true teaching strategies.
By Kristi Rudenga September 25, 2024
“It’s only September, yet I am already hearing a now-familiar lament from faculty members across higher education — especially, but not exclusively, at the midcareer and senior ranks — who feel completely unable to connect with their students.
Frustration between the two parties runs higher than I’ve ever seen. This is not a matter of curmudgeonly researchers who can’t be bothered by pesky undergraduates. I’m hearing this from experienced, successful teachers who care deeply about students, as learners and as human beings. And suddenly, they are flummoxed by a sense of acute disconnection, and by students who aren’t responding to tried-and-true teaching strategies.
Intergenerational misunderstanding is a tale as old as time. But the tumult of the past five years seems to have supercharged the disconnect between students and faculty members, an especially pernicious effect when layered on top of what the U.S. Surgeon General has called “our epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” The Chronicle reported on a “stunning level of student disconnection” in the spring of 2022, as students returned to campuses after higher ed’s online pivot, and, a year later, published a report on “connecting in the classroom and beyond.” But the parade of despairing faculty members looking for help continues apace.
I could catalog the sources of disconnect all day long, but what teachers need in 2024-25 are simple remedies. Human connection is essential, both for your own job satisfaction and as an important precursor to student learning. How can you revive flagging classroom relationships in the service of learning? Of course students must join you in that work, but the first responsibility lies with you as their instructor. Here are some practical first steps to help you bridge the divide.”
- Get personal– finding concrete ways — that you’re comfortable with — to create moments of human connection. Examples including sharing celebrations in class, learning students’ names, 10-minute individual meetings for feedback, invite to a meal on campus or your home.
- Ask what they think, early and often. First day survey, mid-semester feedback, exit ticket, minute paper, etc.
- Transparent assignments
- Purpose. What skills will students practice in completing the assignment? What knowledge will they gain? How might it be relevant to their future?
- Task. What, precisely, are you asking students to do? What steps should they take to get there?
- Criteria. What might a successful assignment look like? Can you share a rubric or checklist so that students could evaluate their work?
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