Priming Your Students To Learn
Through my short teaching career as a graduate teaching assistant at Northeastern University for 1 year, I have learned one of the most important lessons: instilling confidence is as important as teaching knowledge to the students, if not, more. I say this adamantly because without confidence, what students tend to focus on is whether they are capable of learning the concept in the first place. Unnecessary attention allocated in one’s own capability can be much better used in learning the materials. That is where the instructors come in and help students extinguish their self-doubts. After that’s done, it is absolutely amazing to see how they perform after they start believing in themselves more.
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” — Someone
This adage perfectly embodies the point I am making.
In our case,
“Give a student a tutoring session, you feed the student with knowledge for a day. Teach a student to be confident, and you feed him knowledge for a lifetime”. — Me
You get the point.
Journey to this realization
In my case, there were many non-STEM students joining the Align program here at Northeastern where I teach. The Align program accepts students from wide variety of backgrounds to get a master’s degree in computer science. As a Teaching Assistant (TA) in one of the earlier bridge courses in this program, I was blessed to meet many wonderful students. However, especially with computer science having popular but untrue stereotypes like those depicted in movies and just being an overall enigmatic and intimidating field from the outside, it was very understandable and not uncommon for students to come to me during office hours for encouragement.
Remembering how difficult it was to first learn about programming, I made my primary focus as the TA to instill confidence in each and every student I interact with. I pull out my antenna and try to sense if there is even a sliver of self-doubt, and when I do, I thoroughly address it with encouragement.
There was one time a student came to my office hour and asked for clarifications about an assignment. Towards the end, the student started asking questions like, “Yeah… I’m not too sure if I can do this. Do you think I should drop the course? I really don’t know even where to start…”.
At first, I tried explaining the importance of the assignment and how the skills he will learn will be useful in the future assignments, but to no avail. Immediately after, I told him that anyone can learn the concept if they put in the time and that there is no such thing as ‘not being cut for computer science’. I told him he didn’t have to be coding from 2 years old and have an IQ of 200 to be able to code. 😃
The result was astounding. Instead of me explaining the impact, here is a snippet of a very kind message he sent me after the assignment.
Hello Li-Kai,
I’m so glad to tell you that I finally figured out the assignment and I really appreciate you for helping meet during the office hour. I was not familiar with ___ at that time, and I learned a lot from you. The time I spend with you was meaningful and really effective. And it’s my honor to be in this class, especially when you are my TA. I remember telling you that I was stuck spending a lot of time reading the instructions but you encouraged me not to give up. I trusted you, and I did my best. I couldn’t believe I can do this. During the whole process, I also researched a lot of _______ and other stuff. Without your encouragement, I wouldn’t have made it on my own. Thank you so much, Li-Kai!
Nothing else is more convincing than this message which speaks to the importance of instilling confidence in students. I should mention that he did not need my help after I clarified the instructions for the assignments. He did not have to come back to ask for questions, but he finished the assignment from the beginning to the end. I don’t think it’s necessary to mention that he did a great job on the assignment!
Conclusion
Most of the time, instilling confidence in students is 80% of the work as the instructor. It is teaching students how to fish. If that is done, they will forever be self-dependent learners. Mission accomplished!
