Sitting in the student seat

Laura Blankenship
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

During our opening meetings and workshops, we had our faculty participate in an activity that put them in the position of being students again. Together, they had to take some information given to them and from that, develop an idea, and then be able to represent and argue for that idea to others. Sound like almost every assignment ever?

We had them reflect on their experience afterwards, asking them to share what was fun, what was surprising, and what was hard.

Going through their thoughts (shared on post-its) was enlightening. The biggest struggle they had by far was time, and I thought about how students are always given time constraints. Papers and projects are due on certain dates. Tests must be taken within a class period or other allotted amount of time. The time students have to work on something might get shortened by other responsibilities or other classes. A soccer game might go into overtime and the extra hour they thought they had suddenly disappears. I hope to remind our faculty how they felt when working against time. Did they feel they were able to do their best? Did having the time constraints stress them out to the point where they couldn’t focus on the task at hand? Do they think students might experience the same feelings?

The second most common struggle they shared was working with the group and having that group come to consensus. I thought about this in two ways, one from the general sense that students are always in a group. They sit in a class with others every day and must listen to other points of view and wrestle with how to respond or how to have their voice heard above others.

And then, of course, I considered the many times we ask them to work in groups. The difficulties our faculty identified of trying to incorporate others’ ideas, communicating with each other, and coming to a shared decision are ones our students will face in group work. And so we need to facilitate that and help our students learn the skills that will help them work with others. The reality is that the kind of group activity we did happens every day. It’s what work is often like, so we need our students to be prepared for that.

Group dynamics was also something that surprised people. Some were fascinated by the different roles people took on, surprised to learn what other people brought to the table in terms of expertise or ideas, and sometimes surprised when the group didn’t agree. Again, students need opportunities to assume different roles, appreciate the points of view and expertise of others, and understand that sometimes agreement is a hard-fought battle because not everyone shares the same perspective.

There were a couple of other hard things that people pointed out that I hoped might foster some empathy for our students. Several people pointed out that they didn’t have enough resources. They needed more sets of instructions or other documents. Having those might have improved participation. I thought of how we provide resources to students that we think will support their work, but maybe it doesn’t. Maybe that article we want them to read is too difficult. Maybe they struggle to glean information from a video we shared. We need to make sure our students have the tools they need and that maybe they need different tools to be successful.

And several people mentioned frustration with having to do something that wasn’t their idea. Whether they were frustrated by the group’s final decision or by the activity as a whole, I wasn’t sure. But I thought of how often we don’t give our students choice in their work. We may be asking them to write a research paper on a topic they didn’t get to choose. Or maybe they would rather use a video format to make their argument. Whatever the case, our students often find themselves having to do work they didn’t choose. And that’s reality, of course, but it’s also frustrating and might inhibit learning. Where we can give them choice and control, we should.

What was so funny about looking over everyone’s reflections was that what was hard was also fun. What was most fun to people was the group idea generation, hearing other people’s ideas, getting to think creatively, and being allowed to dream big. And people loved working with others. Some form of “working together” was the most common phrase I saw in the reflections on what was fun.

As we prepare to welcome our students in a few days, I hope we hold onto that feeling, that we are always working together, and that because we have each other, we can dream big and think creatively, all with the goal of helping our students be successful.


Originally published at laurablankenship.net on August 31, 2018.

Laura Blankenship

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