Tbers,
The posting below provides some excellent advice on how to set boundaries
with students. It is by Mary McKinney, Ph.D. of Successful Academic
Coaching. Please visit Mary's web site at http://www.successfulacademic.com
for additional tenure track tips and dissertation writing strategies. email:
[log in to unmask] Copyright © 2000-07 Mary McKinney, Ph.D. -
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Setting Boundaries
Setting boundaries is a way of protecting yourself from the small percentage
of students who will suck up your time and emotional energy.
The 90/10 Ratio of Troublesome Students
In most areas of life the 80/20 rule prevails. This rule reminds us that
that 80 percent of life's hassles come from 20 percent of our problems.
However, in the classroom, the 80/20 ratio shifts to 90/10. In other words,
when we are teaching, 90 percent of our headaches come from 10 percent of
our students. Every semester there are a few needy, or defiant, or
obnoxious, or pathetic, or complaining students who cause the vast majority
of our problems.
Prepare yourself in advance for these difficult students by preparing in
advance.
Setting Boundaries
1) Know when and how to refer students to other campus resources.
Be aware of all the helpful campus resources available for problem students.
Keep cards with the phone numbers and locations of the resources to hand out
when needed. Be ready to refer students who ask you to solve problems beyond
your area of expertise or responsibility. These resources include:
Counseling and Psychological Services; Health Services; Writing Centers;
Academic Services; Learning Disabilities Centers; Deans and Department
Chairs. Don't become your students' counselor or writing teacher.
2) Establish clear policies about how you handle email.
Have clear policies for yourself about when and how frequently you will
respond to your students' email messages. You would not allow your students
to call you at home at 11pm, would you? Then why do you open and respond to
their emails late in the evening?
You are not required to be available to students 24/7!
I recommend waiting to read and respond to all student email messages until
pre-set email "office hours" - and no more than 2 or 3 times per week. If
you can refrain from reading their e-queries, great. If this restraint is
impossible for you, then at least keep from answering the messages. Don't
train your students to expect email replies from you within minutes or
hours. Treat email more like your in-person office hours: a teaching
responsibility that is scheduled for specific times of the week. Beware of
emails that take a long time to reply to: if a student asks you a question
that will take more than 3 minutes to write a response, reply by asking the
student to come to your office hours. Decide on your policy regarding email
in advance and outline it in the course syllabus. Go over your email policy
in the first class and as needed over the course of the semester.
3) Set limits on how much of your time to devote to specific students.
All of us have had a few students who became regulars at our office hours,
showing up each week with one problem or another. Let these students know
that it is unfair to their peers to take so much of your time. Suggest that
they find a way to deal with their problems more independently by: seeking
out other campus resources; working with other students in the class; or
withdrawing from the course. Check with other professors in your department
to find out whether they have had problems with the same students - often,
particular students become notorious because they wreak havoc in all of
their classes. Find out how other professors have dealt with the person who
is giving you problems, or how they have handled similar issues.
4) Establish clear and consistent policies on late papers and missed exams.
Talk with other professors in your department about how they handle late and
missed assignments. Establish clear and specific policies and state it in
your syllabus and early class lectures. Try to avoid becoming the judge of
your students excuses. For example, you may want to set a policy that
requires a note from health services if students miss exams or deadlines
because of illness. If students know about this policy in advance, they can
get the required doctor's note and you will never be asked to diagnose flu
symptoms again. Beware of making your policies too rigid or punitive: each
semester their will be excellent and honest students who face true life
crises or serious illnesses and your policies need to account for legitimate
excuses in a compassionate and reasonable way.
5) Learn respectful, professional ways of managing student incivilities.
Robert Boice, in his book Advice for New Faculty Members does an excellent
job of talking about how to prevent and manage "student incivilities" such
as late arrivals to class, obnoxious verbal challenges, etc.,. Many books
about teaching give tips for keeping discussions for straying on
unproductive tangents and for managing students who talk too much. Develop
personal strategies for coping with these common difficulties.
No matter how rude a student is to you, always remain calm and respectful.
Growing visibly angry in class will undermine your authority. Never be
afraid to give yourself time to think about a situation. When a rude student
makes a complaint or a demand in class, avoid giving an answer or making a
decision in the heat of the moment. Let's say that several students loudly
proclaim that your mid-term was unfair and that the class grade average
should be raised significantly. Rather than making a hasty response that you
may later regret, say that you'd like time to consider their request
carefully. Then get back to the planned class content. Learn to gracefully
cut off unproductive class discussions. Never put down or disparage your
students. Sarcasm in the classroom will always get you in trouble.
6) Don't over-prepare.
Decide on how much time you should devote to class preparation, keeping in
mind your other academic responsibilities and priorities. Then schedule
specific hours for preparing lectures and try to keep within your budget. If
you consistently find yourself "overspending your budget" for class prep
time, then carefully assess the problem. Are you being a perfectionist? No
class is ever perfect and no class is superb the first semester it is
taught. Realize that you will do well to provide an adequate educational
experience the first semester you teach a new class. It takes time to
develop an optimum curriculum and teaching methods. Don't expect to be
wonderful at first. Allow yourself to teach a "good enough" class.
7) Avoid trying to cover too much.
Most new teachers try to cover about twice as much material as they should.
It is much more important to cover the essentials well than to try to
squeeze in everything. There are several quick ways of deciding whether you
are being over ambitious in the amount of content you hope to cover. If you
consistently run overtime in your class lectures you are trying to cover too
much. Students resent teachers who run late. Always try to end five minutes
early. Leaving a few minutes at the end of class for questions is an easy
way to increase your popularity. If you fall behind on your syllabus then
you are trying to cover too much. Don't be afraid to revise your syllabus
and cut out sections of material if you find yourself running behind. Go
through your notes and cull all but the essential points.
8) Request student feedback on a regular basis.
Don't wait until the end of the semester to find out what your students
think of you and your class. Instead of relying on final, official
evaluation forms, sample your students opinions throughout the semester.
There are many ways of getting feedback. Perhaps the easiest is to ask
students to write one minute evaluations throughout the semester. Pause
during the class, or reserve time at the end of a class, and ask your
students to write about what they've learned, or what they think of the
particular class, or what they think you are doing well, or how you might
improve. There are many benefits of "taking the class temperature" on a
regular basis. You'll get many great ideas for improving the course by
asking your students for feedback. You'll become more popular because your
students will feel like their needs are heard and considered. You'll catch
dissatisfactions early and keep small problems from becoming large. You'll
get a treasure chest of positive quotes from students that you can use in a
teaching portfolio for your tenure review or a job application. You'll find
out what the quiet students think - and not allow your course to be hijacked
by the loud and demanding minority.
|
