“Every student is unique in the way they learn and not everything is multiple choice or a given, which is where I think the waters get muddy, especially when students are transitioning into college.”
YES! So much this!!!

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It’s rough, I know. I took a Conflict Resolution class with 10 students in the first year of my MA and a woman there said it was the first time in her college career she felt like she could speak openly. She was coming from an engineering or science field and it made so grateful that I was in Women’s and Gender Studies BA and MA programs that gave me a voice to speak.
I take that reminder with me each time I teach. I never want a student to feel like I don’t hear them, either in class or in their writing assignments.

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Ken, I often hear about putting students in groups for projects or even for quick 5 minute discussions to try and get them engaged with each other. My classes are small enough that (if my room is big enough) I can put them in a circle for class so they can discuss with each other. It won’t work for a lecture-size room, but I think in those cases the smaller discussion sections or studio times can be helpful in making that personal connection.

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Great analogy! I think some of this mentality comes from primary grades where teachers are mostly providing students with answers and students are mostly given multiple choice test instead of being pushed to use their noodle with critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity. I concur the delivery of instruction should be thought provoking, questioned, active, and collaborative, so that when assessments are given, students are able to better answer questions from their own thought process and not selecting a choice as well as strengthen the retainment of that information and retrieval.

This is where I’m grateful I teach a subject I love. I often get so bogged down in my own theory reading as a graduate student that, far from being just another thing on my plate, my teaching Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies this semester has reminded me why I love this stuff!
Ido agree that we have to reconceptualize the notion of teacher. I was petrified when I first knew I would have to teach. Thanks to another program I’m involved in, I realized it’s not my job to make students learn, but rather to try and be of maximum service to them everyday. In this way I don’t have to know it all, and I often don’t. I can be humble about my shortcomings and use the knowledge of the students studying different subjects if I get stuck in a lecture somewhere. (I think it also helps that WGS is interdisciplinary and requires me to know a little about a lot of subjects)!

I think it may depend on the subject. In Sociology, there are certain definitions students need to understand, but my whole goal is to challenge students’ perceptions of what is true and natural.
An example I often get in my Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies class period on sex and gender is “women are just naturally more delicate then men, or, men are just naturally better at strong things because they’re strong.”
My answer to the student(s) who write these statements is automatically “says who? Let’s unpack that a little bit.”
Science also has a way of changing over time, so maybe ‘maybe’ is an okay word to use. I agree with what another commenter mentioned above about the ‘universally’ v. the ‘conditional’ true statements. It’s not so much about being absolutely right, but rather allowing for a little wiggle room sometimes.

I concur, mistakes is an excellent way to improve. The development of mastery is competence skills, practice, and integration of application to develop a higher extent of competence, attainment, and transferability in a discourse, so making errors or observing errors is imperative in reaching your mastery and learning. In order to learn from a mistake, is to understand the error and what made that incorrect, which aids in remembering the correct process.

Side note:
What I find interesting is that sometimes if you ask students on test the correct process of something specific, they have no problems sharing the correct way, but if you ask them on a test, the incorrect process of something specific, some students find it difficult to answer. I always wonder is that because we teach them the correct process first and skip the incorrect process until they have made a mistake or observed an error.

HA! I know what you mean with timed tests. I fell asleep in both of my SAT’s! Grad school has been different, in that it is one giant timed test. I put a great amount of energy into my coursework but many of my professors give tremendous amounts of reading. Guess what is rarely on the test? I am not opposed to reading, but some of that ancient material is only an homage to the good old days when they were in grad school. The professors themselves are most often the more valuable resource. I think that the advantage of many graduate programs lies in the research experience outside of the classroom. In many of my classes I am able to provide a unique perspective based on my experiences. Our professors typically have specific fields of interest, so that works out. My most memorable undergraduate professors were those that were able to incorporate their experiences into the material and provide perspectives that were beyond the textbook. I think that a large part of learning more in grad school has been the realization that my own experiences can give me perspectives that I can in turn share with others to aid in their own discovery.

Nice comparison, I recently started a yoga practice again and have to remember to honor where I am at. I just want to be perfect right now! I read an article once that said children (like me) who are good at some subject the first time they do it (reading and English for me) can then interpret that to mean "if I am not good at another subject (like math) I can't learn it. Practice won't help. You're either good or you aren't." I've been trying to unlearn that thought process my entire graduate school career, and your post made me start to think about ways I can help my students also unlearn that behavior. Practice never makes perfect, but it does make practice!

We have to make connections with prior knowledge to construct the foundation to new knowledge. Exactly. However, basic knowledge (compulsory/required courses) often doesn't seem appealing to students. For example, Biochemistry for dental school students. Students will need strong motivation, and teachers often need to play the role of motivator.