Students often want to provide advice about the course. They know what should be taught, how it should be taught, and how things should be assessed. Do not take this personally (until you listen and reflect). They do this on every topic and with everyone in every situation. It is the way they have been raised and it is not their fault. They have been taught to raise topics and in most cases are overconfident in their opinions and skills. In some cases, they are not, but in general, today’s generations are known for being over-confident with little evidence supporting the perception. Luckily, this attitude and perception can be changed over time. Even though students will still be maturing upon graduation, we should deal with this reality and help them evolve their thinking skills throughout post-secondary.

Thoughts...

• Students have better things to do with their time than talking for the sake of talking. Figure out why they are investing time with the exchange. If it is important to them to seek a dialog, respect that and figure out if there is a real issue or not (symptoms vs problems). Do not assume that there is not an issue. A perceived issue is a real issue to the perceiver. You need to deal with perceived issues and real issues. Was it a single event or a chronic issue?
• Do not be rough on the messenger and sometimes a neutral instructor might act as a liaison as well. Students will not necessarily trust an instructor and in many cases the trust issue will have been caused by another instructor in a previous course. Some instructors are insulted if students will not raise issues with them directly. Get over it.
• If you have been defensive, talk at them and not talk with them, do not be dismissive, etc., they will also not trust you or want to engage directly with you.
• Is the situation caused by a miscommunication? It is best to assume that you as the instructor, in a position of power and trust, might have said or did something accidentally that has not been interpreted in the spirit and intent with which it was intended. Just like responding to a referee ripping your paper apart, calmly reflect if it was something you wrote on the first page that sent the referee off on a tangent.
• Do not judge the student dialog based on what you did or what you thought as a student. That is an unfair and unrealistic comparison.
• Look at the dialog as an opportunity to educate and discuss the facts of life (if this applies). The students might not have read the course syllabus correctly or understood what certain words implied. They might not know (or they forgot) what the learning outcomes are. They might not be aware of how these outcomes might best be taught. Do not assume that the students actually read, or understood what they were told to read.
• Try to find out the root causes and what is behind the dialog and suggestions. Is it too much work, uncertainty in workload, confusion in the classroom, etc. You might be at fault, you might be contributing to a problem without knowledge, and you might be making assumptions which are not valid. Think about intent vs impact.
• In some cases, the students might be discussing a problem of their own making. For example, doing something the hard way, without using a previously learned skill and knowledge set. They might have forgotten to use tool x, or method y and created a lot of work for themselves. In this case, their problem is not your problem per se. But, you should gently point out that they could have made it easier on themselves if they had used the known methods.

• In other cases, the students might be discussing a problem caused by their inability to read or listen for comprehension. That is, they failed to read the question. This is an opportunity to talk about reading etc. You might not give something back immediately, but you can give a second chance for the students to show their stuff and if they do, apply some forgiveness for the earlier transgression. Or, you can give immediate help, and then retest anyway. Either way, it is better to use the situation as a learning moment, try to improve the students, and then see if it actually happened.
• Do not be defensive or be pedantic. Sometimes it is necessary to say “this is what we have to get done here, what ideas do you have, given this set of constraints?” Compromise. Figure something out with the students’ help. Who knows, it is always possible (and perhaps likely) that one or more of the students will be ‘smarter’ than you in the brain department and just lacking the facts and knowledge. When we have a choice, we always like to work with people smarter than we are. Not hard to do. We have taught many students with a better brain. We have had the years of experience, study, and hopefully some wisdom, but their brains were fun to play with!
• Sometimes you will get the student who just thinks they know more than you. Not much you can do with a student with a fixed mindset and who is delusional. Sorry. Just try to de-escalate the situation and avoid being sarcastic, dismissive, condescending, disrespectful etc. If possible, find a third-party source or reference that you can point to, and deflect the energy to a different target.
• Do not ignore the students and do not say that you are too busy to meet with them (if it is a class issue). You do not have to drop everything and deal with it, but deal with it in a reasonable time frame.
• We have found that most students and most classes are reasonable when they understand the constraints and design criteria; if it is rational and can be justified using pedagogy and scientific principles. If the argument cannot be supported by learning theory or cognitive science and is based more on personal likes, dislikes, opinions, etc., do not expect the students to buy it.
• And, if you have truly blown it, admit it, own it, and eat it. Do not let your pride and ego get in the way of doing the right thing. It is ok to be human and be seen to be human.

Further reading

• Strayhorn, T. L. (2012). College students’ sense of belonging: A key to educational success for all students. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
• Trujillo, G., & Tanner, K.D. (2014). Considering the role of affect in learning: Monitoring students’ self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and science identity. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13(1), 6-15.