Shelby asked: "How can teachers encourage and cater to students who are exceptions to the norm?"
Of students that are exceptions we find, primarily three groups: exceptionally successful students, poor students that struggle with course material and work, and poor students by virtue of apathy.
As Matt mentioned in his response to Shelby's post, there is not much an instructor can do with this ultimate group, and teachers will often exhaust themselves trying. These are the students that deserve the least amount of catering, though, it is important to still be there if they change their minds.
The difficulty primarily arises with the first two sets. Ideally an instructor desires to effectively teach both sets but this would seem to indicate treating them differently which is dangerous at best, and counter-productively disrespectful at worst. I admit I may be bias here, but the method I always preferred as a student was for the instructor to teach the challenging material in class and be available for help if the struggling students needed it, but not to cater to specific difficulties during class time.
Question: Is there an effective method to teach both extremes of the student body while remaining fair and respectful to both?
You raise a fair question. In practice we are always teaching to multiple levels. This is difficult but not impossible -- one of those paradoxes teachers are constantly negotiating -- and it helps to remember that it's okay for different students to learn different things (or the same thing at different levels of sophistication) from the same shared classroom experience. There is no formula. It's a matter of an ever-deepening understanding of your topic coupled with constant attention to who your students are and how they are working with the material.
ReplyDeleteThere is no problem treating students differently, since the demand of justice and equality is merely that we treat like cases alike, not that we mechanically treat all the same. Thus I will spend more time and attention with students who need it (provided they show that they want it), and with those who show particular energy and curiosity. Any student can earn this attention.