How can teachers most effectively build trust with their students as well as between students? How can they do this while also creating a challenging learning environment that pushes students to reach their potential? These are a couple of the questions addressed at Rice University’s 12th annual Symposium on Teaching and Learning hosted by the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Jan. 10.
The symposium aligns with the CTE’s programming theme for this academic year — “Hard without Hardship: Challenging Students while Supporting Well-being.”
A keynote and workshop led by Peter Felten, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, professor of history and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University, drew on an international study of faculty “trust moves” in large-enrollment courses to explore practical approaches to helping students develop trust in teachers, each other and themselves in ways that contribute to their academic success and well-being.
“The symposium is designed to help participants think about how they can build trust with and among their students in their classes,” Felten said. “Research shows that when students trust their professors and when they trust their peers, they’re much more likely to take academic risks, push themselves to learn, persist and to grow in the classroom. (They’re) also more likely to be well, to feel less stress and to feel like they’re thriving.”
Four major “trust moves” or pillars that teachers can strive toward to promote trust with and among students in the classroom were discussed:
-
Cognition: Displaying knowledge, skill and competence that gives students faith in the instructor's abilities.
-
Affect: Showing interpersonal care and concern for students that convinces students they have their best interests at heart.
-
Identity: Showing sensitivity to their own and/or others’ identities that makes students more likely to relate to and confide in them.
-
Values: Showing that they are acting on principle to develop a standard of consistency and quality.
Some of the practices to help build these foundational aspects of trust included:
-
Introducing yourself in ways that build trust through your experience and reputation.
-
Talking with students about the value of trusting peers.
-
Sequencing group work to promote student trust.
-
Providing and being receptive to feedback.
-
Building high academic standards and believing in students’ capacities to meet them.
The event was well attended by Rice faculty members looking to develop skills and habits to harbor a high level of trust, accessibility and accountability in their classrooms in order to create a welcoming learning environment where students feel comfortable speaking up and participating.
“I really thought today was especially wonderful because we’re talking about a lot of the things that I think about while teaching,” said Sandy Parsons, CTE Faculty Fellow and associate teaching professor and director of undergraduate studies in psychological sciences. “I teach a couple of classes where trust is really important, both that students trust me and that they trust each other, to talk about somewhat vulnerable topics.”
Parsons gave an example of an ungrading experiment she once conducted in a class where the students went without grades but instead received only teacher evaluation and input for a time period to evaluate the level of trust in that learning environment.
“Students were very concerned that there was a trick involved and that if they went without grades that they would somehow fail or that they would get an unexpected grade,” she said. “It took some time for me to convince some of the more reluctant students that that wasn’t an issue.
“I do think that my students trust me, in large part because I’m willing to be vulnerable with them and I also take responsibility for missteps.”
The event provided faculty members with theoretical frameworks to validate what they’re already intuitively doing in the classroom, said Lesa Tran Lu, assistant teaching professor in biosciences and bioengineering and senior lecturer in chemistry.
“At a university that strives for research excellence and scholarly work, to now be able to have some backbone in research and data to show that you’re actually doing excellent work in teaching is a really validating experience for me,” Tran Lu said.
Renata Ramos, chair of the CTE Faculty Fellows, said the symposium fits into CTE’s overall mission of inclusivity for students.
“We have been working consistently to create inclusive and equitable environments,” said Ramos, teaching professor in bioengineering and the senior associate dean for academic affairs in engineering. “We’re trying to (help) students develop challenging technical skills, while also motivating them and supporting them throughout their learning.
“I think this topic really comes into play because it doesn’t just focus on what we’re learning in the classroom but also how we are helping our students create that community and that environment in which we can facilitate learning.”
Resources from this year’s symposium can be found on the CTE website.