How does one take into account to student personalities and emotions?

We don’t teach in a vacuum. Students don’t walk into the classroom perfect blank slates waiting for us to fill in with knowledge. They are thinking, feeling human beings that bring a whole host of emotions and personalities that affect how well they learn. These factors may be constant or vary from day to day depending on the student in question. The question is, how do we account for the feelings of our students?

They key lies in building an “atmosphere of empathetic communication” in which the student feels safe to express these feelings (Joyce, pg. 289, 2015). By showing their emotions and giving their thoughts and opinions free from judgment, the student is able to join their teacher and peers in a community of open communication. Ideas and learning can flow more freely in such an environment. Students are nurtured to become confident free thinkers with thoughts that matter and have an impact on the world. This the goal of Carl Rogers’ nondirective teaching model which postulates that “positive human relationships enable people to grow, and therefore instruction should be based on concepts of human relations in contrast to concepts of subject matter” (Joyce, pg. 285, 2015).

This means the teacher needs to take on the role of a facilitator or guide for the student rather than a decision making, distant authority figure. The first step is to get to know your students through observation and conversation so you can recognize their individual personalities and notice when something is amiss. A great deal of empathy and genuine interest is required on the part of the teacher. There needs to be a lack of judgment or moralization – a student needs to trust the teacher enough to be able to express themselves. The educator then helps the student to work through their thoughts and assist them in clarifying why they are thinking or feeling the way they do. The teacher needs to take themselves out of the equation and make every effort to see things from the students point of view (Joyce, pg. 289, 2015). When employing this nondirective method one has to focus on listening rather than trying to identify and solve the problem for the student. Growth and learning only occur if a student is able to work through their thoughts and feelings on their own.

It really comes down to creating an environment where the student feels comfortable expressing their views and feelings about a topic, be it personal or academic, and the teacher guides them towards a better understanding and helps them find their own path to a resolution of some sort. This open dialogue is also immensely helpful in helping the teacher to design specific lesson plans for the individual geared to what works best for them. Most importantly we don’t want our students to “suffer in silence” because that can lead to a spiraling negative effect wherein the child doesn’t seek the help they need from their educator and problems learning at school multiply.

Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2015). Models of Teaching. Boston: Pearson Education. Ed. 9.