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What Students Fear Most in the First Weeks of School

We want students to begin the new year with excitement, anticipation, and curiosity. However, we also know that students often come to school with a variety of questions, concerns, and worries. We need to feed their excitement, reinforce their anticipation, and continue to build their curiosity. Meanwhile, we must recognize and do all that we can to answer their questions, lessen their fears, and build their confidence.

Of course, the range of questions and concerns students have can be wide. Nevertheless, there are three categories of fear that are common among students of almost any age, background, or culture: protection of identity, desire to belong, and wanting to be competent.

Identity

Among the questions students are likely to have are: Will I be liked? Can I be myself? Will I be accepted for who I am? Can I be open about my interests, my family, and my culture? Will I stand out negatively? Am I worthy of being here?

What we can do to help:

Learn student names early and use them in interactions with students.
Greet students at the door and notice them individually.
Avoid nicknames unless students give us permission to use them.
Resist assigning general labels such as quiet, disengaged, and smart. Students are more than any one descriptor and giving labels can get in the way of our seeing the whole student.
Look for students’ strengths and call them out, including gifts and talents that are not academic such as kindness, thoughtfulness, and a sense of humor.
Invite students to share their stories and traditions.
Normalize mistakes as part of learning, not measures of who the student is.

Belonging

Questions about belonging likely will include: Will I be accepted as part of the class? Will I feel included? Will I feel emotionally safe? Will I have or can I make friends? Will I be teased or ostracized if I make a mistake?

What we can do to help:

Get to know students beyond their role as students.
Inquire about interests, hobbies, and outside-of-school experiences and stories. Interest communicates connection.
Develop shared norms and expectations for behavior that are respectful and build community.
Invite student input on procedures and activities.
Acknowledge students’ ideas and suggestions, even if not all of them can be implemented.
Teach social skills such as courtesy, listening, and handling disagreement.
Ensure that decorations, materials, and content represent diverse cultures and experiences.
Respond quickly to counter teasing, harassment, and exclusion.

Competence

Questions and fears related to competency might be: How challenging will the work be? Do I have the skills necessary to do the work at this level? Will I be able to keep up? Will my teacher believe in my potential? Will I be able to get help if I need it?

What we can do to help:

Reassure students they will be successful and that we are committed to making it so.
Avoid comparing students to each other or past classes.
Notice and celebrate effort and progress, as well as results.
Reinforce good strategies, willingness to adjust, and effective use of resources.
Begin with low stakes, accessible tasks to build confidence.
Use scaffolding such as step-by-step processes, guides, examples, and illustrations to build student skills.
Provide students with timely, objective, specific, and actionable feedback to help them see where they are making progress, where they may be struggling, and what steps they can take to improve.

The demands and distractions of the first weeks of a new school year can be daunting. However, this is a crucial time to help students to feel that they fit in, are accepted, and can be successful. By taking time to address their questions and concerns, we can set the stage for strong, positive relationships with our students and a year of learning success.

Why Learning Styles Are Out and Dual Coding Is In

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Why Learning Styles Are Out and Dual Coding Is In

We want to employ the best, most effective teaching strategies available to ensure that our students learn and remember. However, it is not always correct that the learning experiences students prefer, or with which students feel most comfortable, lead to the best learning outcomes. We often need to look past what may seem familiar or has been a long-standing tradition to determine the instructional approach that will be most likely to lead to higher levels of learning and lengthen recall.

Consider the practice of teaching to students’ preferred learning styles. For decades it was assumed that teaching students in the mode they preferred—typically visual, auditory, or kinesthetic—would lead to better learning outcomes. Yet, extensive research has shown that teaching to a single, preferred learning mode does not necessarily improve learning.

Interestingly, the challenge with learning-style-based teaching is not the mode of instruction. Rather, it resides in using a single mode for instruction or depending on a single input strategy for learning. When learning modes are combined, the impact on learning grows significantly.

The approach known as dual coding combines two learning modes—auditory and visual—to enhance learning. The concept is to combine multiple representations of content. While research on learning-style-driven instruction has not shown positive outcomes, studies on the impact of dual coding have shown significant increases in learning and improved recall.

Dual coding works by combining two main channels on which the brain depends for processing information. As a result, students hear or read explanations and see images, graphic representations, icons, and other supports to visualize content, processes, and other learning-related information.

Dual coding does not have to be a complicated, cumbersome, or time-consuming strategy. Consider these examples:

Provide students with graphic organizers to complete as the lesson unfolds.
Pair meaningful, related images with key written paragraphs and passages.
Use icons and symbols to reinforce vocabulary words.
Provide an infographic to accompany new content or an unfamiliar concept.
Have students draw what they are learning as they hear or read information.
Coach students to combine words and visuals as they take notes.
Support the introduction and discussion of historical events with timelines, pictures, and other visual connections.
Present students with an image and have them write an explanation or interpretation.
Following verbal and visual presentation of information, have students explain what they are learning in their own words.

While dual coding can be an effective instructional strategy, there are cautions and considerations to observe:

Be sure that verbal and visual information support the same concept. Misalignment of information between learning modes can lead to confusion and faulty recall.
Resist overloading students with simultaneous content. Sequence and spread complex information out over time to avoid overloading short-term memory.
Avoid overdecorating visual information. Excessive color and complexity can work against focus, understanding, and recall.
Strive to present information clearly. Artistic skills are not a necessary component of dual coding for us or our students.
Avoid employing too many visuals. One visual at a time typically is best to avoid distraction and confusion.

We know that students often have preferences in how information is presented to them. The advantage of dual coding is that two of the most common learning preferences are featured. We can further enhance learning experiences by integrating body movement and interactive tasks and by tapping social-emotional features such as relevance, empathy, and other connecting elements.

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Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.

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