Perspectives: What Excludes Students?

Disregarding Student Backgrounds, Preparation, or Life Events That Affect Learning

It almost goes without saying that students come into the classroom with unique backgrounds and life experiences. These individual characteristics have the effect of excluding only when students somehow get the message that certain backgrounds and life experiences disqualify them from being taken seriously as learners.

Students may also get this message if their commitments to family, work, or other obligations are dismissed as unimportant in comparison with course work, or if instructors respond to student disabilities, language or cultural differences, or struggles with the course content in ways that suggest they are not interested in helping students meet these challenges to learning.

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Disregarding Student Backgrounds, Preparation, or Life Events That Affect Learning

Instructor Perspectives

For some faculty, considerations of how students learn may seem to extend beyond the scope of their position, and are considered primarily the students’ responsibility. We might hear faculty emphasize, "I focus on what students need to know. I expect them to know how to learn in." Though we agree that students must play a primary role in their learning, we also recognize the importance of faculty expertise and involvement in helping students learn both the practices of the discipline and the processes of being successful in it.

For example several behaviors distinguish novice from expert problem-solvers, and studies have shown that students’ mastery of expert behaviors requires explicit modeling and demonstration by expert thinkers. Still, many instructors think of their expertise primarily in terms of course content, and may not be consciously aware of the expert practices they regularly employ in their work.

Other instructors may have great interest in helping students succeed, but find it a challenge to know how to help students who may be struggling to learn something that they have not struggled with themselves for quite a while. Stephen Brookfield (1995) has observed that the "best learners ... often make the worst teachers. They are, in a very real sense, perceptually challenged. They cannot imagine what it must be like to struggle to learn something that comes so naturally to them." (Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, p. 62).

Here are faculty comments on different situations which show how they perceive the effects of student background and life events on student learning:

  • "Good learning takes effort. Students might have to work night and day to finish, but they knew it would be a challenge when signed up for the course. They may have jobs and other things going on in their lives, but they should expect to make some sacrifices, or maybe this isn't a good time for them to be here."
  • "I have students who appear to be struggling because they are not native English speakers. At times their questions sound as if they haven't understood what's just been said, and when they speak it is very difficult to understand them -- both for me and for the other students in the class."
  • "I used to get all these requests for make-up assignments and exams, so I started a 'no make-ups' policy and I explain it very clearly on the syllabus. Now I have a good student whose grade is suffering because she was sick and missed two exams, but I feel like I can't make an exception in this case without opening the door for all kinds of other excuses."
  • "After class one student came to me with a letter from Disabled Student Services documenting that the student has a diagnosed learning disability and will need extra time for in-class writing assignments and tests. This situation has really caused me to re-think how I teach and question how I assess student learning."
  • "One student mentioned that he's the first person in his family to attend college. I had noticed that he tends to sit back and participate less than a lot of other students, but I hadn't really thought about why. I wonder now if I should be doing more to help him feel like he belongs here, but I'm not even sure what would do that."

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Disregarding Student Backgrounds, Preparation, or Life Events That Affect Learning

Student Perspectives

Here are student comments on different situations which show how it affects them when instructors consider (or don't consider) their background, experiences, and life events that affect learning:

  • "I knew it would be difficult to balance my job, a family, and course work, but school is so expensive that I can't really afford to work any less, and I have to take care of my daughter whether there's homework due or not. Most of my professors have been encouraging, and they're as flexible as possible about deadlines and things like that. I don't know if I could have gotten this far without supportive professors."
  • "On the syllabus it said that if you cannot meet the professor during office hours that you can make an appointment to see her. I have class conflicts during her office hours, but each time I try to make an appointment, she makes me justify why I can't come during regular office hours, and it's really hard to find another time that she's willing to meet. If she was going to give me such a hard time trying to make an appointment outside of office hours, why did she write ‘and by appointment’ on the syllabus?"
  • "English is not my first language. I work very hard to keep up, and the professor has been very helpful. However, if I say something during class discussion, the other students ignore it and continue the discussion as though I hadn't said anything at all. I'm not sure if they don't understand my accent, or if they think a foreigner doesn't have anything to add. It's very frustrating."
  • "The assumption seems to be, 'You'll succeed if you do what I did and become like me.' But is that the only way to succeed, and is that the only kind of success that counts? I wish I could find my own way to finish this degree without sending the message that I'm not really serious just because I'm not doing exactly what my advisor did."
  • "I'm Deaf and use a Sign Language interpreter to understand what is said in class. I try to get everything I can out of class, but I can only look at one thing at a time -- I can't look at the board, or the overhead, or my textbook, at the same time that I watch the interpreter to find out what the instructor is saying. Discussions are hard because I have to keep taking my eyes off the interpreter to find out who's talking, and then look back to see what they say. There's always a little time delay with interpreting, so it's often hard to get my question or comment in before the class has moved on."

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Disregarding Student Backgrounds, Preparation, or Life Events That Affect Learning

Strategies and Resources

Inclusive Teaching Strategy guidelines are designed to help you get started thinking about ways to respond to these issues, and they will also provide you with links to additional resources, tools, and examples:

What Excludes Students - More Examples

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site last updated: February 1, 2008
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