4. Meeting students where they are
Simply put, the concept of “meeting students where they are” refers to how teachers can tailor learning experiences to better facilitate student learning, based on aspects such as a student’s background, ability, and prior knowledge. This is reflected in the principles and aims of teaching approaches such as the universal design for learning (discussed in Section 3 above). It is also possible to meet students where they are by acknowledging and adapting to nuances in individual learning contexts, and providing alternative approaches to education such as competency-based education (CBE). The goal of inclusive teaching approaches is to design courses and assessments that speak to a diverse student group, and afford teachers a measure of flexibility. Through these approaches, teachers may take on the role of a learning facilitator, providing their students with the support and scaffolding they need to achieve identified skills and competencies at their own pace and within their individual contexts.
Section 3 explored the universal design for learning in detail. The remainder of this section therefore takes a brief look at similarities across learning contexts, and touches on strategies for meeting students where they are.
4.1 Similarities across learning contexts
Up to this point, these notes have been concerned with how learning contexts may differ, with regard to aspects such as student profiles. In fact, according to the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning:
[E]very class and every group has its own distinctive dynamics, determined by the individuals in it. For example, think of instances when you have taught the same class to two different groups and had two entirely different experiences. Yet, there are some constants among groups: all groups experience a period at the beginning in which people are trying to figure out how the group will work and what their position in it will be; all groups have quiet members and noisy members; all groups have a diverse membership […].
Groups can be productive or unproductive, based on their constituency, the topic, and their facilitation or leadership. Occasionally, “hot moments” arise, in which the emotional temperature rises dramatically. Moreover, even when the climate is not noticeably strained, your classroom may not be functioning equally well for all your students. Such hot moments or unhelpful dynamics may preclude learning. However, they might also, when addressed proactively and skillfully, lead to the most intense and lasting learning of the semester.
[…] Many teachers, at some point or other in their teaching career, face a “hot moment” in the classroom – a moment when the conversation either stops or erupts because of the volatile nature of the subject matter, or because of conflicts among students. The challenge for the teacher is to turn such a moment into a learning opportunity, rather than either ignoring or inflaming it. Accomplishing this means managing oneself, helping the students in the moment, figuring out what is occurring, and then imagining how to use the moment for learning.
(Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, 2017)
In the following class-wide forum, you will have the chance to analyze such “hot moments”, using the content covered in these notes.