The Skillful Teacher

Lack of Clarity in Teachers’ Instructions
As we saw in Chapter Four, learners appreciate teachers making the
fullest possible disclosure of their teaching intentions and the cri-
teria they use to evaluate learning. Wherever students experience
ambiguity or confusion regarding teachers’ expectations, resistance
is the predictable consequence. If students perceive themselves as
failing after faithfully following teachers’ instructions, only to dis-
cover that these were so poorly communicated that students com-
pleted what was essentially the wrong task, mistrust explodes. So
Responding to Resistance
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receiving the clearest possible instructions is something that is cru-
cial in students’ eyes. In Critical Incident Questionnaire reports,
the perception of teacher ambiguity or duplicity—of students being
unsure what teachers want or of suspecting that a secret agenda
exists that students are denied access to—is reported time and again
as being particularly demoralizing for learners. To receive unclear
instructions is to feel that you’re being set up for failure. Conse-
quently, any learning task that appears unclear will likely be resisted.