The Skillful Teacher

Maxim 12: Remember the Importance of Both Support and
Challenge
Of all the intractable dilemmas college teachers face, getting the
balance right between being supportive of students and challeng-
ing them to go further than they think they are capable of is one of
the most difficult. You will never get this balance right; indeed, as
mentioned earlier, it is probably mistaken to focus too much on the
notion of balance. Trying to keep things in a state of congenial,
rather than disruptive, tension is probably a better way to think
about this. Even when you are faced with the culture of entitlement,
an attitude of supportive respect towards your students should
underpin your practice. Students who feel they are in a hostile or
indifferent environment will have their commitment to learning
(fragile as it may be) seriously weakened. They may be physically
present but mentally absent.
When we criticize students as a way of challenging them, this
can be devastating to those students, even if their attitude of
bravado, contempt, or nonchalance hides this realization from us.
So an ever-present concern (discussed in Chapter Ten) should be
to begin all evaluations with an acknowledgment of any effort stu-
dents have made, even if this effort falls short of producing the stan-
dard of work you had been hoping for. This is not to say that
students who have clearly blown off an assignment and handed in
work that is an insult to you should be bathed in affirmation. In
such instances it is clear that you need to let them know early and
clearly what the consequences of this will be. My point is that a
negative comment from us can be remembered by students for
months, even years, as deeply wounding, so we need to make as sure
as we can that when we make them they are truly justified.
On the other hand, if students receive only affirmation from you
and are never challenged, then their encounter with you is not fully
educational. Affirmation is an important precondition of challenge
but is never the sum total of teaching. Without challenge students
will never move beyond where they are—never develop new skills,
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grasp new concepts, encounter new knowledge, or explore alterna-
tive viewpoints and perspectives. Of course, keeping balance and
support in a state of congenial tension is difficult enough with one
person, let alone with a whole class comprised of students of vary-
ing backgrounds, abilities, racial identities, motivations, and states
of learning readiness who are confronting a variety of learning tasks.
What has helped me enormously in this regard is the Critical Inci-
dent Questionnaire (CIQ). Behind the impassive, stony masks of
students’ faces, emotions may be churning without our ever know-
ing it. The culture of cool will work to ensure that no indication of
their panic, or enthusiasm, will slip out. But these feelings will be
noted on the CIQ once students are convinced their comments are
anonymous. CIQ data is one of the most helpful sources of infor-
mation that allows students—week in, week out—to judge how well
I am balancing support and challenge.