The Skillful Teacher

Fear of Looking Stupid
Some students won’t talk because they’re afraid of making a mistake
by saying something that’s considered daft, unintelligent, or poorly
expressed. This is particularly the case where the invisible norm of dis-
cussion participation implies that students and teachers should be mod-
els of confident loquacity. Four specific steps can help allay this fear.
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• Make sure you begin each discussion with the reminder
that in your class there are no stupid questions. Publish
your speech policy in the course syllabus and repeat it
regularly in class.
• If faculty conduct a discussion in front of students,
make sure a debriefing is included so that any of the
faculty who felt the fear of looking ignorant or unintel-
ligent in the discussion can talk about this. If students
see that the faculty “experts” (who are supposed to
know everything and to be supremely self-confident)
also suffer from this fear, then it loses some of its power
to stifle speech.
• Begin a discussion-based course by convening a panel
of former students. The panel members are asked to
pass on to the new students the best advice they can
give on how to survive and flourish in discussions.
Chances are that the theme of fearing to appear suffi-
ciently intelligent will emerge strongly. Panel members
can describe this feeling and talk about how they dealt
with it. The new students will see that the fear they
feel is universal, not unique. Knowing that others who
have shared this feeling have managed to pass the
course will ease their anxieties on this matter.
• Make sure that before holding a discussion students are
assigned specific tasks or roles that they are to perform
in the discussion. Knowing that one has a specific task
to perform in the discussion, and being able to prepare
properly for it beforehand, provides a sense of security.
It helps reduce the fear that one will be surprised by
being asked to speak in an impromptu manner in the
middle of a discussion.
Getting Students to Participate in Discussion
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