Establishing a trusting relationship with my students is such an important part of my pedagogical practice. Everything I do in my classroom to engage my students must begin with trust. No trust; no learning.
What I found most interesting in piloting your Writer’s Practice, is how vulnerable it is to learn how to authentically write. Personally, I’ve known that writing is a vulnerable act, but I don’t think I realized how much so until I started experimenting with writing experiences instead of faux-writing assignments. I don’t think I would have been half as successful as I was had I not started with building trust with my students.
“What about what generative AI is doing to the relationship between students and their writing, as some instructors now inherently distrust what students are delivering?” I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read this post last week - it succinctly names a huge problem in my classroom, and one leading me to (once again!) completely restructure my courses. Not trusting my students is horrible, and it undermines everything I try to do.
I previously had designed a course where structured assignments meant it was very hard to cheat - I removed the temptation, as it were - so students had to either engage or drop out. I had lots of support and scaffolding for students, so almost everyone engaged. It was fun to teach, and students said they learned a lot and found my class was one of their most enjoyable.
But now? Even though I still provide support/scaffolding, lots of choices for students so they have say in readings and research topics - even though I get to know my students and really work at trying to care for them - some students are using AI for almost everything. And while I can show why it’s garbage (and often so much in error I must fail it for not even meeting assignment requirements), students are passing other classes by using it. So now I have to both teach my content and implicitly challenge other professors’ standards, which is not a good experience for anyone.
But it is the broken trust that is breaking me. I can’t teach that way, and I’m changing everything so I can have trust in my classes again.
You're describing the challenge of navigating a disconnect between one's values and one's pedagogy and the struggle to bridge that disconnect. I recognize this so thoroughly because this was a multi-year, mid-career period for me where I had to evolve my pedagogy to bring it in line with what I believed about writing and learning. Now we have this new challenge that appeared out of the blue and for which there's not enough support and where not everyone shares the same values around its use. I wish I had some wisdom other than you've got to keep working the problem as you're doing and hold true to what you believe matters.
I do think, at some point, the responsibility is on the students to invest in their own learning. The hard part is that the broader culture of school suggests that learning is secondary to completing assignments and getting grades. It's very much an uphill battle.
Touched by this post. No question that the difference between my classes that worked and the ones that didn’t is trust.
Thanks for saying this. I feel the same way.
Establishing a trusting relationship with my students is such an important part of my pedagogical practice. Everything I do in my classroom to engage my students must begin with trust. No trust; no learning.
What I found most interesting in piloting your Writer’s Practice, is how vulnerable it is to learn how to authentically write. Personally, I’ve known that writing is a vulnerable act, but I don’t think I realized how much so until I started experimenting with writing experiences instead of faux-writing assignments. I don’t think I would have been half as successful as I was had I not started with building trust with my students.
“What about what generative AI is doing to the relationship between students and their writing, as some instructors now inherently distrust what students are delivering?” I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read this post last week - it succinctly names a huge problem in my classroom, and one leading me to (once again!) completely restructure my courses. Not trusting my students is horrible, and it undermines everything I try to do.
I previously had designed a course where structured assignments meant it was very hard to cheat - I removed the temptation, as it were - so students had to either engage or drop out. I had lots of support and scaffolding for students, so almost everyone engaged. It was fun to teach, and students said they learned a lot and found my class was one of their most enjoyable.
But now? Even though I still provide support/scaffolding, lots of choices for students so they have say in readings and research topics - even though I get to know my students and really work at trying to care for them - some students are using AI for almost everything. And while I can show why it’s garbage (and often so much in error I must fail it for not even meeting assignment requirements), students are passing other classes by using it. So now I have to both teach my content and implicitly challenge other professors’ standards, which is not a good experience for anyone.
But it is the broken trust that is breaking me. I can’t teach that way, and I’m changing everything so I can have trust in my classes again.
You're describing the challenge of navigating a disconnect between one's values and one's pedagogy and the struggle to bridge that disconnect. I recognize this so thoroughly because this was a multi-year, mid-career period for me where I had to evolve my pedagogy to bring it in line with what I believed about writing and learning. Now we have this new challenge that appeared out of the blue and for which there's not enough support and where not everyone shares the same values around its use. I wish I had some wisdom other than you've got to keep working the problem as you're doing and hold true to what you believe matters.
I do think, at some point, the responsibility is on the students to invest in their own learning. The hard part is that the broader culture of school suggests that learning is secondary to completing assignments and getting grades. It's very much an uphill battle.