Your attitude influences your students’ success

In interactions between faculty and students, attitude matters. I’m not referring to the attitude of the student, but to the instructor’s, which, perhaps even more than the assigned workload, can foster or impair a student’s persistence in college.

The US nation is currently pondering the value of a college degree and, in turn, the value of higher education. Headlines consistently centre on colossal student loan debt and question whether a university education is worth accruing such debt.

This climate of doubt makes student success more critical than ever. Student retention is a facet which contributes heavily to academic performance, ranking and reputation. When students are encouraged and motivated to succeed, they persist, resulting in a beneficial circumstance for everyone.

There is much discussion surrounding academic advisors or student services’ employees and their impact on student motivation. However, there seems to be a limited amount of writing focused on what faculty can do to influence student motivation to persist and earn their degrees. 

Some instructors may be concerned that encouraging or mentoring students equals over-accommodating and coddling them. However it’s important to keep in mind that when retention rates are poor, institutions suffer a loss of tuition money. And students invest money in a college degree that they never earn.

If that isn’t enough, there’s also the significant responsibility faculty have to train, teach and illuminate. Creighton University School of Pharmacy professors Nasar Z. Alsharif and Youngyue Qi’s 2014 study found that “instructor attitude, instructor enthusiasm, and teaching style” were all “shown to play a critical role in the learning process”.

Researchers, including Alsharif, Qi and earlier researchers, also hold that there is a relationship between the innate motivation of students to learn and instructor enthusiasm. Janie H. Wilson found in 2008 that “students reported greater motivation when their professor liked them”. Research repeatedly condones the relationship between the motivation of students to learn and instructor enthusiasm.

Apart from instructors’ attitudes, communicating in a way that encourages motivation and learning is also critical. I have witnessed this first-hand through teaching public speaking. I’ve often taught a section which requires students to give three speeches in total. After the first and second speeches, I’ve often told students who have improved from their first to second speeches that I’ve noticed how much better they have gotten. I tell them which key factors have improved and let them know that they are doing well, boosting their confidence.

Typically, when they deliver their third speech, I see these students show 10 times the progression they made between their first and second speeches. These students frequently deliver their third and final speeches with a previously unseen confidence and gusto. They flourish. In a class such as public speaking, where extreme nervousness is a common, this earned praise and encouragement can help students conquer their fears and become more adept at a valuable communication skill.

I also make sure they know why they are taking public speaking. I begin every semester with my students moving the desks and chairs into a circle so that every face in the classroom, mine included, is visible. I then ask each student why they are in college, what is their major and what do they plan to do with their lives? In my responses I explain how public speaking will intertwine with their goals.

For example: if they are here on a basketball scholarship and dreaming of becoming a professional athlete, I tell them they will do a lot of public speaking in interviews and this course will help them to improve those skills.

They are studying to become a nurse? They will want to be able to speak confidently with strangers each and every day – public speaking can help them to strengthen that ability.

I tie it in with every job, telling my students that public speaking can give them the power to vocalise during board meetings or even during job interviews, many of which involve groups of people asking tough questions.

I also share my own experience of taking college-level public-speaking courses while I was in high school that gave me the techniques to deliver my valedictorian speech at graduation. Then, I typically joke that I ended up teaching them public speaking, so I’m more glad than ever that I took the course.

The exercise ties in my own personal experience with theirs and shows them both the value of the course and the value that I place on their views and understanding of the purpose of the course. 

Rachel Giles is a doctoral candidate in the department of leadership and teacher education at the University of South Alabama. Her primary research and career interests involve higher education leadership, instruction, communication, and student success.