“OMG! I think I may have finally figured out this block A-B schedule thing. I am finding out that this old dog can learn a few new tricks…with a lot of practice and patience.” –A teacher’s Facebook posting

After teaching in the K-12 system for almost as long as some of her students’ parents have been alive, a friend was assigned to a new building with a different type of scheduling system than the one required at her previous school. Even for an experienced teacher, this is a scary experience and I appreciate her excitement in finally figuring out the rules of the game for her new school.

Later this week, I will be walking into classrooms where I will encounter students who are in their first semester—or possibly even their first day—of college. Because of the dramatic differences between high school and college expectations, these students cannot comfortably rely on their previous experience to be successful. Nor can I approach my classes assuming that my students know how to be college students. Part of my responsibility as a professor is to help them learn to become successful college students while also teaching them composition and history.

I once had an exchange with a student who could not understanding course concepts. After class, when she was telling me of her difficulty, I asked if she had read the assignment. Her answer was, “No.” I still remember the shocked look on her face when I informed her that if she hadn’t read the assignment that there was nothing I could do assist her. Later, I learned that she was a dual enrolled student who was still in high school. Maybe her high school teachers would have taken time to explain course material to an unprepared student, but her college professors will not.

I did work with the counselors at the college where I was teaching at the time to help this student adjust to college. I find it fulfilling to help students develop strategies that will contribute to their success. None-the-less, until she read the assignment, there was still nothing I was willing to do to help her understand the course concepts.

A more common problem is that students do not realize that the stakes get higher as they move up the academic ladder. They often do not understand that the research methodology they learned in high school only prepared them for college; that they weren’t being taught college level research skills while still in high school. A student cannot rely only on their high school preparation for college success. It would be like my friend telling her new principal that she did not need to learn the block A-B schedule thing because she had been a success at her previous school.

I once attended a seminar facilitated by an accounting professor who argued that as faculty members, we should place ourselves in unfamiliar learning situations. She told us about a dance class she had recently taken. It was a class for which she had no natural abilities. Her accounting background had not prepared her to follow her instructor’s lesson or to study the coursework on her own. The facilitator then argued that her experience taking a dance class made her a better accounting professor because she now had more empathy for students who had difficulty grasping the accounting concepts that came so easily to her.

It was 30 years ago this semester that I taught my first college class. At times it can be frustrating that some students still don’t understand concepts I have covered over and over again during those 30 years. I need to remember that, for them, it is the first time that they are being exposed to new material.

Fortunately, I do not have to learn the block A-B schedule thing before walking into my classrooms this week. However, I did make the mistake of sending the students in one of my classes an e-mail welcoming them to a twelve week class that I told them began next Wednesday; a class that does not actually begin for another three weeks. It was such a Freshman error to make!

–Steven L. Berg, PhD