Student Needs
- Self-awareness: their own, and on the part of the instructor
- Recognition that emotions are normal, and sometimes difficult to explain or contain
- Compassion tempered with reasonable expectations
- Understanding that emotional regulation may be impaired
- Gentle assistance in seeing how behaviour may be impacting others
- Respect that frustration can be high when students feel misunderstood, or believe that their experiences have been devalued, or they are embarrassed.
Solutions
- Stay calm; provide time and space to process feelings or express thoughts.
- Use empathy to acknowledge the emotion.
- Affirm that there are a wide range of possible emotional reactions, and there is nothing wrong with an authentic reaction.
- If you are concerned about behaviour in response to an emotional reaction, ask whether there are strategies the student has used in the past to cope.
- Help the student to feel grounded through the use of practical, information-oriented questions.
- Draw on resources when the situation is beyond your expertise.
- Personalize strengths, and depersonalize shortcomings (the problem is in the situation, not the person)
- Be aware that anxiety can sometimes look a lot like anger. It’s helpful to see it as a product of a difficult situation rather than a personal criticism.
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