1.2.1Student Empowerment
An instructor has accepted two students to do research with her during the summer. One student, Cheryl, is very responsible and hardworking. She does her homework regularly while taking care of her three children, 1, 4, and 7 years old, at home. The second student, Mary, did not respond to numerous e-mails that the instructor sent. Before the actual research began, there were several steps that had to be completed such as obtaining Institutional Review Board Certification and attending a workshop. Cheryl completed them in a timely fashion. Mary, on the other hand, came up with different excuses as to why she was unable to get certified. After talking to people in charge of the research, she was granted a 2-week extension to finish the certification. Luckily, Cheryl and Mary showed up on time at the first research meeting. The instructor warned Mary that if she did not complete the certification during the grace period, she would be out of the program. Cheryl helped Mary to register for the certification, and after 10 days, she completed the requirement.
In the meantime, the instructor met with her two students twice a week. Both came on time. However, Mary did not do her assignments most of the time, and whenever she did some work, it was all wrong. She did not follow any of the instructor’s directions. She could not concentrate during their meetings, always yawning or showing disinterest in what was going on. Whenever Mary was told that her work was unsatisfactory, she started crying. When asked if she had other issues at home bothering her, she would just nod. However, sometimes, Mary was engaged and came up with unusually good ideas regarding research. This gave the instructor some hope.
During one meeting, she told Mary that she is intelligent but behaves very irresponsibly. Mary whimpered a little. That day when Mary and Cheryl were working together in the next room, she went to see if they had completed the work. There were a couple of papers and a pen lying on the floor. Cheryl said that they belonged to Mary, but that she had been gone for some time. Cheryl mentioned that Mary had expressed disgust with her life in general and had thrown all of her papers and pen on the floor. But after a few minutes, she picked them up. When Mary returned, the instructor asked her what was really bothering her. Mary started sobbing and told her that she was not crying because of anything that the instructor had said to her.
Mary had major problems at home. Her father had passed away when she was young. Her sister was behaving badly, and her mother was seriously ill. Being the only child around her mother and being very shy, she always got blamed for all the difficulties that the family was having. The family was poor. Mary did not have enough money for public transportation to come to school more often. She did not have a computer at home and had to come to school to have access. After hearing her predicament, the instructor advised her to go to a counselor, because she herself was not an expert in handling problems of this nature. Before she left, the instructor assigned Mary homework for the next meeting 4 days later. Mary went to a counselor. Three hours later, she returned to the instructor with a happy face and gave three typed pages of the homework four days in advance of the deadline. She confirmed the instructor’s gut feeling that Mary was quite intelligent. Her work was almost perfect; only minor changes had to be made. This was the first time that she had done any satisfactory work. When asked what caused the sudden change in her attitude, Mary said that the counselor gave her some immediate steps to take and told her that anytime that she needed help, the counselor would be there. This reassurance really helped her. The instructor also reassured Mary that if she had any problems in her research, she should feel free to contact her by e-mail. She also advised Mary to spend more time in school studying in order to keep her mind off her situation at home and so she could graduate, get a job, and help her mother. Mary also mentioned how patient Cheryl had been, listening to her problems. Cheryl had also taught her how to use Microsoft Word and Excel.
This day started out to be disastrous, but ended on a very positive note. The instructor was looking at a happy young woman who was ready to handle her numerous problems. The instructor and the counselor had both undergone TOC training and had just implemented it to empower Mary.
In short, teachers should not give up on a student just because the student is not working up to expectations. The student may have nonacademic issues standing in the way of him/her giving the required time to the academic work. TOC has TP tools which can be used to address both academic and no...
