Recently, I was doing a lesson observation of a teacher when she asked a student to do some work on the board. The student was fine to do that but said to the class, "Don't mock me if I get it wrong".
I thought that was brilliant. To their credit the students' classmates didn't mock her or even look like they were going to before of after her statement. But the worry was clearly there.
Students generally won't ask for help because, just like adults, we all care deeply about what others think of them.
I hate asking for directions and I grew up with my father often asking me, "What are you trying to do?". So I get it. No one likes to look and feel incompetent.
The solution?
Awareness and care/compassion is a good start.
Teachers like the one I observed help address this by reassuring students and enabling a safe learning environment for making mistakes. One on one conversations in class and in Zoom's break-out rooms can also begin to turn this around.
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