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In response to your request for resources that might help
all of us cope with the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I wanted
to forward this email I received from The Director of
Teaching and Learning at my institution.
I thought this was very insightful, especially since this
tragedy occurred on a campus approximately 5 hours from our
campus and in the same Appalachian Mountains as our campus.
Jan Wren
Library Director
Hagan Memorial Library
University of the Cumberlands
821 Walnut Street
Williamsburg, KY 40769
606-539-4328
606-539-4317-fax
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Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 9:40 AM
To: faculty@ucumberlands.edu
Subject: [Faculty] Re: Virginia Tech
I received this information from Therese Huston at Seattle
University about helpful and unhelpful faculty responses to
9/11 through a listserv. She suggested that this study might
be useful to faculty in deciding how to follow up on
yesterday's tragic news at Virginia Tech.
Quick summary of Huston & DiPietro's (2007) results:
- On one campus, in the days immediately following the
terrorist attacks of 9/11, students reported that only 62%
of their professors mentioned the attacks at all; the
remaining 38% went on with the course material as though
nothing had happened.
- Many students typically found an instructor's complete
lack of response frustrating or disappointing. A few
students did not care whether their instructors did or said
anything, and a few said "doing nothing" was appropriate.
But most students wanted their instructors to show some
acknowledgement.
- In most cases, students found it *helpful* whenever
faculty tried to acknowledge the tragedy in some way (one
minute of silence, a short or long discussion, offer to
review the material again later, read an inspirational
passage, mention counseling services, etc.).
- The only response that was truly *unhelpful* was when
faculty "acknowledged that the attacks had occurred but said
the class had to go on, with no mention of extra help."
Students were often frustrated when faculty said "there is
nothing we can do."
Implications for Faculty
The results indicate that from the studentsı perspective, it
is best to do something. Students often complained when
faculty did not mention the attacks at all, and they
expressed gratitude when faculty acknowledged that something
awful had occurred. Beyond acknowledging a tragic event,
faculty would be well-advised to take the extra step of
recognizing that students are distressed and to show some
extra support, such as offering to grant extensions for
students who request them.
Cognitive research informs us that working memory capacity
is reduced in times of enhanced stress so students are less
capable of learning new material (e.g. Arnsten, 1998).
Offering extensions or the opportunity to review the
material later is one way to accommodate studentsı decreased
capacity.
It is perhaps a surprising relief to learn that an
instructorıs response need not be complicated,
time-intensive, or even personalized.
Responses that require relatively little effort, such as
taking a minute of silence or offering to review material
later in the course are likely to be viewed as very helpful
by most students, so faculty should not feel pressed into
redesigning their course. Faculty responses that required
high levels of effort were also viewed as helpful, so those
who wish to use the lens of their discipline to examine the
events surrounding a tragedy are encouraged to do so. A
repeated issue that appeared in studentsı comments was that
they appreciated when an instructor responded in a unique
and humane way, so faculty should not feel pressured to
homogenize their responses. Complete references:
Huston, T. A., & DiPietro, M. (2007). In the eye of the
storm:
Students perceptions of helpful faculty actions following a
collective tragedy. In D. R. Robertson & L. B. Nilson (Eds.)
To Improve the
Academy: Vol 25. Resources for faculty, instructional, and
organizational development (pp. 207-224). Bolton, MA: Anker.
DiPietro. M. (2003). The day after: Faculty behavior in
post-September 11, 2001, classes. In C. M. Wehlburg. and S.
Chadwick-Blossey (Eds.) To Improve the Academy: Vol 21.
Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational
development (pp. 21-39). Bolton, MA: Anker.
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