by Mitch Lorenz, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center
Summer is here! Somehow, it is already June and, for those teaching on 9-month contracts, it is time for that annual summer tradition of kicking back, relaxing, and engaging in deep reflection on teaching. This might include revisiting the Reinert Center’s online resources as you brainstorm ways to improve your teaching in the Fall. One of our most recent resource guides highlights non-content communication, an area in which I made a lot of changes during my time teaching without realizing it had a formal name.
In all teaching contexts, communications with students can be broadly categorized as “content focused” and “non-content focused.” When I was teaching full time, I was tasked with teaching primarily research-focused courses in psychology. In this role, I would dive deep into the course content and my assessments would challenge students to put this new knowledge into action. Being an empathetic instructor, I understood that students felt uncomfortable with scientific writing, statistics, and many other things related to research. Naturally, this led me to make sure to provide a ridiculous amount of thorough and detailed feedback on student assignments.
I failed to realize that my students may not equate the generous amount of feedback I provided as a reflection of my enthusiasm for their learning. Instead…I learned very quickly that “more feedback” was often interpreted as “your work is terrible.” Or, more simply: “Dr. Lorenz thinks I’m the worst student ever, look at how much they wrote on my paper!”
Whoops.
Perhaps my self-credited status as an “empathetic instructor” was not deserved, as I had completely failed to consider this alternative interpretation of my feedback efforts. What else was being left to open interpretation by students, providing opportunities for miscommunication? With this in mind, I added increasingly frequent “intention clarification” moments in my teaching. For instance, I prepared students for the amount of feedback they would receive while giving tips for how to use that feedback. I also added opportunities for revision when I realized all that feedback didn’t have a corresponding opportunity to use it in the same class. What I know now is that the formal term for “intention clarification” and other communication about a course that isn’t focused on content, is “non-content communication” or “non-content instructor talk.” If only I’d read about non-content communication in a resource provided by my local Teaching Center! I might have avoided some of these miscommunications and associated moments of teacher panic. Luckily, you can read a resource guide about this topic and many others on the Reinert Center resources pages.
The Notebook 