We all have that student in each class, the one we trust to do any assignment we ask including extensions. We love these students, so how can we get the best from them without overburdening them?
Think about which students come to mind when you read the following descriptions:
- The student who is very quiet but responds well to encouragement and praise
- The student who may not be achieving well but is making great improvement
- The student who finds your class challenging but you are working closely with them
- The reliable, typically high-achieving student who is proactive and easy to engage with
That final entry is the student that I am talking about today. The student whose success encourages their teachers to expect more from them. We may slowly begin to default to this student when thinking about extension tasks, when moderating our grading (mark the best one first to gauge how to scale the others), or selecting students for additional responsibility.
This makes the student vulnerable to burnout due to our higher expectations and reliance on them.
What Does Student Burnout Look Like?
Students are human beings; they are complex and do not only exist in the classroom. As such, when considering what burnout can look like we must be certain that we start from a point of considering our students as people, not simply students.
Burnout can manifest in a variety of extreme ways in academia. We commonly speak of students becoming disengaged, we may look for ‘signs’ associated with depression, but for this discussion I want to take a more empathetic and less extreme look.
The following attributes (though not exhaustive or flawlessly diagnostic in isolation) are those which can be associated with a student burnout or excessive pushing from a school:
- The student has no ‘down time’ — when you ask about their week it is an unending collection of tutoring, chores, clubs, activities, and effectively work for other people.
- The student struggles to say no or express difficulty — students who default to ‘I’ll figure it out’, ‘it’s not a problem’ or you consistently are convincing them to do things rather than them independently choosing to.
- A ‘high-achieving’ student who seems to struggle with deadlines and personal organisation.
- A student who finds it difficult to celebrate high marks and may negatively obsess over lost marks even when still in the top category — a toxic ‘should have done better’ attitude.
These characteristics are simply indicators which are worthy of conversation with that student and their parents. Irrespective of the academic level of the student, it may indicate that changes in approach, workload, or expectation is needed for that student. Such changes may improve their quality of life, their comfort and success academically, and teach them key lessons concerning autonomy and self-care.
What are Defaults?
Go through the following questions thinking about one of the classes you interact with the most. If you work at a small school, you can just think about the school as a whole. Try to keep track of how frequently you think of the same student:
- When you have someone visiting the class or need a student during an open-evening, who do you think of showing them around?
- If a competition comes up where students can enter representing the class or the school, who do you think of first?
- When designing extension tasks, which student are you designing them for?
- Think of a student with whom you were disappointed even when they achieved near top marks.
- In conversations about what to do next, which student/s do you only think of university and completing formal education?
It is likely that one, or a small collection of students has come to mind. There is nothing wrong with that and it is in part the natural dynamic of any group of people. But, in the context of education and care for young people, we need to ensure that defaulting to them does not limit or overexert the student nor limit the opportunities of others. The narrow view that we apply to ‘high achieving’ students provides tasks and burdens far above the average student. We must also consider that defaulting to the same students, means less opportunities are available for others.
But High Expectations have been shown to Increase Student Success!
Now I can hear the counter-argument already and am familiar with the work of John Hattie (The commonly referenced visible learning study) and Zaretta Hammond (The wonderful world of culturally-responsive teaching) — yes, providing an additional challenge for students can help students to grow; but how often do we reflect on when that can go too far?
Expectations which are responsive to a student’s current engagement and success are wonderful, but it is possible to forget that this responsiveness must consider the student as a complete person.
Do we think of these students’ private lives when designing further challenges or selecting these students to engage in additional tasks? Or do we consider downtime to be wasted time?
Do we think of these students needing choices in the same way we champion sport, alternative skills, and informal socialising for other students?
If not, we may need to reflect on what we actually think about these activities and the reason we encourage certain types and calibres of students to do them. The fact is, if we are teaching the whole person, and not just our idea of the student, we need to have these considerations for all — while also sharing genuine opportunities with those who may benefit from it most, not only those who will do the best.
It is important to ensure that we are not overfocusing on our top-achieving students, creating a culture of ‘finishing your work means you do more and harder work’. Instead, we must champion thinking of the whole human and growth opportunities for those we would not normally pick so that they can develop the skills we so value in our ‘best’ students.
Let us instil concepts of self-care and ‘finishing your responsibilities well means that you can take more time to engage in other parts of your life and things that you simply enjoy’. This approach still leaves space for students to be encouraged and positively pushed while teaching them to make measured choices instead of feeling obliged to do more as an indicator of how ‘good’ they are. Such a toxic relationship with work can socially and mentally injure students and limit their ability to be independent as adults.
I don’t wish to be overdramatic, there are many students who are pushed where it has been instrumental in their growth, success, and overall happiness. We will sometimes see potential in students that they cannot see themselves and contribute to genuine breakthroughs. But, being aware and reflective about how we push, when we push, and why we push, can help to avoid overburdening students and neglecting others.
The Cure: Life Skills Embedded in Our Teaching
School and learning can help students to extend themselves and set up opportunities and security for the future. It can simultaneously ensure that students learn to say no, to enjoy and invest time in things which are not responsibilities or focused on a larger goal.
Try using these prompts next time you are defaulting to a student:
- Have I asked the student how busy they are and given them an appropriate opportunity to turn this down?
- Does this opportunity offer greater benefit for myself or the student?
- Have I reflected this in how I presented the opportunity and attempted to honour the student for it?
- Have I openly and consistently celebrated this student’s success in absolute terms, i.e. you ARE doing amazing and you can be proud, rather than, this WILL lead to you being happy and you can still do more to be sure of that.
- Have I emphasised the importance of considering how much time they have to relax as part of their responsibilities?
- Have I considered the positives of this opportunity on the marginalised students who I don’t immediately think of?
By learning to view our students holistically, as people rather than simply students, we can be kinder to them and their development. In the same way that students may be shocked when they see a teacher shopping at Tesco on the weekend, we must also remember that students have lives too. These lives are important and we can support them in learning to respect and gain happiness from their life, not just their achievements. They are more than their academic success.
Moving Forward
As I would say to an adult — enjoy your life, not everything needs to go on your CV, some of it needs to be written in your heart. Let’s teach our students that growth for our future includes relaxation and the development of habits which support our health, independence, and enjoyment of life.
Academic success is a vehicle to create more choices rather than more tasks. I am incredibly privileged to work at a school that takes this approach as a central tenet.
If you are in a more challenging environment, consider the choices and changes you can make as a teacher to improve the experiences of your students.
Remember, your students have a voice too. If you are not sure if you are expecting too much? ASK! Developing a respectful dialogue will improve your relationships, your impact, and the overall development of your students.
Best of luck to all teachers out there and all students!
About Daryl Sinclair
Daryl Sinclair is an educator, geographer, and DEIJ specialist who believes in a systems approach to educational success. He champions Systemic Equity™, taking a non-ideological approach to DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) that focuses on practical actions and indicators of impact that create learning environments that realise the learning community’s mission. Through his writing and consultancy work with exam boards, schools, and publishers, he champions the idea that the success of leadership and DEIJ initiatives is in what we DO, not simply what we believe. Daryl’s work focuses on your journey towards consistently equitable outcomes for all members of your learning community.
Take your next step with DEIJ at www.Dsinclairwriting.com/consultancy
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylsinclairgeography/
