1. Builds Community. Building community is especially important in the current season of "social distancing", now more than ever instructors are being tasked with the challenge of creating high levels of engagement in both their online and face-to-face courses. It is so easy to feel disconnected when you have very little contact with your instructor. Building community creates a sense of belonging. Through community students are more likely to help each other and lean on each other for basic troubleshooting and assignment clarity. When there is a strong sense of community, students become more self-reliant, which helps to build their confidence. Through a solid foundation of community, instructors and students can create long-lasting academic relationships that are both supportive and authentic.
2. Allows for personalized instruction. With recent technological advancements in the area of teaching and learning, there has been a rise in personalized instruction. It is no longer a hassle to teach and assess students who are performing at different levels in the classroom. Many students now understand that even if they feel left out or behind in the classroom setting, there are tools and tutorials they can use on their own time in order to further explore the concepts and ideas they found hard to grasp at the same pace as their peers. Personalized instruction is also a benefit for the instructor in the classroom, meaning they can move forward with the majority and provide short tutorials on both internal and external websites to further support those students who might need it. Through getting to know the student, we can address their individual learning requirements which are expressed through conversations and thoughtful feedback on assignments.
3. Fosters Empathy. It goes without saying that empathetic instructors are quite favorable to students. When they feel as though the instructor is putting effort towards understanding what's happening in their lives such as, a recent financial problem or their arduous work schedules, students often become more dedicated to both the instructor and the coursework. Getting to know why a students is always five minutes late or why they miss class every third Wednesday of the month taps into both the instructor's and the student's humanity. There may be services the instructor might be able to direct the student to, in an effort to make the student's life a bit easier. Through this process bond between student and instructor is allowed to flourish. The student understands that they are not just a number and that the instructor truly cares about them as a whole person and that they are not just another face in a crowded lecture hall.
4. Promotes Inclusion. Most recently, there's been lots of talk related to diversity and inclusion. Some of this talk stems from the idea that students who might be considered outliers as it relates to areas such as their academic background, their race or ethnicity, a special need or their socioeconomic status; do not feel fully included in classroom instruction and conversations. Some students feel as though assumptions are made about them, which reveal unconscious biases instructors might be harboring. The best way to combat this is by getting to know them. The more we get to know about the lives and experiences of each student the more we are exposed to broader ideas as it relates to who is sitting in our classrooms.
5. Creates Mentorship Opportunities. I don't know about you but I can honestly say that my entire academic career has been advanced through relationships with mentors. I have had subject matter mentors, personal mentors, teaching mentors and career mentors. Many of those relationships started in the classroom with a professor who decided to take time out to get to know what my aspirations were and to eventually share with me how I might achieve my goals. These mentors might have given up two hours per month of their, but their impact was vast and priceless. As a mentor myself, I find that the these relationships are mutually beneficial. I gain an abundance knowledge, if not more than when I myself was a mentee.
This short list of reasons why it can be beneficial to get to know your students is just the tip of the iceberg, but keep in mind that there are many, many more positive outcomes. It is so important to engage the whole student since we see more and more how the outside lives of our students effect their behavior in the classroom. It effects how connected they feel to the university, their peers, the instructor and their academic journey as a whole. We should take every opportunity we can to promote academic success and getting to know your students is an excellent starting point!
