Helping your students cope with tragedy

Helping your students cope with a tragedy like Virginia Tech

From 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.

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.”

The following excerpt is taken directly from the TIA article (Huston & DiPietro, 2007, pp.218-220)."Implications for Faculty. The results indicate that from the students¹ 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 students¹ decreased capacity.

It is perhaps a surprising relief to learn that an instructor's 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 students¹ 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.