The Student Room Group

Students are too scared to speak up

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rabble-rouser/201811/why-students-are-terrified-speak-their-minds

I asked who else was not speaking for that reason. For the first time in my years of experience as a teaching assistant in the classroom, something happened that most teachers dream about: Everyone raised their hands.
Original post by yudothis

This is fascinating, I never answer barely any questions in class because I am always nervous about what other people are going to think of me. A new kind of negative peer pressure. Not necessarily nervous of getting things wrong, I'm a bright student and am very nervous about name calling, such as 'nerd' you know that lot.

I think that this article really highlights how students are much more sensitive to cultural differences than many people think.
Yep, having an opinion that is now "hate speech" means that the much-needed conversation around many of these new ideas is totally defeated, not by reason but by stupidity
Reply 3
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yudothis
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And ironic isn't it. The liberal left are all about safe spaces, are all about being such morally good people, about being inclusive, and every single person in that class was afraid to speak their mind, i.e. was excluded.

Talk about 1984. This kind of fear to speak I would expect in China. Just shows you where campuses are heading towards.
As someone who's taught first year undergrad seminars, they're pretty much like this regardless of topics. With the exception of two or three confident (some justifiably, some less so) kids who end up driving the discussions, most of them are usually nervous and scared of saying something dumb in their early seminars, and so stay pretty quiet.

But seemingly that doesn't fit the political agenda the author's trying to push, which explains why he lumps together as the same a few distinct reasons why they might be staying quiet (e.g. "fear of offending" and fear of "social sanctions" are actually quite different reasons).
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yudothis
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Whether or not some students may also be scared because of a lack of confidence is much beside the point. Unless you are accusing this person of lying, or saying the kids that raised their hand confused lack of confidence with fear of offending, your argument is nothing but straw man.

And "fear of offending" and fear of "social sanctions" are pretty similar in my book. Because these days what causes "offence" is determined by the societal make up of the campus and sanctions follow immediately.
It is sad that people feel scared to share and be challenged. Rational debates should be cherished and encouraged esp on university campuses that should be intellectual utopia.

I hope one day, we will be able to allow free discussion in topics, whether controversial or not, whilst understanding the boundaries that go from sincere debates to abuse.
After seeing videos of what happened with Bret Weinstein i totally understand that some students are afraid to say what they think. That was an extreme, but i would believe that there are more universities and colleges where people fear to voice there opinion about 'sensitive' issues.

Even more worrisome is the 'social justice' in social sciences as was brought forward by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay last week in Joe Rogan's podcast.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by yudothis
Whether or not some students may also be scared because of a lack of confidence is much beside the point. Unless you are accusing this person of lying


Not so much lying as subconscious confirmation bias, most likely. Though I don't rule out the possibility.

And "fear of offending" and fear of "social sanctions" are pretty similar in my book.


The difference is that the former implies you're actually worried about upsetting your friends and classmates. The latter implies you don't really care much about them, and are instead primarily concerned with potential adverse consequences for yourself.
Original post by Wired_1800
It is sad that people feel scared to share and be challenged. Rational debates should be cherished and encouraged esp on university campuses that should be intellectual utopia.

I hope one day, we will be able to allow free discussion in topics, whether controversial or not, whilst understanding the boundaries that go from sincere debates to abuse.


The very reason this manufactroversy exists is precisely due to a dissonance over i) what those boundaries are, and ii) what debates actually are "rational".
Original post by anarchism101
As someone who's taught first year undergrad seminars, they're pretty much like this regardless of topics. With the exception of two or three confident (some justifiably, some less so) kids who end up driving the discussions, most of them are usually nervous and scared of saying something dumb in their early seminars, and so stay pretty quiet.

This is something I notice as well, but in situations like the article author described if the tutor is literally asking "hey lads why are you not speaking, have I done a **** up?" that usually tends to elicit actual responses from the scaredy bois. If you're discussing something with potential offensiveness to it, that would very likely compound any first-year anxiety they already had. As the OP has pointed out, I doubt his classed would've gotten so confused about the nature of their own anxiety.

All that said, as a student meself, in my seminars I've never had to deal with something I felt was so volatile that I couldn't speak at all. There have been some areas where I've felt the need to be very careful how I worded something, but never ouright felt like speaking at all was a terrible idea. I get the feeling these sorts of issues tend to be much more pronounced in America and such areas than the UK.
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yudothis
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Original post by anarchism101
Not so much lying as subconscious confirmation bias, most likely. Though I don't rule out the possibility.


Rather large assumption on your part.



The difference is that the former implies you're actually worried about upsetting your friends and classmates. The latter implies you don't really care much about them, and are instead primarily concerned with potential adverse consequences for yourself.


Well clearly they don't care, otherwise the suggestion wouldn't have been "assign us opinions to hold like in a debate". If they would actually care about offending then they wouldn't even want to do that.

And I maintain that nowadays the two go hand in hand -> you say something in liberal circles and someone cries "that's offensive", you can be damn sure that you will be hounded until you submit and apologize with your tail between your legs.
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yudothis
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Original post by Retired_Messiah
I get the feeling these sorts of issues tend to be much more pronounced in America and such areas than the UK.


UK people are generally more 'polite'. UK students tend to be overwhelmingly left leaning anyway.
Oh dear! The products of such an atmosphere are not exactly going to fit in well in a work environment, nor be much use to an employer. This is why I describe this environment as regressive 'liberalism'. The supposed aim of making sure nobody can be hurt means that everyone is hurt. The fear of being offensive means you cannot discuss any problem at all.

What is the world coming to?

The solution is in your own hands - stop worrying about giving offence and let others worry about taking offence.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by yudothis
UK people are generally more 'polite'. UK students tend to be overwhelmingly left leaning anyway.


Yeah I think the main reason Britain has a little less trouble is cause you can generally rely on a british student to be good at wording something to sound reasonable, and rely on any student hearing it to not start ree-ing or something.
Original post by anarchism101
As someone who's taught first year undergrad seminars, they're pretty much like this regardless of topics. With the exception of two or three confident (some justifiably, some less so) kids who end up driving the discussions, most of them are usually nervous and scared of saying something dumb in their early seminars, and so stay pretty quiet.

But seemingly that doesn't fit the political agenda the author's trying to push, which explains why he lumps together as the same a few distinct reasons why they might be staying quiet (e.g. "fear of offending" and fear of "social sanctions" are actually quite different reasons).


I think a part of this (and I am not accusing you of this, you could be a great teacher for all I know, but its a general observation) is that a lot of lecturers and teachers who work with university students, are not actually very good teachers. They are good academics, and researchers - but poor teachers. I have seen both as a student, and as someone who now works in education, awful seminars carried out by PHD students, who have 0 experiance or knowledge about teaching methods or how to deal with students...

They were a student themselves only a year before, and without any training (or a very very small amount) they are thrown infront of a group of first yeras, and told to get on with it. Its not really their fault - and even when they do have more experiances, plenty of seasoned academics can't teach.. plenty hate doing so as it gets in the way of the research and work that they actually want to do.

For a good teacher though, there is no excuse for not getting the vast majority of a class of students, regardless of what year, to contribute freely and openly. That's job 1. Before you even get to the content.. you need to get the students to relax and feel comfortable enough to engage propperly.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by anarchism101
The very reason this manufactroversy exists is precisely due to a dissonance over i) what those boundaries are, and ii) what debates actually are "rational".


True. I think identity politics and aggressive polarisation help to widen the divide. There seems to be an absence of common sense, but presence of extremities.

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