What Does Trust Look Like?

Is student motivation as simple as trust? Recently, a history teacher reflected on the success of a very self-directed, project-based learning exhibition saying, “I just trusted them…” and several days later on a podcast about how to get started with #geniushour, I heard this again as a first step in seeing students productively use independent time to be creative.  In addition, the podcaster suggested that modeling trust for teachers might be a way for teachers to begin to feel how trust might impact motivation.  Trust is a rather abstract idea so I started thinking about what it looks like?

Trust in the classroom

I thought back on what I saw from the history teacher during the learning process in her classroom. What did it look like when she trusted students? When students came to her with a problem, she never solved the problems for the students but rather she asked questions to help students solve their own problems.  Even when she saw that something might not work, she allowed students to experience the failure and supported them when they came back frustrated.  She trusted that they could figure it out.  She didn’t freak out when students seemed as if they wouldn’t finish or when they had emotional breakdowns.  Instead, she asked them what they had learned? When several students weren’t prepared for the exhibition, she encouraged them to share their experience with visitors anyway.

This teacher did not treat this exhibition as a high stakes activity and there was no grade for the exhibition itself.  She expected everyone to show up and most did.  All but one student arrived for the exhibition or took responsibility for making other arrangements.  There were about seven students with legitimate reasons why they couldn’t make the exhibition.  That means that, despite the fact that there was no grade attached to the exhibition ,which occurred after school hours and with only three weeks notice,  only 1% of students decided not to participate at all; about 9% had to do the exhibition at an alternative time; 90% of students came through.

Believe in them

In general, allowing students to go through their process and not intervening gives them a clear message that you believe they can do it.  At times we may be skeptical and this is when we need to consciously decide to trust students.  Even if they fail or don’t follow through, they still get the message that you believe in them.  This is what trust looks like.  Last April, I wrote about how it felt to be given $100,000 with very few expectations or requirements about how I would spend the money and no need to justify my spending.  I’m sure that the Rowland foundation is a little nervous every year that the money may not be used wisely; it’s a lot of money.  But they trust us anyway.  I can’t describe how motivating this is. I have been more productive this year than I ever have in my life.  Consider how you know when someone trusts you and what is the impact of that trust on your motivation and work ethic? How could this look in your classroom? How could this look for leadership?