When we conduct descriptive reviews of children in our reflection seminar, these undergraduates often express surprise at how much they thought they knew about their own students, but were perhaps wrong, or they noticed how they jumped to characterizations before they sat down and really took the time to describe what they saw of a particular student in various situations. A common framing question for our child studies are variations of “How can I make a better connection with this student?” After presenters have detailed what they know about the interests of students…a sometimes empowering discovery. (Matthew Knoester)

I was really struck by the author’s objective attitude and humility to the introduction of descriptive review. In this passage, the question “how can I make a better connection with students” resonates me strongly.

Being seen as a “math idiot” by my math teacher in primary school makes me afraid of math all my school life. I began to hate math and have inferior feeling when doing math. Later, when I became a teacher, I swore I would never let students have bad feelings. I deeply understood that the behaviors the student did always had its causes. I remember there was a student in my class whom all teachers thought was a “trouble” in class. He didn’t do homework; he always forgot taking books to school; and he didn’t interact in class. But no one knew that this “trouble” student was a great inventor. At the end of semester, I went to his home to visit his parents. When he took me to his room, I was shocked by his whole cabinet of creations, especially a delicate model plane and a vivid model tractor. Since our teaching objectives are human beings and human beings are regarded as the most complicated animals in the world, how could we use one assessment to evaluate all students? We only see a tip of the iceberg of a student. Not say students with different backgrounds and personalities. I really love what Carini wrote, “I learn that when I see a lot, I am still seeing only a little and partially.” We could never say we know students. The only thing we can do is to take the humility and respect to give time to know them.