How to help students develop responsibility

Your students will always come up with excuses for their inefficiencies. Scholars will always have reasons to submit their assignments late or not do them at all.

They never want to feel responsible for anything associated with learning. Forcing them to take responsibility has never been the best solution. This only gives your students more reason to feel stressed about learning.

Some even claim that there are more irresponsible traits in children nowadays than they had years ago. The hack is not in creating more learning activities but in engaging them in these activities.

We've listed better alternatives to help you achieve student responsibility across all levels. These tutoring tips would help you bridge the wall of irresponsible behaviours in your classrooms.

Let's give you some tips to help you teach responsibility to your students.

Encourage goal setting

Students only take responsibility for their actions when there's something to look forward to. A 4th-grade child knows to finish her assignments because she gets cookies afterward.

Achieving goals keeps kids motivated to do and become more. Students who set goals and achieve them in the long run build self-confidence.

Responsibility development doesn't have to be so difficult. You can start by helping them highlight or list the objectives for each topic or subject. This way, they can complete a subject's curriculum in milestones other than losing interest halfway.

Goals keep students accountable. Every text, assignment, project, and exam has a track record. Encourage them to track their progress with different tech used in education that is specially created for this.

Ask more open ended questions

Every child in your classroom has a different level of assimilation.

Most of them would not call your attention even when they do not understand your explanations. One of the effective ways to teach students responsibility development is through open-ended questions. These questions encourage critical thinking hence helping students take charge.

Open-ended questions require perspective-driven answers. This means every student gets to share their opinion, leading to further questions.

At the end of the session, you'd have answered everyone's question while covering so much in a short time. Critical thinking helps learners connect with the topics by using real-life examples.

Provide opportunities to take responsibility

Teaching responsibility to scholars is impossible without creating an avenue for them to be responsible.

Imagine a parent teaching responsibility without committing their child to some chores or activities at home. When a child's presence or action is valued, they become interested in taking charge. Developing responsibility is easier when things are done within a deadline.

Learners working on a group assignment know what is expected of them to get the job done. Most essays on responsibility development highlight the importance of opportunity creation. You can only expect more from your students when you create room for them to do more.

This means more projects, more research work, more essays, and more responsibilities on the subject.

Share your learning experience

Most topics in the classroom seem far-fetched to the average student. Learners need to understand why it's so essential to understand a topic.

Your experience as a teacher might just encourage them to take responsibility to learn. Sharing your thought process when solving algebraic equations might be the motivation a child needs to practice more.

Always talk about your learning experience. Create some connection between yourself and the subject. Be an inquirer. Participating in the learning experience motivates your students to take responsibility to learn.

Always stay open-minded while teaching. Tutors should be open to curiosity among students during teaching sessions.

Always ask for feedback

Feedback should not be directed as questions. They should be about the students' experience in the classroom. They learn from one another while they share their feedback after the process of studying.

Each person highlights what part of the topic resonates with them more. By sharing, other students can pick some things they missed in class.

The life hack *Connect, Extend, Challenge" has helped create connections between students. Your pupils share their feedback, making others learn from them and then challenge themselves to do more.

As teachers, you can also take advantage of feedback and build better learning experiences from them.

Organise student led seminars

Still providing opportunities, organising student-led talks, workshops, and conferences help students take charge. Speaking or volunteering at a seminar or workshop requires lots of work.

When the committee knows everyone has expectations from these events, they prepare adequately for these seminars. It is important to share the tasks accordingly.

A middle school survey in Texas shows how kids enjoyed seminars organised by their fellow students.

It recorded that a team of students picked different subjects as they taught their colleagues for the day. Life skills can be developed in kids through peer-to-peer learning methods. Learners can easily get something from one another because they are fond of each other.

Nudging responsibility through assessment

Students can achieve more learning goals when tutors assess their abilities. When you evaluate a student's ability to learn, you create practical steps to improve learning.

Start by asking everyone to write down their objectives for the school year. Collate these letters through every student's email or the institution's digital platform.

Forward them to their parents privately, and request that they leave you feedback. Their response should include how they intend to support their kids. With these assessments and feedback, you've shared the responsibility between the kids and their parents.

After your assessment, your students are reminded of the parts they need to play.

Summary

Building responsibility amongst your learners can be achieved using the tips mentioned above. Teaching methods in formal education keep evolving every year.

We now have to make students understand the importance of learning. Teaching becomes easy when everybody understands their roles within and outside classrooms.

Always create multiple opportunities for every student's success. Some tutors shun or cancel the reply to students after their sessions. Learning becomes more difficult this way. The learner feels they are expected to sit and listen to the things you have to say.

At the end of the day, they don't feel responsible for doing more than just sitting and listening. Make your students take charge through self-directed assessments and opportunity creation.