http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i09/09b01201.htm The article speaks to dealing with a diversified student population.
One recommendation is to post a positive quality of every student one instructs in one's office. But then, I'd have to remove my dart boards filled with their very photos.
Another suggests that teachers permit students to offer continual feedback on our teaching--what, one formal evaluation isn't enough? This approach works very well, I suppose, right after a homework assignment, quiz, test, or report has been returned, and everyone's grade is to everyone's satisfaction. Otherwise....?
My favorite, though, is #2: Be sure to share your realistic expectations of the students with the students. I do that all the time, in writing and verbally, and often more than once during a semester. However, when grades are compromised because of students' failure to adhere to the expectations set early on, they go en masse to complain to a dean about me, and invariably I am asked to capitulate and be "more understanding" of, well, their diverse needs.
Interesting that it is a 12-step set of wares--ties in well with AA.
