Thanks for sharing Richard. There are several concepts your story has to share. Obviously the focus for the discussion is how to work with self-doubt in your students. Another important concept here is setting the stage early and I like your comment about how reality took place as a result of the student not being successful on each exam. I think this is a teachable moment to help students realize that the term success is very relative. I would challenge that not getting a high score on an exam is a sign of not being successful. Since the student went on to graduate top in her class, could it be that the rigor of the exams motivated her to work harder and thus move towards a successful end to her academic career? I would say this is a very successful result of the assessment process within the curriculum. This could be a great discussion to have early on for future students in the course and to have the self-doubt discussion. You could discuss how the exams are not intended to be passed at 100% but rather measure what each student will need to have as their focus moving forward to do well in the course and in the program. It is OK to have some level of self-doubt but turn this into motivation to work harder and discover the answers to mistakes on exams and turn a poor exam score into a successful event because the student now knows what they need to study to be successful in the final course.
Great topic and it is all about how we as faculty can take those teachable moments and turn them into successful events in a student's academic career.
