Part of your role as a tutor involves helping students to understand their assessment feedback and use this to improve their academic performance. You are also likely to meet with your students shortly after they have received assessment results. For both reasons, you will undoubtedly encounter students who have failed in some respects, either failing an assessment, a module, a stage of their course or their entire programme of study.
Some students can learn from the experience of failing and use the failure to motivate themselves to make positive changes and succeed next time. In general, failure is not perceived as a positive experience by most students and student reactions to failure can vary greatly. As a tutor, you may be faced by, and will have to deal with, these reactions. Typical reactions include:
Denial – the student’s perception of their performance differs from that of their assessors. They may try to make excuses for their behaviours. Your response should be to focus discussion on the learning outcomes that were not met.
Anger – the student may become angry and abusive, although this is very rarely directed at the tutor and should not be taken personally. If a student does become angry in a meeting with you, it may be wise to reconvene the meeting in the presence of a third party, such as your Subject Director or Student Experience Lead.
Bargaining – the student may attempt to bargain to have their failing marks overturned, possibly by making excuses for their performance. Your response in this circumstance should be to stand firm and refer the student to the University regulations and procedures for appeals and mitigating circumstances as appropriate.
Sadness – the student may be saddened and upset by the failure, and in some cases, may be upset enough to cry. If this happens, the best way you can support the student is by providing them with a private space, allowing them time to cry, being friendly and listening to them. It can be a good idea to arrange a follow up meeting soon after to check that they are ok, and to reassure them that someone cares.
Some students who have not actually failed may feel like they have failed and display reactions like those identified above. In dealing with students, try to maintain an awareness of their cultural background. International students have different educational backgrounds with different conventions relating to passing and failing. For instance, a mark of 45% would be considered a pass mark in the UK, but if the student comes from a cultural background where the pass mark is 60%, they may consider themselves a failure and act as if they have not passed because they are referencing their mark to their prior educational experiences. In some cultures, failing to achieve good marks is a very serious outcome and is seen to bring dishonour on the family, particularly a family that has made great sacrifices to send the student to an international university. It is certainly not unheard of for East Asian students who achieved lower marks than they expected to feel like failures, to fear returning home and, sadly in some cases, to take their own lives to avoid bringing dishonour to their family. None of this means that you should avoid discussing failure with your students, but in doing so, you should be aware that your perception of what that failure means may be very different from the student’s perception and their reactions may be different to your expectations.
If you believe there are certain circumstances which may not have been declared by the student which have impacted their academic performance, you may wish to refer this student to your Subject Director.