Dealing With the Prof–What’s on the Agenda?

Last week I asked, “Why meet with the prof?” In summary, you connect with the prof to understand the course, to understand the assignments, and to get a better grade. Thinking further on, a prof can give you a leg up in your field toward an internship, research, or a job reference. 

So what issues to discuss with your instructors? These issues fall into at least seven main categories:

Making sure you understand what is required in an assignment.

Here your approach is to go in with your ideas on the assignment to see if you are on the right track. You may feel clueless about the topics, or you may have strong ideas and topic preferences. 

Go in with the ideas and approaches you are considering.

When to do this: As soon as you have done some preliminary reading and sketched out possible plans for the assignment. 

You are afraid you are in over your head and are having difficulty with the work.

If you are having difficulty understanding the work or doing the exercises, approach the prof for suggestions. They will likely know useful resources. These may be peer tutoring, specialized tutoring, online resources, or recommended practice venues such as moot court and debate clubs.

Go in with specific examples of where you feel you are underperforming, such as STEM courses or writing up papers. Or you might talk about problems you anticipate, such as nervousness over making presentations. 

When to do this: As soon as you have done enough of the work to have a grasp on how serious the problem is, or further into the semester you suddenly encounter a snag. It helps if you have enlisted campus learning resources and are going in for a heads-up on further recommendations.

You are really keen on an aspect of the course and want to explore the area further.

Do this if you are really keen to go further, deeper in an area, or wish to chase down a side trail that is not directly related to the course.

Go in with a brief outline of what you are interested in and where you would like to take that interest. Be open to suggestions for alternative approaches.

When to do this: As soon as you have fleshed out your idea and done some preliminary reading on it.

Your group is struggling or not performing to your standards.

I’ve blogged on this and will blog again. The key here is to have started the group early, clarified everyone’s understanding of the scope and standards of the group work, attempted group management, and documented everything. 

Go in either on your own or with other group members, depending on the dynamics of the problem. Lay out the issues in a non-blameful manner, note recommendations, and follow-up with emails to the group.

When to do this: As soon as it is apparent that there is a blockage of group cooperation. Your group may also seek the prof’s help on such strategic issues as an inaccessibility of necessary resources.

You are unhappy with a grade.

If the grade is on an objectively graded paper or test, take the same approach discussed above for dealing with material that you are struggling with. 

If the grade is on a subjectively graded assignment or test, go in for clarification on where the prof’s expectation was different from your understanding. The goal is to see what you can do next time to align your approach to better meet expectations. Sometimes it is a case of the prof just not getting your point, and discussion will help–but I caution you against going in to argue. Sometimes you are allowed a redo, but don’t count on it. The point is clarification for doing better next time.

When to do this: As soon as you have regulated your emotions and objectively analyzed as best you can why you got the grade you did.

You feel your prof’s performance is unsatisfactory.

Your prof may be disorganized, bigotted, play favourites, or be downright inappropriately harassing. It happens. 

There is no general approach for these situations. Suppose you have already established a working relationship with the prof. In that case you may be able to clear up a misunderstanding over clumsy phrasing, but . . . as I said, there is no general approach, and your good intentions may be seen as insulting.

If the prof is disorganized, you may end up collaborating with other students to make up for the lack of structure. 

If the prof is bigotted, inappropriate or harrassing, going to see them on these issues often is not the best course of action, especially going in alone or going in angry. Go to student services, either on your own or in a group. Know the rules of your school in these areas. Go to see what can be done about the prof, and–this is important–to practice good self-care in what can be an abusive situation. If you go in a group, it can help if at least one of you has a reasonable academic track record.

When to do this: Again, there is not one general approach, except sooner is better than later. In cases of bigotry or harassment, go as soon as it is clear that this is the case. 

May your career have few professors and supervisors in this category!

You want a recommendation from your prof.

Suppose again that you have established a good student-professor relationship. Your prof may not only be able to make recommendations for co-op, internships, and summer work programs, but may be willing to provide references for you. This relationship can continue in your post grad- career, whether that be academic, professional, or any employment where reliability and other good work-related qualities are valued.

The good, the bad . . .

That pretty much covers the most common cases where your life will go better if you connect with the prof. The rule is: do it soon! The good gets better, and the bad can get better too. The exception is the ugly–and the goal here is for your grades and wellbeing to suffer as little damage as possible.

I’ll be discussing these topics, among others, in the coming terms. I’d like to hear the areas you feel are important to address. Contact me on this form or by email [email protected]