Moving on from our conversation about tools students can use in learning, we come to a state of mind or state of being: frustration. In this episode, we explore a highly ambiguous part of the learning process. For some, frustration is a spur, a sign that learning is picking up steam and that they just have to keep working because they're getting closer than ever to their goals. But for many students at our open enrollment college, frustration can feel like a sign that they are not any good at what they're trying to do and that they never will be good at it. Frustration can set off a chain reaction that leads to withdrawal. Our two guests will explore how frustration looks in their classes and how they help students respond to it.

First, Jeremy Gilliam, professor of Machine Tool Technology in our School of Advanced Manufacturing and Skilled Trades, talks about frustration students encounter as they learn their new trade. He builds frustration management into his courses as a skill for a lifetime of work. 

Then, Ashley Bennett joins us. Ashley teaches dance in our community and has returned to school in our CCE Clinical Massage Therapy program. She'll talk with us from the perspective as a teacher AND a learner and how once again mindset is a crucial part of learning. In this case, mindset can help a learner manage inevitable frustration and persist despite the challenges.

Listen in and see how you experience frustration - your own and your students - aligns with their ideas about how to encounter and engage with it.