When Students Fail: Lessons From Geno Auriemma

Suppose you are teaching introductory philosophy, and early in the semester you present the concept of a valid argument, noting that it can have true premises and a true conclusion, false premises and a false conclusion, false premises and a true conclusion, but not true premises and a false conclusion. Several weeks later, you give a test that includes the following question: “If what you say is false, then anything implied by what you say is also false. Explain whether this claim is correct.” When grading the examinations, you are dismayed to discover that almost all the students gave the wrong answer. Would their error incline you to consider them obtuse?

Let me suggest a more appropriate response. It is embodied in a remark by Geno Auriemma, the most successful coach in the history of women’s basketball, who over nearly four decades has transformed the University of Connecticut’s team from less than mediocre into the most dominant school in the history of the sport, winning an unprecedented eleven national championships.

Reflecting recently on his approach to coaching, Auriemma remarked: “After all these years, believe it or not, I take every pass, every dribble, every cut, every single thing personally to heart, like I didn’t do a good enough job coaching, that I should have done a better job of teaching that box out, I should have done a better job of how to make that pass.” When a class misunderstands an essential principle, teachers should think like Auriemma: “I didn’t do a good enough job. How could I have better explained that matter?”

Such would be the reaction of an elementary school teacher who found that a class of second graders were having trouble understanding multiplication. In that case the instructor would not even try to blame the students for insufficient mathematical talent, but would admit that the teaching was inadequate. The same conclusion should be reached when a philosophy professor reports that most beginning students were unable to grasp why an argument with false premises and a true conclusion might nevertheless be valid.

What could be the source of the problem? Perhaps the teacher did not find a way to arouse or maintain the students’ interest, did not present the material in a sequence that promoted understanding, or did not make the ideas clear, perhaps due to speaking too quickly, using unfamiliar terms, or omitting steps in reasoning. Or maybe the presentation did not offer memorable examples, did not encourage questions from the class, or did not address the needs of other than the best students.

Granted, even the finest teachers do not always succeed; sometimes a presentation falls flat. But in that circumstance, the conscientious instructor does not blame the students, but takes responsibility and tries to make needed pedagogical adjustments that will work better in future sessions.

Here again we have something to learn from Auriemma. In other than their unprecedented six undefeated seasons, his teams have sustained at least one loss, but for thirty years they didn’t lost two consecutive games. Instead, a loss led the coach to consider what he did wrong and make needed changes to improve his team’s play. Likewise, when students perform poorly on tests, teachers should be led to consider what they did wrong and make appropriate adjustments to enhance the students’ level of learning.

Admittedly, individual students sometimes bear primary responsibility for not succeeding. When, however, many in the class do poorly, the most likely explanation is the ineffectiveness of the instruction; hence a teacher seeking to understand what caused the problem should begin with a candid self-examination.

Here’s one other lesson that Auriemma offers us. While some commentators explain his unmatched winning percentage by arguing that he merely recruits the best players, a rival coach offered this insightful assessment: He doesn’t always recruit the best players, but he consistently turns the players he recruits into the best they can be.

Analogously, the finest teacher doesn’t always work with the best students, but tries to guide all into becoming the best they can be. Thus when a class fails to make progress, their teacher is also failing. Likewise, when students succeed, so does their teacher.