How Trauma is Hijacking the Learning Experience of College Students: Signs for Identifying it and How to Manage it

My knee-jerk reaction

The following was a comment left by a student in response to an online discussion assignment (this contains graphic language and references to inappropriate relations):

The comment above is rattling, am I right?! Even for me, someone who coordinated the Guardian Scholars program for 8 years and has given countless workshops on Trauma-Informed Care—someone who heard sobering stories of abandonment, depression, and the desire to unalive ones self on a weekly basis.

But this wasn’t in the comfort or privacy of my cubicle and prior to this incident, I had only ever seen a video of this student. ?In fact, these comments were in response to another student's thoughts on the TED Talk assignment (read on to find out which one), and because it was an open discussion board, anyone one of the 75 students in my class could have read it. My knee jerk reaction was “How do I even handle this?” and shortly after “Well they violated the student code of conduct so I have no choice but to give them an F ”.

It wasn’t until I met with the student via zoom and discovered that only minutes into watching the video she was flung back into a state of trauma and terror, with memories of adults that she trusted doing unspeakable things to her. She also shared with me that she had a young daughter and when she thought about how she was prematurely and non-consensually introduced to such acts, she leapt into a “lizard brain state-of-mind” and her survival instincts kicked in as she wrote each tongue-lashing word.

For Those Craving Context

This particular assignment was in my Developmental Psychology class where students choose a TED talk from a list of 5, to discuss with their other classmates. One of them was “Why I Gave my Teenage Daughter a Vibrator”, By Robin Buckley. Though the title is a bit audacious, the TED Talk emphasizes the importance for parents to have conversations with their teens about healthy sexual development (the irony being that had someone sat her down for such a talk, it may have prevented the horrors she experienced in the first place).

Identifying the Signs

I have worked with over 500 former youth, many of them who have been the subject of similar stories and here is what I have learned over the years about trauma response.

Sign 1: They have a hard time trusting authority figures

Many of the students I have worked with have either been rejected or manipulated by the very people they believed they could trust. When they reach the college classroom, you are a reminder of authority figures who hold the power to:

• block their financial aid and ability to continue going to school
• assign them a grade they need to get closer to their academic goals and escape cyclical patterns of chaos
• make or break their confidence

If a student is doing poorly in your class and lashes out at you, it may be out of desperation, and usually a tall tale sign that they have trauma from past experiences.

Sign 2: They overshare

My classroom thrives on class discussion—because you can’t talk about the study of human behavior without acknowledging that behavior is conditional, and it requires a dynamic dance-off between genes and environment. To speak about human developmental from a purely objective stance would be counterproductive to the learning process.

However, some students use this as an opportunity for free group therapy. If a student is regularly dumping on you and other classmates, then it’s likely that trauma has reared it’s ugly head into your classroom. Not only does this redirect the focus of the lecture material to the trauma itself, but it may be triggering for other students who have gone through similar experiences.

Sign 3: They check out

There is always a group of students who are quiet and shy and prefer passive listening to offering up anecdotal stories of their developmental milestones. These are not the students I am referring to when I say, “checked out”. The students I speak of are the ones who are hiding in plain sight:

• they refuse to contribute during peer-to-peer, small group and large group discussions (no matter what the topic is)
• they slump in their seats, cover their faces with hoodies and do their best to blend into the wall
• they hide behind the podium during group presentations, often don’t meet the minimum speaking times, or have near panic attacks in front of the entire class

?Social anxiety is a typical sign of trauma-response.

So what can you do?

Here are some best practices I have employed:

1. Don’t take offense. Students who post derogatory comments, attack your style of teaching or check out during class are usually in a heightened emotional state and are projecting their fears in a way that’s protective of their ego. (Translation: 99% of the time, it has NOTHING to do with you)
2. Don’t be reactive. When you see a comment or receive an angry email, let it marinate. Consider the underlying causes and offer to have a conversation with them—you would be surprised how much understanding is built by lending an ear.
3. Use it as a teachable moment. Explain to them that these comments are disruptive and unfair to other students who are trying to learn. Ask them to help you come up with 3 strategies on how they can better address emotions that arise as a result of past trauma or connect them to a counselor who can help them build a mental toolkit.
4. Give them a do-over. I know this suggestion won’t be a fan favorite because the public education system has relied heavily on the idea that we get one shot and if we don’t do it right the first time, we’re labeled a failure. Well, if the classroom was a microcosm for real life, we would all be failures.

?Why not teach students the value of a “do-over”? Let them make up the points in whatever way you deem appropriate—like investigating the benefits of developing emotional intelligence, assigning them a few points for seeing the school psychologist or maybe re-doing the actual botched assignment.

"The public education system has relied heavily on the idea that we get one shot and if we don’t do it right the first time, we’re labeled a failure. Well, if the classroom was a microcosm for real life, we would all be failures."

We have a long way to go!

This really only scratches the surface of how much work we have ahead as educators in understanding what our part is in dealing with student trauma-response. Our classrooms are filled with students who suffer from mental health challenges. Part of our role is finding effective strategies to recognize and address these challenges, hence allowing students to thrive in a post-pandemic world.

How do you personally handle students who have or are currently experiencing trauma? Let me know in the comment section below.

Ashley Berry is the CEO and Founder of The Higher Ed. Institute, an educational consulting firm that specializes in collaborating with faculty on best practices in the classroom.

If you are interested in learning more about best practices for trauma-response, please feel free to contact me at ProfessorABerry@gmail.com.