Designing for Student Success: Using Psychologically Attuned Language

Designing for student success means engaging in intentional course design, leveraging pedagogical tools and strategies to support the success of all students, especially those who may face additional barriers or challenges to success. One way to design for success is to communicate using psychologically attuned language.

What is communicating using psychologically attuned language?

Communicating using psychologically attuned language is humane, thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and growth mindset oriented. It uses language that is easily understandable to students, does not feel punitive, invites conversation, normalizes challenges, highlights support available, and purposefully introduces possibility.

Why is communicating using psychologically attuned language important?

When we reach out to students, it is generally because we want them to succeed. However, sometimes our well-intended outreach can be perceived as unsupportive or shaming, which could further alienate already struggling students. On the other hand, using psychologically attuned language may lead to more meaningful communication that values the student as a person, and potentially promotes continued learning.

How to communicate using psychologically attuned language?

While there are many ways to communicate using psychologically attuned language, one of the key characteristics of this communication approach is to help students, especially struggling students, feel:

1) like they belong 2) that there is a path to success moving forward 3) that the instructor genuinely cares about them as a person 4) that their success matters 5) that the instructor and the institution aims to support their success, and 6) informs the student about existing support systems.

Some design questions to consider

Two questions to consider when designing your course are first, in what areas of your course do you need to use psychologically attuned language (ex. course syllabus or course documents)? Second, are there existing course documents or policies that need to be altered to include psychologically attuned language?

Example of using psychologically attuned language

Finally, I provide an annotated example of communicating using psychologically attuned language (edited):

Hi <first name of student>, [personalize the student]

I was looking at the first exam scores for BIO102 and saw that you didn’t do as well as expected [express high expectations but give honest feedback]. Since it’s still early in the course [purposefully introduce hope/possibility], now is the time to try and figure out what went wrong and how we can fix it [normalize challenge]. I have some quick questions for you that I’m hoping you’ll be willing to answer for me to help us identify what adjustments might help based on my experience teaching the course.

• Do you have an idea why you didn’t do well on the exam?
• How did you study for the exam? (For example: read text, read notes, solve practice problems; attend review session; study with a group)
• What percentage of class do you think you participated in actively?
• Do you have a study group?
• Did you use the TA’s office hours to discuss the material? [encourage student to introspect about existence of support systems within the course]

With this information we can figure out what happened and work together [show pathway to success] so that the rest of the course goes more smoothly!

Thanks,
<Instructor’s name>