Why the way you speak to students matters

Dr Ashleigh Johnstone
2 min readJul 21, 2022

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

‘There’s no point in you doing A Levels’
‘Are you sure you’re resilient enough to go to university?’

These are both things I heard as a teenager with a chronic illness. Everyone knew I wanted to go to university and study. I was known as the kid who just loved learning. But people assumed that I wouldn’t be able to do those things, or maybe they thought I wouldn’t want to. Either way, it always came across that they didn’t think I was capable.

I’m still not entirely sure where it came from, but I had the strongest gut feeling of ‘you could just ignore them and do it anyway’.

So I did.

I went to university, I stayed to do a masters, I stayed a bit longer and did a PhD, and now I work in a university.

But sometimes I still get that voice in my head — Are you sure you’re resilient enough? Are you sure you can do this?

What you say to students matters. Your flippant remark might be the thing they still have going round their head over 10 years later. The questioning voice when they have a moment of self-doubt.

But what you say matters.

The lecturer who tells you that you can do it anyway. The lecturer who tells you to have a night of ice-cream and trashy tv then get back to it tomorrow. The lecturer who tells you to channel your inner Wonder Woman because you CAN do it. The lecturers that believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

That matters too.

I am forever grateful for the staff in the psychology department at Bangor University for balancing out the doubtful voice and teaching me that I can do anything with a little bit of determination.

The doubt of my high school teaching and the kindness and positivity of my university lecturers have made me the teacher I am today at Arden University.

Support your students because what you say matters.

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Dr Ashleigh Johnstone
Dr Ashleigh Johnstone

Written by Dr Ashleigh Johnstone

Lecturer in Psychology at Arden University. PhD in Cognitive Psychology.

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