Article: Instructor Strategies to Foster Student Mental Well-being

by Jihong Tang, Instructional Designer II, Learning and Educational Center

 

In higher education, intellectual growth and academic achievement often receive more attention than students’ mental health. Mental well-being is not just a personal concern of students, but also an important part of academic success. The data shows students with mental health challenges are more likely to drop out of school, perform poorly academically, and have lower chances of landing a high-level job or continuing their education beyond graduate school (Hughes& Spanner, 2019).

The factors contributing to mental health are various, including academic pressure, social isolation, financial stress, relationships, etc. An instructor’s role is not to pry into students’ personal lives; however, it is important that instructors have compassion, support students where necessary, and help students find ways to remove barriers while fulfilling their academic requirements in the course.

Savini (2016) emphasizes the importance of being aware and flexible in supporting students who are dealing with personal struggles. Here are some strategies to help support students and reduce their stress during the semester.

1). Create a safe and supportive learning environment for students

The first step is to recognize health issues as a priority and make mental health care visible in the learning environment. Surveys are effective tools that enable instructors to stay connected with students and collect valuable feedback. They can help identify students who might need extra support in different areas, such as academics, social interactions, and emotional well-being. They also offer instructors a chance to build relationships with students. Daily Check-ins with students, such as polls of “How do you feel today?” or a brief survey about how they feel about the assignments send students a message that you care about their well-being. As a result, students feel comfortable reaching out to you as they see you as a trusted person. The next step could be to schedule an appointment with students to discuss what they grapple with, and direct students to appropriate professionals or counseling services when necessary.

The NSU Student Care Team is designed to provide support for students’ well-being and academic success by connecting students in need with campus and community resources. The NSU Student Care Team Blue Folder is designed to help you recognize indicators of student distress and how to respond and refer to the student appropriately.

2) Self-Reflective Assignments

Having students complete self-reflective assignments at the beginning of class or midway is another approach. This allows instructors to check in with their students periodically and discuss with the students how the semester is going for them – in terms of course workload, concerns, stressors, etc.

Self-reflective assignments can also be used as an ice-breaker activity to allow students to share their struggles and self-care practices with their peers. Academic journeys can sometimes be isolating, but when students see that their peers share similar struggles, it encourages empathy and mutual support (Park et al., 2020). Furthermore, talking about this shared data in class validates their experiences, reinforcing the idea that your classroom is not just a place for academic growth, but a community where each student’s well-being is valued.

3) Course Design Strategies that Support Student Mental Health

Clear communication of expectations and flexible deadlines can significantly reduce student anxiety and improve academic performance (Nakhostin-Khayyat et al., 2024). Implementing strategies aimed at providing clarity and flexibility can significantly alleviate students’ stress levels. Clear grading policies, explicit communication of expectations, and detailed assignment guidelines help students understand what is required, reducing confusion and anxiety caused by ambiguity. Additionally, offering flexibility in deadlines, and assessment methods empowers students to manage their workload more effectively. This approach not only helps students balance their academic responsibilities with personal commitments but also fosters a supportive learning environment where they feel valued and understood.

Here are some strategies to provide clarity and flexibility that help to mitigate student’s stress.

• Well-Organized Course Structure
• Simplified Course navigation
• Transparent grading policies and rubrics
• Detailed guidelines for assignments, discussions, and activities.
• Meaningful feedback that promotes mastery, including the option to submit drafts prior to final submission
• Setting deadlines for the evening rather than midnight to encourage healthy sleep patterns
• Encouraging breaks during holidays by avoiding major assignment deadlines immediately afterward
• Breaking large projects into parts with staggered dates, particularly near the end of the semester
• Providing practice exams that match the difficulty of actual exams
• Increasing the frequency of assignments with lower individual weight
• Distributing course points across multiple assignments, activities, and assessments, including an option to drop lowest grade on an exam/quiz or assignment

4) Additional inclusive and accessibility recommendations to consider

Students from diverse cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds or students with disabilities face challenges that can affect their mental health and academic performance. By fostering an inclusive and diverse environment, students feel valued, supported and less stressed. The following are some ways to make your class more inclusive and accessible:

• Amplify and encourage a climate of micro-affirmations (Sheridan CTL, 2022) such as active listening, and validating student experiences and feelings.
• Design an intentional, inclusive syllabus (Columbia CTL, 2022).
• Incorporate diverse class content with diverse perspectives.
• Ensure course content is accessible to all students. This includes textbooks with digital formats available, videos with captions or transcripts, and images with alt text descriptions.
• Provide information about disability services and support to students in need of assistance.

The instructor plays an important role in supporting student mental health (Kalkbrenner, et al., 2021). Here at NSU we know that students value their instructors’ support based on the thousands of students’ responses to the Thank A Professor program. We tabulated their comments and found that students were most thankful for faculty that were highly supportive (17% of comments), caring, kind, knowledgeable, and engaging characteristics were present in 10% of comments). Many of the students wrote thank you messages to their professors for helping them through challenging times during the semester, which helped them complete their courses successfully.

Mental health issues can impact students’ cognitive abilities, concentration, and learning capacity. Students’ mental well-being is not a sidenote but a fundamental chapter in their journey. The stigma surrounding mental health issues makes students reluctant to discuss them openly, leaving many students to struggle with their emotional well-being silently. The instructor’s role can extend beyond the dissemination of knowledge. Every instructor has the power to positively influence academic culture from creating caring and supportive learning environments to implementing strategies to ease course-related stress and maximize both student mastery and well-being.

 

References

Almog, N. (2019) How to avoid cognitive overload during learning. https://blogs.oracle.com/oracleuniversity/post/how-to-avoid-cognitive-overload-during-learning (retrieved January 2, 2023). Columbia CTL (2022). Designing an inclusive syllabus. https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/designing-inclusive-syllabus/

Dobney, Danielle (2024, March 1), How Are You Doing Today?” A Survey for Starting Each Class, from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-classroom-management/how-are-you-doing-today-a-survey-for-starting-each-class/

Eng, Normann (2022, March 7), Making Mental Health More Visible in Your Course, from Making Mental Health More Visible in Your Course | Faculty Focus

Hughes, G., & Spanner, L. (2019). The university mental health charter. Leeds: Student Minds.

Nakhostin-Khayyat, M., Borjali, M., Zeinali, M., Fardi, D., & Montazeri, A. (2024). The relationship between self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, and resilience among students: A structural equation modeling. BMC Psychology, 12(1), Article 337. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01843-1

Park, S. Y., Andalibi, N., Zou, Y., Ambulkar, S., & Huh-Yoo, J. (2020). Understanding students’ mental well-being challenges on a university campus: Interview study. JMIR Formative Research, 4(3), e15962. https://doi.org/10.2196/15962

Roth, Stacy (2018, November 26), State of Mind in the College Classroom, from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-classroom-management/state-of-mind-in-the-college-classroom/

Savini, C. (2016, May 4). Are You Being Rigorous or Just Intolerant? Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Are-You-Being-Rigorous-or-Just/236341

Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning (2022) Microaggressions and micro-affirmations: Opportunities for learning and inclusion. https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/microaggressions-and-micro-affirmations-0

Wingert, Deb (2023, March 15), Three Strategies that Support Student Well-Being and Mental Health, from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/equality-inclusion-and-diversity/three-strategies-that-support-student-well-being-and-mental-health/

Kalkbrenner, M. T., Jolley, A. L., & Hays, D. G. (2021). Faculty views on college student mental health: Implications for retention and student success. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 23(3), 636-658.