Embarrassing Confession Time
I first learned that narwhals were real animals, not cartoon fantasy creatures, in a sixth grade classroom. I was teaching. We had taken a break from the lesson and were talking about cool animals, when that little factoid came up and floored me. The kids were very entertained, as you can imagine, and it was admittedly humbling, but it was also funny. I’d been teaching for years by that point. My students had heard me admit mistakes before. It was fine.
Compare that to when I started teaching coding and mistakenly called a conditional a “conditional loop.” It was just a slip of the tongue, but some students repeated it, and I had to correct it for quite a while. It embarrassed me far more than the narwhal incident. I was already intimidated about teaching technical material, but now I was worried that I might accidentally misinform my students. What if I made some other mistake like that and didn’t catch it? What if they ask questions I can’t answer? What if a parent who’s an IT professional asks for technical details about my lessons and they go over my head?
Even though I was good with computers and I knew how to teach, I felt inadequate, even like a fraud.
Where Does It Come From?
Those nagging voices telling us we aren’t good enough can come from many sources. Here are some listed by Psychology Today. Do they sound familiar to you?
- Perfectionism: some of us are driven to do every job exceptionally, even though maintaining above average standards at all times is literally impossible.
- Unrealistic goals: coding is notoriously scalable. It’s tempting to pile on extra features just because they could theoretically be accomplished.
- Comparison: we can always find someone who can do a job better than us, and it can feel like they’re great work should be the standard for us as well.
I’ll add the Dunning Kruger effect to this list: the less we know about a topic, the more confident we are in our understanding of it. Conversely, the more we know about a topic, the more we realize how much more there is to know, and the more aware we are of the limits of our own knowledge. Ironically, learning more about computer science inherently includes becoming more aware of how little you know. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Unskilled-and-unaware-of-it%3A-how-difficulties-in-to-Kruger-Dunning/f2c80eef3585e0569e93ace0b9770cf76c8ebabc?p2df
Tips For Combatting Imposter Syndrome
Teachers should also be learners. That means we can be CS role models and group facilitators, even if we’re doubting our own expertise. Here are a few steps I’ve taken to fight back the creeping feeling of Imposter Syndrome:
1. Get grounded by looking at your accomplishments.
Focus on unfinished tasks on your to do list, and you’ll feel discouraged at what isn’t crossed off. Instead, periodically list all your accomplishments of the past week or month.
2. Give your future self the gift of realistic plans! Learn a few reliable time or estimation techniques. Here’s a video I’ve used to improve my skills in estimating the time or cost of a job.
These techniques are for big picture tasks, but they’ve helped me even with small-scale planning.
3. Develop a realistic minimum viable product (MVP) for plans.
Write out the barest set of features that you need to be able to call a task “done.” If it’s still a stretch to complete that with the time and resources you have, reevaluate your goals!
In researching for this article, I also came across this post that I enjoyed. The author includes some great tips, if you’re interested in reading more.
How Can You Apply This With Your Students?
Your students can develop this tendency just like you, so watch for ways that you might inadvertently make kids think they should be perfect.
1. Excessive praise or critical language can lead children to expect themselves to be perfect. If you haven’t already planned out ways to correct or praise your students, take time to plan that now.
Instead of talking about how gifted students are, praise their effort.
Instead of highlighting your student’s misconduct, remind them to persevere toward their own goals, even when that requires correction.
2. Normalize learning.
Neither you nor your students will learn everything about a subject, and that fact isn’t something anyone should feel the need to conceal. Admit when you don’t know something so that it becomes the norm in your classroom.
Teach your children how to look for answers. Lead by example. If it’s possible, build it into your lesson plans.
Author
Written by Bethany Goossen, curriculum writer and coding teacher with Best Brains Learning Centers.