Resilient Instructional Strategies: Helping Students Cope and Thrive in Crisis

Recent times of excessive stress call for a reflection and reformation of how people interact and support one another. This is particularly true in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) discipline–based education, where it is becoming increasingly important for course instructors to adopt student-centered teaching approaches that engage students, maintain rigor, and consider the students’ learning experiences, including stress. What are some pedagogical strategies that instructors can draw upon to help students cope with trauma and regain a healthy state of learning in an already-challenging field? To prepare instructors for the transition to remote instruction, a variety of evidence-based pedagogical and technological approaches were designed to promote resilient student-centered classrooms and facilitate student development and care in times of crisis. This perspective provides an overview of the salient research behind these strategies, highlights those that instructors found most useful, and concludes with planned next steps in the continued effort to support instructors.