In my 20 years as an educator, there are not many things I would rank higher on my pet peeve list than hearing an educator say “low student”. I feel the same way when they say “high-level” student. This desire to label students in such a simplistic way does nothing to help the students and only hurts them.

Learners are not simply high, medium, low, average, above average, or any of these very simple labels that people try to use. Learners are much more complex and learning itself is complex. I keep coming back to the Ted Talk by Todd Rose called “The Myth of Average” and his explanation of the jagged learner profile.

There are many variables that impact how well a student can learn in any given situation and around a given topic. Some students will excel in a certain classroom but that same student can struggle in another classroom. There are many variables that will impact not just how well the student can learn, but how well what they have learned can be shown.

A student who is labeled as being “low” in one classroom may be seen as “above average” in another classroom. It all depends on the situation and how we see the students as complex learners. If we see all students as complex learners, then we can better design instruction that is more accessible to more students. If we simply try to view them as low or high, then we will just assume that the reason the student is not learning well is that they are just too low-level of a learner. This makes it easier on the teacher to not have to really figure out why that student is not learning and unfortunately for that student, that label will just lead them down a path of less success but not because of who they are as a learner.

If a teacher has a very static view of what traits it takes to be a high-level student, then they will design instruction that only works well for the students who have those traits already. It becomes a sort of self-fulling prophecy. If I believe that only students who are compliant can learn, then I will tend to design instruction that favors students who will be compliant no matter what I do. Again, a simplistic view of a learner will lead to bad instructional design and will make success unavailable to many students because they do not fit the idea of success that the teacher has.

Do not label students as being “high” or “low”, instead accept the fact that learning is much more complex and that how we design instruction will determine success or failure for many students. We have control over how we design instruction and we need to be very careful to avoid these simplistic views that will only deny success to students. Teaching is not an easy job, and teaching well is even harder.