The following table lists some possible reasons for student (or anyone's) reticence, with ideas, activities and advice teachers and counselors have used to try to assist students to overcome it. If you have ideas and methods you've tried successfully, please send them in and they can be added. Developing these abilities is a natural process and takes place over time, and professors may have a tremendous impact on students' positive growth.

Some Possible Causes	Suggestions
Concern with failure	Either in a class discussion or in an office hour app't, encourage students to realistically assess the consequences of asking for help, of talking with a professor, or of taking any other action; write out the worst possible scenario and then the advantages, and decide if the risk is worth it.
Communication skill difficulties; A lack of experience leading to positive drawing out of innate communication skills	Invite students to office hours. Distribute an example sheet of possible questions to ask; encourage students to write down a list of questions to bring with them to the office visit. o Invite students who may need accommodations for a disability to see you in an office hour app't. Ask the student to explain how the disability affects academic performance in this class, and what accommodations and strategies s/he will be using. Some students feel they will be stigmatized so they don't self-identify until too late. By stating it overtly in class, it encourages communication. o Give students with verbal expressive or word retrieval difficulties time to speak. Increasing wait time after asking a question to 5 secs. allows students who need time to process and formulate language more time, and results in higher order answers from all students. (Mary Budd Rowe of Miami University found that 1 sec. is the average wait time before teachers answer their own questions or call on another student to answer.) Give feedback that supports students' efforts to share thoughts aloud, and instructs in vocabulary usage and other communication skills.
Excessive shyness	You might share a story about a student who was particularly shy or reticent but who had outstanding potentials, and what the student did to overcome it. Tell of the benefits of dealing with shyness. Most teachers have met such students and helped them tremendously with attention and encouragement. The SBCC Student Commencement Speaker, Georgina Robledo, is an outstanding example. o Offer e-mail communication as an alternative to verbal communication.
Cultural barriers	In either a group discussion or office hour, discuss with students that it is "okay" to ask for help. Some cultures frown on asking for help, i.e., tutoring; but if interaction is seen as a learning experience rather than a sign of weakness, the taboo might gradually be broken down. A student from the Phillipines was in dire need of tutoring, but was going to drop out of classes until a counselor discussed the cultural influences affecting the attitude toward asking for assistance. The student is currently still in school, is getting tutorial help, and seems happier in general.
Motivation	Why would a student lack motivation? This is a large category with lots of possible causes, i.e., emotional or cognitive barriers, substance abuse, lack of awareness, etc. Sometimes it is possible to analyze possible causes over a period of time. Students may be referred to Health and Wellness counselors if a pattern emerges of chronic lateness, unresponsiveness, etc. o Some teachers use a point system to give students a concrete sense of progress which some need for motivation. They give points for students coming to their office in the first two weeks of class. Students report meeting with the professor is very reinforcing and valuable.
Get by thinking	Student doesn't seem to want to do anything but the minimum (and may lack a good experience of an amazing challenge that increases positive motivation). Stories or anecdotes comparing the lives of two students might help trace out the consequences of a minimalist approach in contrast with an initiatory, proactive approach. Tracing out implications is an important skill.
Doesn't see what is needed in order to do well; Doesn't understand how to learn; Student is not a verbal learner but predominately is a visual learner or reasons non-verbally	Teach the analytical skills needed to recognize the subtle steps in larger processes. Demonstrate task analysis by modeling it with an assignment from your class. Break it into parts, and analyze what needs to be done at every stage. o A model checklist of steps to take in completing an assignment with dates listed at each step could be distributed and handed in with the assignment. o Encourage students to take a few of the learning style inventories on the internet (see weblinks). Ask them to write a short essay on how they learn, how they approach academic tasks, and what is their best mode of learning. They should explain how they deal with challenging situations or conditions. Perhaps ask them to analyze a particularly difficult learning situation, and generate ideas and approaches for dealing with it. They might conclude with an example of a learning scenario that has meant a lot to them, and some reflections on their futures. o Students who are visual learners and who think and reason in non-verbal ways (ie. Einstein, Hadamard) need to see the importance of the expressive stage, and work with a specialist, professor or tutor to develop verbal modes of expression that carry the strength of non-verbal thought. o Students' error patterns will give them excellent information about the steps they need to take to improve. They should try to see what types of errors they make (i.e., conceptual, missing directions, mechanical, failure to complete a lot, memory of facts or operations, etc.) They need to get as specific as possible about what to look for when editing their work, so teacher feedback is crucial. Unusual error patterns could be a sign of a learning disability. See weblink listing guidelines for referring students to DSPS for l.d. testing.
Lack of responsibility for own success or progress	Student needs to individuate and assume ownership. This attitude often comes from seeing oneself as a victim in circumstances, and feeling fatalistic that there is nothing one can do. Some small experience of success is needed. Sometimes a teacher can make a difference by including a student in a project or encouraging him or her to get involved so that a feeling of being successful is earned. o Students might benefit from keeping a log of grades in his/her notebook for each class. When you hand back papers, give them a few minutes to log grades. o See next entry on locus of control.
Places responsibility for being engaged outside of self (locus of control)	Having an external, in contrast with internal, locus of control (Julian Rotter, Social Learning Theory, 1954) results in a passive orientation to learning wherein the teacher is seen as responsible for delivering the material in a pleasing manner. Student sees little connection between his/her efforts and the positive or negative outcomes. Advise students to take the online locus of control inventory. (See weblinks). Students may be asked to make a journal entry about the results, if they agree or disagree, and why. o A second source of a more academically oriented checklist is available in Carol Kanar's book, The Confident Student, used in the LRC's English 104G Study Skills.
Meaning associated primarily with non-academic realms, i.e. social life, rather than academic realm	Teachers might suggest in class or an office hour that by assessing time use and prioritizing activities in relation to long term goals, a student may be able to realize that going to the Lakers game the night before the final met a short term social desire, but inhibited the realization of a long term goal. o Another tip to suggest to students who seem reticent is to understand it by putting it in perspective (framing it). By discussing initiative in a non-academic realm and making a parallel with the same skill of taking initiative, but in an academic realm, students may increase their confidence and willingness to try by affirming they already have what it takes, but need to apply or activate the skill. o Student speakers/peers have credibility when discussing their past experiences as students and how those experiences led to or impacted their current situation, whether as a student in a four year college or as an employee with a job.
Metacognition (lack of): o Doesn't see how s/he is doing o Doesn't notice when falling behind o Allows gaps in knowledge to exist o Undeveloped sense of how to monitor, regulate or evaluate self	Discuss in class or an office hour what metacognition is (e.g., being able to notice how one is doing, and monitor how certain approaches or strategies are working; self-awareness regarding learning). When possible, demonstrate how to tell if a gap in knowledge exists. Use examples from the course to illustrate how to fix up common gaps in student's knowledge. (One simple example would be when a student is reading, s/he does not realize s/he is not comprehending the material. Another example would be when asked to give a critical response to an article, a student doesn't know first how to summarize what the author said objectively, which is necessary before responding critically.) Does the student compare his or her progress or behavior with a standard and make adjustments? Do students put what they do daily in your class into a larger picture that synthesizes all the information, or do they see discrete pieces of data with no sequence or internal coherence?
Doesn't know how to ask the right questions of professor	Critical thinking, creative thinking, or verbal skills need developing to adequately formulate effective questions. o Critical T: Model how to take a general category and produce specific questions about it. o Creative T: Encourage students to take different viewpoints or role play in order to practice asking questions and engaging in dialogue with a professor. o Verbal skills: Encourage students by suggesting vocabulary to use in the questions they write down before visiting you in your office.