Towards Building a Culture of Trust

Samantha Mae L. Fabellon

Barr and Tagg (1995) argued that “it is crucial to manage a successful learning
environment” (p. 26). I want to ask, what do they mean by “successful learning environment”?
and how could we build a successful learning environment? In chapter 4 of the book Change, it
was stated there that learning environment should entail a positive and open human
communication. Additionally, it says that teachers should treat their students with respect,
dignity, and fairness, but we do not have to disregard completely the competencies of the
teacher. It is easy to say that in order to build a successful environment, we should promote all of
these: respect, dignity and fairness, but I certainly insist that you cannot just give this to your
students unless you trust them or vice versa. I have not read any article about trusting our
students or even a step-by-step procedure about trusting them. Most of the articles focus on our
actions as teachers and about asking ourselves if our students can trust us. I think we also need to
know why is trust important and what are the benefits of trusting them inside the classroom.

Inside the classroom, there is a relationship formed between you and the students. These
could vary depending on what type of teacher we would like to employ inside the classroom. I
remember how Sir Perci asked us to define what kind of teacher are we in one of our student-
centered learning sessions. We could be friendly but firm, caring and a good adviser,
disciplinarian, business only, strict but reasonable, and funny but excellent. However, regardless
of the teachers’ personality, a relationship will still be formed. Cox (n.d.) stated that “trust is the
most important thing a teacher should develop with their students”. Hence, I could argue that
before any relationship bloom, there should be a foundation, and I firmly believe that it is trust.
In Student-centered learning, we do not only want to value academic growth, we also have to put
premium on emotional and social growth (VanHousen, 2013). As was stated by Jerome-Freiberg,
Huzinec, and Templeton (2009 p. 65), “students want to know how much you care, before they
consider how much you know”. When their environment feels like they are trusted, that they are
seen as individuals who can do anything, and that we look up to their development, they are
more likely to pursue that initial impression we gave them.

When I started teaching in FEU, I was still hesitant to trust and share with them the
“power” inside the classroom. I was scared that they will use too much to overpower me or that
they will not use it either. On the first day of class, I asked them to form a circle, with me also
sitting among them. I could already feel that in this kind of setup, students feel relieved as if we
are only about to tell secrets with each other. They were surprised that I actually asked them
what could be the possible classroom rules they want to promote. I could see the look on their
faces seemingly hesitant to talk and give any suggestions, so I made them form five groups and
told them that I will give them five minutes to talk to each other. After five minutes, we had
negotiations. As I was listing the rules and regulations, I realized that all of the rules were the
typical rules inside a traditional classroom setup, so I asked them, “how about using
cellphones?”. Everyone went uptight and said “No!”. I asked them, “Why?”. One of them said
that they will probably use their cellphones just to update on Twitter or Facebook or even play
Mobile Legends.
 This is where I convinced myself to just let them think and reflect about what they were
saying by asking questions and not just feed them the reason or the answer. I was startled how
these students are actually fighting for what they think is right. The other group was fighting for
a concern that the discussion might be interrupted if someone will use a cellphone, while the
other group was fighting for a concern that they should have a discipline because they are adults
already. I was stunned that someone said that, so all of us ended up with a negotiation that it is
okay to use a cellphone inside the classroom only if they are going to use it with scholarly
purposes like searching on the dictionary, Google, or images and not to play Mobile Legends,
updating their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts. In this small scenario I encountered, I
saw how powerful trusting our students could be and that it might unleash their potentials that
even themselves do not know.

As time flies, I also theoretically proved how trust could change and empower our
students. The best experience I had was when the time our final examination was approaching.
Our final examination was a creative presentation. I gave them the guidelines and our final
rubrics for that examination. Basically, they have one week to prepare for that. In a creative
presentation, they could do a reporting, role play, talk show, etc. Honestly, I was not expecting
anything grand, but I was expecting that it will be fine and scholarly. After giving them the
guidelines, the list of some creative presentation examples were flashed to them, but is not
limited to the list. They could choose other than what are listed. I do not have any idea about
their presentation, but I am certain and I know that I should not be worried because I gave them
the guidelines and most importantly, I trust them. The time has come when their performance
was due and I was surprised with my class’ performance, I can say that aside from giving their
all out efforts, everyone deserves to receive a perfect score because you can see how all of them
collaborated, and when the question and answer portion came, all of them were eager to answer
the questions I gave them. I am not only basing these statements through observation, I
specifically asked them at the end of the semester about the reason why they seem to be
encouraged every time I give them tasks or assignments. This being trusted is one of the key,
they said.

Indeed, trusting your students will surprise you. I was hoping that someday, I could read
an article or a study about the importance of trust especially in a student-centered classroom and
I will start it today. While I was all advocating for trust and its importance, this is now my time
to research about the ways or steps about building a culture of trust. According to Cox (n.d.), we
have to give our students responsibilities by doing the tasks required to and while we give them
these tasks, we have to trust our students that they will complete them; our students are close to
adult stage, this could mean that some of them might have trust issues, so in order for us to show
that we trust them, we could be transparent not only in their grades but also in reasons of why we
are giving them these activities; lastly, be consistent in doing these things because trust is earned,
and we might never know how much time would it take for a person to give his/her trust.

In conclusion, we do not really have to polish our personality as a teacher. Let us

remember that we are here to help them learn what it is that must be known and change what it is
that must be changed. We are here as a guide on the side and not as the star or the main actor of
the class. Trust does not really entail to share your personal problems to them, or to be their best
friend, it just means that we believe that these students have their own capabilities that are yet to
show. This, I think is the beauty of SCL. We get to discover more of our students’ capabilities
that even themselves do not know what these are. Trust should be one of our foundations in this
paradigm where students are expected to also create new learning.

References

Barr, R. & Tagg, J. (1995). From Teaching to Learning - A New Paradigm for Undergraduate
Education. Change Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.colorado.edu/ftep/sites/
default/files/attached-files/barrandtaggfromteachingtolearning.pdf

Cox, J. (n.d.). How to Build Trust with Students. Retrieved from: https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach
/article/how-build-trust-students1808.html

Jerome-Freiberg, H., Huzinec, C. & Templeton, S. (2009). Classroom management – a pathway

to student achievement: a study of fourteen inner-city elementary schools. The
Elementary School Journal, 110(1), 64-80.

VanHousen, D. (2013). "Effective Classroom Management in Student-Centered Classrooms”.

Education Masters. Paper 274. Retrieved from: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent
.cgi?article=1275&context=education_ETD_masters