10 Teaching Challenges No One Trained You For

Teaching has always required flexibility. But today's educators are navigating challenges that barely existed when many of them started, including generative AI, widening preparation gaps, post-pandemic isolation, student mental health, digital literacy, politically charged classroom conversations, and questions about what a grade can actually certify.

In this episode of The What & Who of EDU, educators across disciplines share the teaching challenges no faculty handbook prepared them for. From finding the right balance with accommodations to helping students push past the first roadblock, supporting students without becoming their entire support system, and preserving deep thinking in an age of AI, these are the problems instructors are figuring out in real time. Because "expert in your discipline" was just the opening requirement.

Brought to you by Macmillan Learning

Episode Breakdown [0:48] Navigating Accommodations: When to Flex and When to Hold the Line

[3:18] Students Freeze at the First Roadblock

[5:20] When the Professor Becomes the Point Person

[7:55] There Is No "Average Student" Anymore

[12:25] Students Are Here, But Not Really

[15:08] When Familiar Material Suddenly Feels Political

[17:55] When Students Don't Know Why They're Here

[21:30] Digital Natives Aren't Always Digitally Fluent

[24:01] AI Makes Proficiency Harder to Prove