Our Tufts: Assistant Professor Trevion Henderson

"Brad Clymer was one of the best professors I’ve ever had. My third year at Ohio State, I was struggling so much in his course that I put his office hours on my calendar as if it were another class.

During one of those office hours, I was grappling with a homework problem and confessed that I didn’t know where to start. Professor Clymer said, 'Let’s do something different. Take control of this and steer; when something goes awry, I’ll stop us. Even if you don’t know where to go next, guess. I’ll ask you where that guess came from, and we can unpack things.'

His point was that he could take me through his lecture for a second time—the same instruction that apparently hadn’t worked the first time.

Instead, he said, 'Hey, maybe the problem is me.' His humility showed me, now, as an instructor myself, I can reflect on my own practice and do something different to support my students.

Now, with my students, I try to be as transparent as possible. For example, we had built a project into our ES-2 course. The first year we tried the project, it was kind of nightmarish—students really struggled through it. I don’t think I had a single student finish it.

I went to the class and said, 'We were trying something new with this project. We thought it was going to take two days; it ended up taking two weeks.' I admitted it was a failed venture and gave them all the solutions. I didn’t want them worried about their grades; I wanted them focused on what we wanted them to learn. The other ES-2 instructors and I discussed the project at the end of the term and made changes to it. The important thing was that students’ learning was always at the center of our discussion.

When I need to, it’s important for me to be able to stand in front of my students and admit something didn’t go the way I wanted it to. We are not perfect as instructors, but our students should never feel that’s a reflection on them.”

--Trevion Henderson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, School of Engineering.

#OurTufts is a series of personal stories shared by members of the Tufts community. Photo by Alonso Nichols/Tufts University.