PEOPLE & LEARNING
Teaching & mentoring
9 practices · 3 case practices · 1 free
Help a learner explain where they’re stuck and try another step.
Finish every practice on this route to earn the “Human skills for teaching and mentoring” completion certificate. It records that you completed the practices; it is not a professional credential.
The conversations on this route
Each step names the skill it rehearses and why it matters in this kind of work.
Two students in your class laugh at a wrong fraction answer
Respond when a learner gets it wrong
Respond to a wrong answer without turning it into a judgment of the learner.
Jordan says, “I’m just stupid at this.” Stop the laughter, then look at Jordan’s reasoning without making Jordan perform for the class.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
A student hasn’t started writing and asks for a zero
Find the starting point
Explore what is difficult before deciding someone is unwilling.
Read today’s notes and Alex’s recent work to see what is most likely in the way, then check in quietly and offer two ways to begin.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
Asking your teacher for help with 3x + 5 = 17
See help-seeking from their side
Practice the language a learner may need to explain where they are stuck.
An adult exercise from a learner’s view. Show the step you tried and ask what to do with the five, without asking for the answer.
8 minStretchSoulful
A student says they didn’t mean to interrupt you
Leave room for a different view
Consider how a learner can disagree while keeping the conversation respectful.
You told Taylor off during a class discussion. Admit you assumed it was deliberate, and agree on a clearer way to take turns.
11 minDeep practiceSoulful
Your friend missed a promotion after six months on a project
Listen for the support needed
Check your understanding before offering a solution.
Maya hasn’t asked about leaving, and you know of a job she could apply for. Respond to what she said, then ask what she needs tonight.
8 minFoundationsFree starter
A teammate’s late drafts leave you little time to review
Give feedback someone can use
Focus on the work, its impact, and an achievable next step.
Morgan asks if you’re calling them unreliable. Sort what the record shows from labels and mistakes, then ask what happened and propose a checkpoint.
13 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
A first-year asks why the class needs a topic he won’t use
Explain why a topic matters
Be honest about the exam, then let learners find their own reason.
Answer Haziq honestly about how much of the exam it is, then let the class find where they might use it before you add your own example.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
Spotting which master’s student is lost in the discussion half
Notice who needs help
Read a pattern across what a learner says, writes and asks, then follow up privately.
Read your notes on each student, work out who is struggling and who only looks it, then invite that student to your office without singling them out.
15 minStretchCase practiceSoulful
A student must go home for three weeks to care for his father
Keep a learner going from a distance
Say what continues online, what waits and when you will talk.
Tell Amin what he can follow online, how the lab he’ll miss can be made up, and when you can talk each week, without asking for more than he shared.
8 minFoundationsSoulful
Related reading
What to say after a student gets it wrongWhat to say after a student gives a wrong answer: respond to the reasoning, handle a groan from the class, and offer a private way to show their thinking.What to say when a student hasn’t started the workA quiet check-in for a student with a blank page: guess the likeliest obstacle from what you already know, let them correct you, and offer two ways to begin.The research behind these practices
Each practice cites the studies that informed its design and says where they may not apply. These are the sources cited most across the 9 practices on this page; they inform the practices and are not proof that the practices work.
- The Power of Feedback Revisited (Meta-analysis · educational feedback, 2020). Cited by 5 practices here.
This synthesis examines educational feedback across studies and outcomes. Feedback content and context matter; generic praise and feedback on specific work should not be treated as equivalent.
- Self-determination-based interventions in education (Systematic review and meta-analysis, 2024). Cited by 4 practices here.
The review examines educational interventions supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Effects vary by design and setting; classroom scenarios here are practical adaptations, not validated interventions.
- Assessment and classroom learning (Research review · Assessment in Education, 1998). Cited by 2 practices here.
Black and Wiliam reviewed research on using evidence of what learners understand to adjust teaching, and concluded that it can raise achievement. Later critics questioned how consistently the effects hold and how they were measured. It supports noticing who is following before moving on; it does not test private follow-up messages.
- Simulation-based learning in higher education: a meta-analysis (Meta-analysis · 145 studies, 2020). Cited by 2 practices here.
Chernikova and colleagues pooled 145 studies of simulation-based learning in higher education and found a large overall effect on complex skills, with scaffolding a positive moderator. Learners with little prior knowledge gained more from worked examples and those with more gained more from reflection. Most studies came from medical and teacher education, so applying the results to adult people skills or to this product is an inference.
- A systematic literature review on synchronous hybrid learning: gaps identified (Systematic review · 47 studies, 2020). Cited by 1 practice here.
Raes and colleagues reviewed 47 studies of classes where some students join remotely. They describe benefits such as flexibility, challenges for remote students and design principles, and note that evidence on learning outcomes is limited. It is a review of practice, not a test of a temporary arrangement for one student.
- Accuracy of teachers’ judgments of students’ academic achievement: a meta-analysis (Meta-analysis · Journal of Educational Psychology, 2012). Cited by 1 practice here.
Südkamp, Kaiser and Möller found that teachers’ judgments of achievement agree with test results only moderately, about .63 on average. It is a reason to check a reading of a student against evidence and with the student; it concerns achievement, not what stops a student starting a task.
7 more sources are listed on the research page.
Limits
Role descriptions draw on public occupational sources. Practicing these conversations is not a qualification, and a Leetsoul completion certificate is not a professional credential or a hiring signal.
Leetsoul has not shown that these practices improve skill in real life, and the original scenarios have not been independently tested. The sources inform the design of the exercises.
Role descriptions
Try one in your own words
Write your response to a fictional conversation, read the guidance, then decide what you would change. Three starter practices are free; Soulful opens the full library.
Written by Leetsoul. Updated . Scenarios are fictional.