Boring. Dumb. Pointless. Irrelevant. Annoying. Stupid. When students say words like these, they’re telling us this: I don’t value this kind of work. Value is one of five key beliefs beneath student motivation. Every individual arrives at value differently — but there are some interesting patterns in the research. For example, when a young person […]
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Rules of Thumb When Giving Explanations
A key skill for the teacher is explaining things clearly. Here are a few tips for helping with that. 1) “Superfluous information creates confusion, muddies waters, and digs holes.” There is a man in my community whose career involved working with NASA on the Apollo program. We call him “Alabama” Bob Clingan. He’s a joy […]
Learning vs. Task-Completing
Many of my students, when pressed, struggle to say just what learning is. They can tell you about completing tasks, checking grades, keeping track of emergency passes, and so on. In other words, they are aware of schoolish behaviors. But they can’t tell you exactly what’s happening when they learn or how one goes about […]
A Phone ≠ A Brain
Perhaps the day will come when human beings attach their brains to the Internet and become one with the digitized knowledge-base. Billionaires are investing in this kind of research, and the science is fascinating, bizarre, and frightening. But here’s my take: until that time, the human being with a knowledge base in their brain will […]
But What About That One Student? Use 2×10
Last time, I wrote about how our relationships with students are sure to break down. This is why I’ve added “Repair” to the CCP of teacher credibility that I wrote about in These 6 Things, Chapter 2: Care, Competence, and Passion. If you cannot identify and repair faltering student-teacher relationships, you’re bound to be befuddled […]