Learning in spite of Teaching Methodology

– For teachers who would like to take it to the next level. From Silvana, with love. –

Perhaps you have, at some point, experienced the frustrating feeling that, no matter how sophisticated your methods are, no matter how great your enthusiasm in teaching, no matter what last-generation technology you use in the classroom, there is always some student who is not motivated to learn.

Yes, it takes two to tango. And if a person is not motivated to do something, they will not do it – it is as simple as that. But before you completely give up on those “desperate” cases, there is one more thing you can try. It starts with this question: are you supporting your students in developing the abilities they need in order to pursue what interests them most? 

Imagine someone preventing you from focusing on the things you are most interested in. How would you feel about that someone? Would it be fair to say you feel that they are wasting your time? You surely must have undergone performance assessment processes that you have found meaningless and useless. You must have attended boring meetings or events that seemed to last forever. You must have asked yourself whether there is still life after paperwork. 

I am a fast learner. What does that tell you about my life as a student? And what – if anything – does my learning capacity say about my teachers? Do you suppose I was focusing on what was going on during class? Was I efficient? Was I taking my homework seriously? Was I a teacher’s pet? Were the teachers’ methods suitable for me? Well, the answer is: “It depends.” Mostly on my interests. I could go from being intensely focused to painting my nails or even sleeping while the teacher was speaking or other students were doing textbook exercises. I would simply switch back on when my presence was required. I am very grateful to a few desk mates who have made this possible. There always seems to be someone there for me. A desk mate who will point out where I must read from. So I read. And most of the time, as unlikely as it may seem, I am perfectly capable of dealing with the task as required. So the universe remains orderly, the teacher moves on and my mind moves out of the classroom again. Ironically, even one of my guardian angel desk mates confessed that, although she seemed to be paying attention in class, her brain would often be working on auto-pilot. If you only require a limited version of my abilities, then that is what you will get. And furthermore, I will try to keep myself away from your class as much as I can. I do not want to limit my abilities. I want to use and develop them, full speed ahead. If a student is lucky enough to be naturally attracted by purely intellectual activities, the most diabolical thing about boring classes (or boring meetings) is that they are wasting the student’s time by distracting them from other intellectual activities that have some significance for them. They could be focusing on their stream of consciousness, for example, and could be engaging in some very useful mental processes, except that there is someone else there requiring their attention at random intervals. If you are preventing me from focusing on the things I am interested in and from using my abilities to their full capacity, I will avoid and/or hate you. I think that is reasonable enough. And don’t think I haven’t switched off during classes with very skilful teachers – because I have. I feel as if I have often been learning in spite of the teaching methodology, while the teachers have often been teaching in spite of my interests…

Why do I so often prefer to engage with my smartphone instead of paying attention to some of my teachers? What is so sexy about technology anyway? Why did YouTube replace television in my life? Because it allows me to choose what I focus on – and I will focus on what interests me. We all have inner drive. Those who seem not to have it are those who have been coerced not to manifest it. But it’s still there, dormant, numbed out. Whenever you are dealing with students who seem to be interested in nothing, take a deep breath and remember that they are like that because someone tried too hard to teach them something that was not particularly relevant to them.

So does your class support students in focusing on what interests them most or does it prevent that from happening? How could you possibly attend to the personal interests of each student? It’s scary, isn’t it? It would be a mess! If you’re thinking that way, you’re still in controlling mode. And the Holy Grail of education, student-centred learning, is, alas, still out of reach. First of all, each student in your class has a natural drive to pursue their interests – they don’t need you to get them to do that, they just need you to allow them to do that. See, it is very tiresome to get someone to do something, but it is very relaxing to allow them to do something. 

There seems to be a consensus that student-centred learning is a good idea. But if teachers still believe they know best, if they still think that their values are THE values that must be developed in their students, student-centred learning is only possible for students who happen to share the teacher’s values and is rendered unattainable for all the rest of the students. 

After discovering that the theories Albert Einstein was working on were overthrowing what had been previously regarded as the “laws” of physics, Arthur S. Eddington said: “None of us can know what the world is, in the way that we used to know it. Einstein says that time is not the same for all of us, but different, for each one of us. It’s very hard to conceive of such separate views, such relative ways of seeing. Today is the first day of a new world, that is much harder to live in, less certain, and more lonely. But which has at its heart, human endeavour.” It takes courage to contemplate the idea that everyone’s set of values is equally valid, not to mention live and teach according to this idea. Sir Ken Robinson has shared some very interesting stories in his speeches that might make it easier to integrate. 

And then, if you are brave enough to take that step and open Pandora’s Box, as it were, there will be many more questions for you to answer. Do you know how your students prefer to learn? Do you know how they study if left to their own devices? Do you know why they even attend your class at all? You may think it’s because they simply have to attend and they might think it’s because they have to, but, in the end, they could simply not show up, couldn’t they? And, indeed, some of them often make that choice. But, for those of them who show up, there are certain things they care about which motivate them to show up. Make sure you know what they are so that you can benefit from them. Do you know your students well enough so that you can relate to them using their value systems? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could use their energy in facilitating their learning process instead of burning out your own trying to control it? What if you would allow your students to organize activities during class? Your students will have a variety of natural inclinations and abilities which you can use in managing classroom activities – you might have leaders, networkers, analytical thinkers, artists or entertainers. Play on their strengths. You may find that introverts can do amazing things if they are not tortured with continuous teamwork. Conversely, you may find that the “troublemakers” might be the ones best suited to help you manage the behaviour of your students. 

I was having difficulties with a 12-year-old student who did not seem to care much about school and had very low frustration tolerance, so he would often act impulsively, throwing objects around or protesting loudly against classroom tasks. A “troublemaker”. There was also a very talkative student in that same class, who was often disruptive in his attempt to get the attention of the other students by entertaining them. An “entertainer”. So I asked the “troublemaker” what he would do if he were in my place and a student in his class would behave as he was behaving. I asked him to act it out and show me how he would respond in my place. I asked the “entertainer” to assist his colleague in his task, by imitating his behaviour in class. Both students, whether they realised it or not, took their roles seriously and acted out a very plausible scenario. The whole class had fun and I never had that much trouble from my “troublemaker” again. Besides, because of the oddities of the classical classroom environment, “troublemakers” are often the students who are disadvantaged by their high level of physical energy and/or their preference for physical activities. Language teachers have it easy! They can often resort to a very handy solution to accommodate such students who have a preference for engaging in physical activities – drama! Content is irrelevant most of the time – that is so fortunate!

You see, instead of being a teacher and dealing with students, you could choose to be a facilitator and those who wish to learn would not be students, but learners. Students have things happen to them – some are pleasant, and some might make them want to peel off the skin on their faces. But learners make things happen. I am a professional learner.