Bottom line: The student comes first, then the content; everything else follows.
My philosophy of teaching
“Learning” is to humans what “instincts” are to animals, with an important difference. Although animals’ survival depends on instinctive behaviors over which they have no control, humans’ survival depends upon predicting, altering, or adapting to their environment; i.e., learning — actions they control. There are few instinctive coping behaviors in the human repertoire other than this innate ability to learn.
A laboratory rat may learn the correct way to run a maze in a shorter period of time, but it will never learn how to do anything other than run the maze; it will never create shortcuts by jumping over walls. Such creativity is unique to humans, who not only learn skills and facts, but also learn how to refine the very process of thinking and problem-solving.
So how do we help students learn, and more importantly, how do we help them learn how to learn? I believe there are fundamental conditions we can create to foster learning.
Students must feel safe physically and emotionally before they can learn.
This is foundational and precedes any other of my beliefs. It is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: humans need to be safe before they can advance or progress to higher-level stages of learning. Students who are distracted by the misbehavior of others, or who are unsure of the boundaries and limits within a classroom will spend their energy learning how to cope in the environment rather than learning the lessons presented by the teacher. Providing a physically safe, structured atmosphere is essential for learning. This also includes feeling emotionally safe enough to take risks. If it is true that we learn from our mistakes, then educators must allow mistakes to happen without overreacting.
Students learn best when they have a meaningful relationship with the teacher and other adults who are invested in their best future.
This includes feeling valued, respected, and supported. It also requires the assurance that teachers, parents, and communities work together to value and support the students, and that each arena of a student’s world is cooperating toward that end. Also, educators must be interactive and not didactic with his or her students. It is not possible to be a successful educator and to remain aloof or remote at the same time. There is a human need for connections with other humans. Such connections foster safety, growth, and readiness for learning.
For eLearning and the use of online virtual classrooms, this presents a unique challenge. Teachers need to find ways to make virtual classrooms more personal, more interactive, and more connective. Even the addition of a webcam for personal view of a teacher’s face can make a huge difference in a student’s engagement online. Teachers need to respond to students in online discussions and comment on students’ blog posts. In other words, they need to show the students that they’re there– really there — for them.
Lessons must be necessary and relevant.
Educators with a prescribed curriculum (such as the Virginia SOLs - standards of learning) face a challenging mandate. Students do not learn well when facts are presented in isolation, yet the concepts that students will be tested on in the SOLs are listed individually like a bulleted series of unrelated facts. Inexperienced teachers try to present these facts this way in their lessons and then they’re faced with yawning students who don’t “get it.”
Students automatically and unconsciously filter out useless information. In time, if too much information is meaningless (such as historical details without the “big picture”), the learner turns his or her attention to more useful knowledge, which might include how to win at Nintendo, picking popular fashions, or how to kick a soccer ball.
Educators face a challenge. How do we redirect students to learn academic content that we (i.e., society) need to teach them, rather than only what they choose to learn on their own — choices which may fail to prepare them for their future? We must, overall, present lessons in creative ways that link the information to the student’s own survival in the real world.
Learning becomes automatic when students can apply what they are learning immediately to their personal experience and surroundings. I call this the “When am I ever going to use this?” aspect of education. For example, memorizing the definition of “democracy” means little to a middle school student, but during the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, current events that were gripping the nation and piquing curiosity served as a dramatic, teachable moment to explore the difference between democracy and other political world views such as anarchy or dictatorship. Suddenly, the concept of “democracy” became personally relevant and comprehensible, and important to understand.
Rather than subscribe to the lineup of chapters and units in textbooks, teachers need to harvest the world of current events and real-time trends with a keen understanding of their students so they can find relevant, meaningful connections between cold facts and the students’ personal world.
Likewise, students deserve to know how they will use the facts and skills taught in school when they enter the real world of working or being an adult. This includes character development in addition to facts and academic concepts. Effective teachers go beyond the facts to include teaching work habits such as completing work, staying organized, and responding appropriately to peers and authority figures.
Teachers can build bridges between their classroom lessons and the professional world of the workplace. Bringing in adult experts from various careers, for example, affords students the opportunity to hear firsthand how facts they’re learning are used in the real world, and also how important it is to develop a responsible work ethic.
Students learn best when they interact with the facts.
Remember learning how to drive? In my experience, I sat in drivers’ ed class and read the manual in preparation for driving. I was sure I knew as much as I needed to know, but I only knew enough to pass the written test to get my learner’s permit. I thought I was ready; even the state of Virginia was willing to give me a go at it. But it wasn’t until I actually got behind the wheel that I really learned how to drive — and it wasn’t until then that I realized I didn’t know it all yet.
Bottom line: book learning just doesn’t cut it. It’s living that teaches the lessons.
I believe in the constructivist style of learning: hands-on, student-directed learning in which the teacher acts as facilitator (driving instructor) and not as all-knowing expert (taxi driver).
Students need to get dirty and in there. They need to be involved to learn. Rows of classroom desks are a sterile, unproductive learning field. It’s best to get out on the road.
Students learn best when the lessons fit their readiness and style.
The best lessons fit the students’ particular level of maturity. Anyone who has tried teaching a toddler to tie shoes knows that unless the fingers can manipulate the laces, teaching how to make bunny-ear loops is useless. Likewise, teaching a child in middle school the quantum theory of physics will probably fall flat as a lost enterprise.
Learning styles are as individual as we are. Howard Gardner recognized several different styles of learning, but Dr. John Medina asserts in Brain Rules that there are countless more. The important fact to remember is that students need enough room to explore and try out various ways of learning the same material. Good teachers offer a myriad of activity choices and a large variety of ways to practice and assess the material they’re teaching.
Educators face a unique irony.
Students want to learn, and they will learn because learning is an innate human behavior. This should mean that our job is easy, but it is actually more complicated.
Unless we motivate students to learn content that will help them progress to higher-level thinking, they will only learn what they consider immediately important. This could include disruptive or destructive behaviors or poor work habits, but more often it is more insidious and shallow, such as trivia which is not particularly dangerous, but distracting. Most students need guidance to focus on appropriate topics and to learn critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving.
If we fail to foster learning that is meaningful, we may win a few rounds, but we will ultimately lose the game. The rats in the maze will keep on running, and never climb the walls.
Image: ‘Rat Race’ by 19melissa68 on flickr, www.flickr.com/photos/25000888@N08/2429253847
The most significant statement in this posting is made in the introductory paragraph: “The student comes first, then the content; everything else follows.” I believe that you’ve hit the nail right on the head here.
This, unfortunately, happens rarely in education. The “department” comes first, with all the budgetary constraints and petty politics of the officials.
From the perspective of many teachers, the teacher comes first - “my job”, “my position”, “my promotion”, “my righths”.
After a lot of energy and time are wasted on these issues, the curriculum is debated - what should be in, what should be out, what is topical, what is fashionable. And then we start agonizing about the content. Right at the end the learner is considered, and by this time everyone is so tired with all the wranglings, that little justice is done to teaching the little ones to read and write.
Just the opposite of what you are suggesting - learner first, then content, then the rest.
Is it any wonder that education is at risk?
Thanks for your comments, Kobus ~ and you’re right. The learner should come first above all but is usually lost in the shuffle while everyone else (adults) jockey for their rightful positions or policies. It is like planning a huge banquet and researching recipes and place settings and hiring the best chefs and waitstaff, then bringing in the guests — just to discover they’re allergic to the food and can’t eat it. Consider their needs first!