It’s a Way of Thinking

Picasso

I remember my Maths lessons, thinking what was the point of learning factoring and vectors and quadratics. I didn’t use it in real life, I had no intentions of talking about these kind of equations, so they weren’t even good for conversation.

Why did we spend all those hours going over essay plans for History? Introduction: Pose a question and then answer it broadly. First Paragraph: Begin with an argument and then back it up with evidence, and ensure to evaluate and give reasons considering the other side of the argument…

I could type out a whole hand sheet and give it to an A-Level student and they would say it’s all wrong because I can’t remember it properly. Which makes me think, why did we spend all those hours doing them when I can’t even remember it now? It’s only been three years, I wasn’t a bad student, nothing catastrophic has happened and wiped my memory clean. Time was wasted.

Or was it?

I’ve come to learn that subjects are a way of thinking, not just a body of facts.

Sure, there are dates and places and monarchies and battles and armadas, and rebellions and religions and hangings and empires… all to remember. That’s the knowledge, the content of the subject, and with enough effort a student can learn it.

What essay planning teaches us is how to synthesise all of these facts, to pick out what is thematically relevant, to understand what affects what, the causes and the effects…

Writing an essay requires students to use appropriate reasoning for the subject as it practises and develops the way of thinking the subject needs. You’re not just learning to plan an essay, you’re learning to evaluate and analyse, each high-order skills (from Bloom’s taxonomy) that stretch a student in their abilities.

These are our real tools: the ability to analyse, the ability to synthesise, the ability to evaluate; doing these essays developed these skills, skills that elevate us into better understanders and better learners. 

We study physics not just to learn complex particles and forces, but so that we also know intuitively that the bounce of the ball will diminish by half after the first bounce so that when we are running down the line we can judge the flight of the ball and control it accurately and are then able to execute a perfect cross into the box for Van Persie to score a diving header into the top righthand corner.

That was me applying physics to football. Poorly. 

Novice Teachers

Lucien Freud

It is almost always noticeable when a teacher is a novice. It’s a fear I hold myself. Being found out. Caught in the open with no foliage to hide me. Foliage being books and theory. A ropey moment in the classroom and everything freezes and the student’s faces turn lopsided in wonder and pity. They’d know, then everything would be lost.

I suppose this is why we arm ourselves with tools fashioned from the foliage. Stripped-down, sharpened theories to spear encroaching humiliation, and hardened lesson planning act as shelter from wandering time-wasters.

It is not a surprise to find out then, that novice teachers often set too difficult tasks. We don’t want the group to know we’re fresh puplings with our eyes barely open, their teeth and tongues ready to gnash in conversation over our quiet whimpers. So, we give the students something really hard. Of course. 

Motivation

Rothko, I like this one a lot. 

Motivation is something students battle nearly every day, and it’s not only students, it’s  people in general. In my own experience, I have known some who have grinded to a halt and then went to rust. A person’s mental fortitude to keep on going forward is a natural phenomenon in my eyes. Thus, a teacher’s ability to keep their tired, distracted, dormant students motivated in their work is essential, and amazing.

It’s been interesting looking over the factors of good motivation, considering what is necessary and how it should be applied. I can see now how vital positive reinforcement is at every level, and from my own life I can see where an initial failure has led to consequential failures. At a younger age I tried to learn an instrument, yet through poor reinforcement and little encouragement I stopped ever thinking I could learn. Thankfully, I want to try again as you don’t need to learn an instrument at a young age, you can do it at any age. It will be bass guitar.

Many students say they like a certain subject best because of their teacher, and now this makes sense. If your teacher is encouraging and positive about your work, the student would want to do well for that teacher because they know they would receive praise. Success breeds success. The student has to want to learn, and doing it not only for themselves, but to gain appreciation from their teacher too, is a strong motivator.

Teacher Talk and Why We Need 1-on-1 Learning

Modigliani

Reading into teacher talk has brought up some things which I find interesting.

1. Most people talk at about 100 to 200 words per minute. A one-hour lecture could contain 12,000 words. That’s a short book.

2. The concentration span of a student is less than 5 minutes. For an undergraduate, it’s perhaps 15 to 20 minutes.

If an undergraduate can really only concentrate for 20 minutes tops on teacher talk, why is some of the most expensive kind of education, degree and masters, mainly taught in the worst way possible?

A quote of a quote from Geoff Petty’s book, Teaching Today:

‘A lecture is an event where information passes from the notes of the lecturer into the notes of the student, without passing through the brains of either.’

.

I have to understand, and I do, even though I do not see it, that tutors and lecturers are busy. Busy marking, writing their own material, studying themselves, publishing their books, speaking in places of importance, teaching us empty heads at lectures with wise words developed through experience and knowledge. All important stuff.

We know lectures are the worst way to learn.

This is most likely why our tutors have made us write blogs, it engages us in a more immersive way. We gather our opinions, of stuff we’ve read independently, we’ve evaluated and analysed what we’ve taken in and then reflect on it here. This blogging technology has been a great breakthrough for learning techniques.

It’s great for independent learning but learning also requires teaching support. Classrooms dilute student-teacher interaction because the teacher is handling a class, an individual student can become lost.

At degree level there’s little rapport between students. There are friends, but they are pockets within a blanket of faces who don‘t know each other. A spiral of silence can occur. If, to the individual, the masses look like they understand, then they don’t say anything because no one else is, for fear of losing face and esteem. Where a lecture is the only other avenue of learning whole swathes of individual students can go unchecked.

1-on-1 tutorials are perfect. They provide intimate and personal help for the student. They create a rapport between student and tutor, allowing great positive reinforcement. It can help confidence too, in the student’s own work, and in contribution to class if the teacher encourages well.

So much good can come from 1-on-1 learning, and I don’t understand why tutors can’t have a permanent schedule of tutorials with students, so the student know they WILL see their tutors, rather than maybe, if they’re not busy.