Rightly, I’m calling this column “Learning Threads for All,” as it requires me to write about topics relevant to the interests of education stakeholders. “Threads” is an expectation term, as I look forward to seeing my articles generate meaningful discussions on issues close to my readers’ hearts. The column name also reminds me to use inclusive language that is comprehensible to my readers regardless of their backgrounds and persuasions. It’s a relief that the name is broad enough to cover other matters that have yet to be caught in my web of curiosity.
Allow me to write about my topic now.
It’s common to hear educators, parents, leaders, coaches, and other people who can’t avoid playing the role of a teacher or mentor raise similar problems. “How can I teach effectively?” “In what ways can I improve my manner of teaching?” “What seems to be the problem with the way I teach?” Answering these questions will be a good start for this debut article, as these are shared concerns of individuals whose tasks inevitably include teaching.
The garbage collectors, the homeless, and the beggars are the most unfortunate and abused examples when it comes to persuading young children to study well. Many parents warn their young children that if they don’t study hard enough, they will become garbage collectors or certain kinds of individuals they should not be. But when schoolteachers preach that “Liars go to hell,” their students eventually think their parents are just waiting in line to join the devil and the other lying sinners in hell. The above tactics may initially work, but children would soon realize such warnings have nothing on them but phantom fangs.
Children become increasingly sophisticated in thinking critically, so they are bound to realize they are just being tricked with a scare tactic whose endpoint, for example, again, becoming someone with a hard life, is unwarranted by its unstated premise, if any. What’s worse is that eventually, young students will find their teachers were also deploying the same trick, as lying for good reasons does not necessarily constitute a wrongful or sinful act. The matter becomes more complicated when parents and teachers vent their frustrations on learners who have steadily developed into more mature thinkers who are already aware that falsehoods and erroneous arguments work only with those who still believe that Santa Claus will do house-to-house gift-giving while children are fast asleep.
Add to the current mix of surrounding circumstances the multi-media environment that also cleverly vies for the learners’ attention, and the whole business of achieving sticky learning turns into a monstrous challenge.
So, what do you do if you want to establish strong teaching-learning ties with inattentive or distracted learners? Being truthful and transparent are indispensable pedagogical values, but there are preliminary moves skilled educators make to sustain active learning engagement, which manifests in various forms, such as listening, interpreting, examining, understanding, questioning, evaluating, modifying, constructing, and, in practical situations, applying what is being learned.
To significantly increase the likelihood of successful teaching, teachers must prioritize the following steps: first, capture the learners’ attention; second, spark their interest; and finally, establish a well-regulated friendly connection with them.
1. Capture the learners’ attention.
For learning engagement to occur, the teacher must first have the learners’ attention. Such initial connection is vital, as it is something for the teacher to build on to have a stronger link with the learners, especially those easily distracted. Notice how many educators, parents, coaches, and leaders struggle to teach something because they don’t have the learners’ attention. If learning, regardless of its form and content, is truly fun, then teaching won’t be much of a problem. But many learners have the mindset of a footdragger.
Making the students feel that you’re far from being a spartan teacher makes a lot of sense. Send a signal to the student that you, too, appreciate fun things. For instance, bring a Russian doll to class and place it on the table, where everyone will see it before you speak. Students will surely wonder what it is for. You now have their attention even before asking them playfully, “Who wants to see the bicycle (or an elephant!) inside this little doll?” How can easily distracted students say “I don’t like” to that? They think it’s an irresistible and — it’s a bonus — sanctioned distraction. This and similar openers work well if you want them to learn something procedural. Show one progressively smaller doll at a time until you reach the last part of the lesson. Of course, you must fulfill your promise; show them the bicycle or the elephant inside the smallest doll once you have reached your goal for the learners. You didn’t lie, right? Little children are not thrilled at seeing an actual bicycle, but they can’t resist seeing one inside the Russian doll. You’ll be surprised that this remains an attention magnet even for my college students in U.P. Diliman. Should a teacher dress well and smell good? Yes, why not, when being elegant or cool is a classic attention-getter? Can a teacher wear an outlandish pair of glasses, shoes, or pants? Yes. You can gamely talk about your bizarre outfit and leverage the learners’ attention to stir up curiosity about you and, eventually, about what you have outlined to teach. But let’s not be too fast.
2. Spark the learners’ interest.
Generate curiosity about yourself, what you’re teaching, or both. Fascinate your students with something intriguing or captivating. Interest them with your adventures, mishaps, mementos, show them pictures of your travels, and, if you’re a collector of vintage toys, show them some photos of your collection. What you share to engage your students may or may not be related to what you will teach. It could be something that you are or were once good at doing, say, skateboarding, skydiving, storm chasing, boxing, performing magic tricks (practice this because you can’t fail and look pathetic before a group of learners whose interest you’re courting), or anything that could wow the learners or make them think you’re human, fun-loving, and down-to-earth after all. If you’re an educator, there are actually ways to relate what you share to the subjects you teach.
Socrates’ students found him interesting, not because he was far from being physically attractive like Plato. Athenian Socrates’ looks have drawn uninvited attention, up to now, in fact, but the learners’ enduring fascination for him is something traceable to his radical teaching philosophy. He claimed to be an educator, yet he maintained he knew nothing. However, quickly and cleverly he added, “Wisest is he who knows he doesn’t know.” He knew one thing for sure, after all: that he satisfies his standard of being the wisest. Perhaps, Socrates naughtily let his students do most of the talking, which they loved doing anyway, just like many of today’s students or learners, when you allow them to talk at length. In so doing, Socrates’ students were able to offer a series of progressively better answers to his questions, for example, about truth, morality, and beauty. Socrates was not a curmudgeon; he was easy-going and fun-loving. Interestingly, he was also a tough soldier who fought in battles. He was no wonk; he talked about wrestling, too. Although Socrates did not appear to want to teach his students, his big questions gave birth to several works (written by Plato, one of his students) that still keep many scholars busy up to this day. Socrates set the minds of his followers in motion beyond his time. Amazingly, up to this moment, there is no end in sight for all the threads Socrates had started. With all of the foregoing information, between a modern teacher with a feral snarl and Socrates who would secretly laugh his heart out at your series of inadequate answers to his deceptively simple questions, I think, hands down, still, you’d rather be in the company of Socrates who dined and drank wine with his students who must have developed the habit of scratching their heads each time their teacher exposed the inadequacies of their ideas. There’s no doubt that Socrates’ was a charming education sorcerer.
I also ask my students some questions. “Are the things that we see always what they seem?” “Is it safe to say, ‘To see is to believe’?” I elicit some answers after assuring my students that any answer will be considered with an open mind and utmost respect because my class is a safe space for anyone who wants to speak. Then, I can ask, “Do you believe in magic?” If the answer is “No,” I’m not disheartened because it’s easier to be a magician before an unbelieving crowd than a bunch of little children who agree that magic is real. Without delay, I perform highly visual and quick magic tricks like the coin bite, linking rings, and card illusions. Mind you, these, too, work well even with college students. I’d get a round of applause from them every time. I deploy this technique when I’m preparing the class for a discussion on topics like epistemology and metaphysics in basic education. I can’t just abruptly proceed to teach these topics, which are generally unfamiliar, if they don’t sound like names of contagious diseases, to many of my students from different colleges.
3. Establish a well-regulated, friendly connection with the learners.
This is not just popular advice; it’s one inspired by the philosophy of education archetypes such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Montessori. Despite their reputation for being emotionalists and drama queens, their educational views find massive support in modern research findings that the emotional security learners feel in the company of an agreeable teacher keeps the kind of stress that waters down sticky learning. Unsurprisingly, some schools in industrialized countries go as far as burning incense and playing classical music in the hallways of school buildings to create a relaxing atmosphere in the learning environment. It’s most difficult to teach successfully if the learners feel threatened by a teacher who is thought or reputed to be a tiger teacher. Imagine yourself inside a cage, trying to learn a dreaded or complicated subject matter, with a tiger for your teacher. Now, imagine that tiger transforming into a knowledgeable human teacher with an insatiable appetite for befriending all learners, regardless of their varying traits and intellectual capabilities. I need not say who you’d rather be with if you’re a student. So, how can different educators, parents, and leaders bridge the psychological and communication gap between them and the learners?
It’s not a good practice in school if the teacher is the only one with the airtime for self-introduction. Students, too, get to introduce themselves the way their teachers did, and the teacher must show genuine interest in what the students say about themselves. Take note of what the students say; otherwise, they’ll think that you’re just doing things mechanically. Exploit this opportunity to improve your relationship with your students. Still in school. After getting the consent of the students, the teacher may spend some time cheering for or watching them play basketball, soccer, softball, baseball, table tennis, volleyball, badminton, etc. Better yet, play with the students if your knees will permit. When I was in high school, many of our highly effective teachers either coached us in sports or played ball games with us.
As a senior colleague, you can tell your mentee co-workers about your personal learning experiences or anything that could make them more receptive when you start teaching them something. The parents can do the same or surprise their distracted kids by asking them about anime or manga art or their favorite performing artists. I tried this myself, and my daughters gave me demonstration lectures about their interests and hobbies. Don’t speak like you’re an unreachable know-it-all. You’ll be surprised learners will enthusiastically inform you about their interests once they sense authenticity in your expression of curiosity or desire to learn. Approaching the learners with a friendly spirit will put them at ease as soon as they start to realize that you’re not, after all, a tiger teacher, a geek, or a weirdo — all rolled into one — whose range of consciousness lies outside their world and who cannot relate to anyone or anything outside the confines of problematic teaching. When learners feel they can be friends with someone tasked to teach them something, they become more and more comfortably connected with that person. Instead of holding back their questions, the learners seek more knowledge without fear of being subtly ignored, insulted, subjected to sarcasm, dealt with impatiently, chastised, shamed, or made to feel that their matters are inconvenient to the teacher.
4. After going through steps 1, 2, and 3, you may already start introducing your subject matter.
Are you complaining that the above preliminary pedagogical steps are time-consuming? If yes, would you revert to your default mode of being an uncool teacher who thinks that a veiled half-snarl will hasten your students’, mentees’, or child’s learning? Three films beautifully illustrate the value of the pedagogical advice articulated in this article, regardless of who is teaching. “Like Stars on Earth (Every Child is Special),” “3 Idiots” and “I Not Stupid Too” lucidly demonstrate and eloquently narrate how parents, educators, and other teachers succeed or fail in teaching. These fantastic films are all about doing and not doing steps 1, 2, and 3 when individuals responsible for teaching are dealing with a learner or learners.
The above advice is not a substitute for teaching and learning content, which will always remain among the prerequisites of successful teaching.
