(Note, this article was written by me, not Paulo Freire)
1. Focus on the psychological and psychosocial needs of the student
Ryan and Deci, in their Self Determination Theory, talk about the three inherent needs of students, and all people for that matter, in order to develop the intrinsic motivation to learn. These three needs are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. If a teacher can succeed in providing these three things, then they have succeeded in creating an optimal environment for student learning to occur. Erikson explores the 8 phases of a person's psychosocial development and asserts that adolescents at high school age are primarily concerned with forming their identity and positioning themselves within an adult world. In order for them to succeed in these identity formations and not to develop behaviours of avoidance, Erikson contends that teachers need to support students psychologically throughout these years which brings me to my main point - students have a fundamental right and an innate need to feel safe and valued in the classroom, and only when they feel this can learning truly occur. According to Vygotsky, all learning occurs first in one's social context before it is internalised and incorporated by an individual. As teachers our first role is to ensure that students are being catered to socially and psychologically and we can do this by addressing Ryan and Deci's psychological needs:
Relatedness: Are we as teachers relating to our students? This could mean selecting content knowledge that is appropriate, interesting and engaging for students - that incorporate their real lives. It also means are we being sincere in our social interactions? Students are like blood hounds when it comes to sniffing out insincerity, so I suppose the moral of the lesson is, if you don't care about teaching and you don't care about your students, really, honestly care about them, then perhaps it's time to start seeking out a new profession.
Autonomy: Are we allowing our students a level of autonomy in our classes? As teachers we need to know when to step back and let students learn, this is what Vygotsky calls "scaffolding" and it is commonplace terminology in schools world wide. As teachers we want our students to succeed, however we also know by now that failure is a natural part of life, and that a life without failure is closely related to a life without taking risks. We need to give students real experiences that they have ownership over to create their own meaningful connections and pathways between knowledge. This form of experiential, or embodied learning has proved highly effective every since Dewey's critique of traditional education in 1938. There is that famous quote by Benjamin Franklin, "tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn". It's not the nicest quote but you get the point. Not only do students need to experience autonomy over their learning, but also as people, finding their way into the adult world. It is hard for teachers to think about giving our students autonomy in our classes, some simple things could be to design an assessment task WITH your students, to incorporate their individual interests into your lessons, to allow opportunities for them to have their voices heard and listened to... however you do it, once managed your classes will come to life with our students creativity.
Last but not least is competence: We need to teach to students within their Zone of Proximal Development in order to ensure that every student has the opportunity to experience success. In a lecture by Patrick Griffin at the University of Melbourne this year, the opportunity for students to experience success is essential, not just for the high flyers but for every student. As teachers we need to be assessing our students accurately, and identifying their zones of proximal development and actual development in order to create targeted teaching strategies to enable students to learn. as Griffin states "if teaching is targeted to the level of development demonstrated by students, all students can learn." (Griffin, 2014). It is important for students to experience success in order to become competent learners, and it is important for students to become competent learners because without competency it is hard for a person to find true and intrinsic value in what they are doing and who they are. Competency is what motivates students intrinsically to achieve a level of mastery in whatever task they are completing or goal they have set.
2. Be Passionate
Having excellent content knowledge and being passionate about your learning area will translate to your students who will experience (hopefully) some of your enthusiasm. Any of us who have worked in a customer service role know how contagious a smile is - and any of us who have had the pleasure of being taught by a teacher who is really passionate about their subject will also understand this contagiousness of passion. According to John Hattie, teachers are the single largest influence on student learning and those of us who have had bad teachers will know this all too well. I remember my high school years - I was positive beyond any doubt that I was mentally challenged when it came to Science. I couldn't score higher than a D if my life depended on it. I had this stone faced teacher called Mrs Smith who would coldly set us work from out text books and leave us to work in silence. It wasn't until year nine when Mrs Smith was replaced with a younger, warmer teacher who was interesting and made our subject fun that I realised I could and did get straight A's for the entire year. In year 10 I was unfortunate enough to get Mrs Smith yet again and my marks plummeted.
Mrs Smith had been teaching for a while, and it seemed quite obvious that whatever enthusiasm she may have once had for the subject was well and truly dead, and this translated to her students. It is important for us as teachers to keep our passions alive, and to incorporate them into our subjects and learning areas. Our students are all individuals, and so are we. We all have our own values and our own interests and sharing those with our students is not only interesting for them, but it models and promotes a culture of openness and honest communication within our classrooms. Whether we want to talk to our students about our passion for animal welfare, the environment, Beyonce's outfit at the Grammys, if we can make it work and make it relevant to learning, then it will only add colour to our pedagogy. It is important to note here that as teachers, we are in a position of power, and we are highly influential over our students, so when we share our personal views and beliefs it is important to emphasise that they are our own, and to be sensitive and never self righteous. It is not our position as teachers to tell our students that our beliefs are more valid than theirs. One of my lecturers told me once that in Sweden there are no separate words for "learning" and "teaching", instead the word for them both is one and the same. I'm not sure how true this is but I like the thought of learning and teaching as an exchange that happens. Perhaps teaching in Cambodia and on my travels around the globe I have realised just how much we can learn if we shut our mouths every now and then and let somebody else speak. As academics we are perpetual learners, and thus our students can be our best resources. In this exchange of knowledge, every person regardless of powerless or hierarchy deserves and appreciates respect and what better way to show our appreciation than to share and include our students passions and interests into our pedagogy?
Mrs Smith had been teaching for a while, and it seemed quite obvious that whatever enthusiasm she may have once had for the subject was well and truly dead, and this translated to her students. It is important for us as teachers to keep our passions alive, and to incorporate them into our subjects and learning areas. Our students are all individuals, and so are we. We all have our own values and our own interests and sharing those with our students is not only interesting for them, but it models and promotes a culture of openness and honest communication within our classrooms. Whether we want to talk to our students about our passion for animal welfare, the environment, Beyonce's outfit at the Grammys, if we can make it work and make it relevant to learning, then it will only add colour to our pedagogy. It is important to note here that as teachers, we are in a position of power, and we are highly influential over our students, so when we share our personal views and beliefs it is important to emphasise that they are our own, and to be sensitive and never self righteous. It is not our position as teachers to tell our students that our beliefs are more valid than theirs. One of my lecturers told me once that in Sweden there are no separate words for "learning" and "teaching", instead the word for them both is one and the same. I'm not sure how true this is but I like the thought of learning and teaching as an exchange that happens. Perhaps teaching in Cambodia and on my travels around the globe I have realised just how much we can learn if we shut our mouths every now and then and let somebody else speak. As academics we are perpetual learners, and thus our students can be our best resources. In this exchange of knowledge, every person regardless of powerless or hierarchy deserves and appreciates respect and what better way to show our appreciation than to share and include our students passions and interests into our pedagogy?
So when it comes to resources (which is what this blog post was initially supposed to be about), I suppose I am taking the same view as John Hattie, who, in a controversial lecture at The University of Melbourne this year, told us that we don't need more resources! We have enough out there. What really matters, what makes the biggest difference to student learning is us, the teacher. In other words, a student's best resource is YOU!
References:
Dewey, J. (1938). John Dewey experience and education. New York: McMillan.
Griffin, P. (Ed.). (2014). Assessment for Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Hattie, J. (2013). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard university press.
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