21st Century Teaching and Learning
How do you engage students in quality thinking?
1. High-Tech works best
- This is has well intentions
- More tech is coming into play and teachers think they need it all
- We don't need 6 usb ports at every desk and 25 3D printers to have quality thinking and learning
- It is a tool not a strategy
- The high touch works, not the high tech
- The number one driver of student learning is what does the student bring to the learning?
2. You must be like them
- You don't need to dress, walk and talk like them
- Don't be a generational transvestite
- They don't want you to be like them
- Be yourself, and be real!
3, They are Self Sufficient
- On the outside students look self assured, in control and can use all the tech.
- Behind this confidence is a generation who crave mentoring, leadership and connection with adults
- This is a fatherless generation, with 62% growing up in single mother homes
- We need to bridge the gap to help form relationships the are craving
The 6 Keys to Engaging Tomorrow's Students
1. Put Relationship Before Role
- "The teachers we connect with are the ones who treat us like people and not like students"
- Common sense isn't always common practise
- Many teachers were taught the phrase "Don't smile until Easter" - This is the Industrial approach of power and control, authority developing distance and fostering fear and intimidation. This is the separation of role and relationship, this does not work today!
- "I don't care how much you know till I know how much you care"
- Today's students learn teachers not subjects
Be Authentic
- Make opportunities to be real with your students
- Be willing to look silly
- Break down barriers
- They sense BS faster than any other generation, as soon as they sense hypocrisy, fakeness or double standards that wall of trust is gone and they will shut down
- Show weakness - this is a strength today, students value honesty
- Apologise for mistakes
- Give up the control!
- Be vulnerable
Be Interested
- Weave pop culture into the classroom to create relevance
- When you take an interest in them, they will want to learn about you - 2 way exchange
Be Flexible
- Less rules - Less ways for you to be frustrated, let down and upset
- Pick your battles - does it really matter?
- Are the rules you have set up in the context of a relationship?
- Rules without relationships lead to rebellion, rules with relationships lead to respect
2. Matrix Learning
- Show students how what you teach is connected to other subjects, learning and the outside world
- Students need to see the interconnectedness of knowledge
- Knowledge spread across a range of subject areas is vital
- Show connections between skills - if not students will fail to see the relevance - "Why are we learning this? Why do I need this? When will I ever use this?"
- Connect learning to things that are real - tangible
- Be honest with students, if it doesn't connect tell them. This will earn their trust - "Hey let's play the game together, you need to learn this just because you do"
3. Adopt a Facilitator Role
- Be the facilitator of learning and knowledge
- A facilitator asks all the right questions
- We have a generation of 'lazy' learners because all the answers are a click away
- The purpose of a good question isn't to get an answer, it is to promote discussion and self reflection
5 Ingredients to a Powerful Question
1. Avoid closed questions
2. Ask with a curious and inquiring tone
3. Answer a question with a question
4. Adjust your expectations of what an appropriate response is
5. Don't ever start a question with the word 'Why'
- If you start a question with the word 'Why' you have instantly set up an adversarial scenario. You have set that student up to fail, they will get on the defence, justify and argue or they will play the game.
- Change from "Why did you do that?" to "What made you do that?"
4. Give Regular Positive Feedback
- What gets recognised and rewarded gets repeated
- How often are we recognising behaviours we don't want repeated?
- If you want to get the best out of the students, you need to catch students doing the right thing and reward it
- Don't catch students doing the wrong thing and punish it
- Give feedback personally
- Give feedback publicly
- Give feedback proportionately to the amount of effort put in
- Generation Y are incredibly competitive and will work hard to get public praise
- However if you are praising all the time students will become desensitised to the praise
5. Use Stories to Make your Point
- Narrative is effective
- Put the lessons and principles to life
- You are no longer the messenger of content, you are the key part
- Stories are powerful
- "Don't tell me it's right, show me it works"
- Don't feel like you are wasting class time if you are telling a story with a purpose
- Share your experiences and let them make the connections of commonality
- Don't just tell good stories, share your mistakes
6. Go for Commitment not Compliance
- When trying to get students to adopt actions and behaviours, are you opting for commitment or compliance?
- Give students a reason to want to commit
- This is all done by the language we use:
Compliance
- You must...
- You should...
- We expect...
- In the past we have done...
- It is always been...
- The punishment will be...
- The rules clearly say....
Commitment
- You might find...
- You could...
- The benefit would be...
- There is great value in...
- It might be a good idea if...
- The reward for...
- The advantage is...
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