Do Your Students Take Learning Risks?
I DARE YOU TO GO FIRST!
Are you a role model for learning?
We know that students are always watching the adults in their lives. From an early age, they mirror the attitudes and habits of their parents. That’s how they learn to walk and talk. That’s why they speak with an accent and why they bring unquestioned attitudes and beliefs with them to school. But then educators present them with new information, new ways of thinking. Students start watching their teachers and mimicking their behavior too. Are you a positive role model?
Universally, teachers thrill with students who are eager learners – those who lean forward during instruction and ask thoughtful questions; those who can’t wait to practice and take pride in mastering challenging skills. Carol Dweck calls this a growth mindset. For them, taking learning risks and getting an answer wrong are part of the journey to growth. Bring it on!
But what about the others like the boy in my cartoon? He would tell you that he’ll get up and play when he gets good at throwing baskets.
These students are the ones who avoid eye contact when you ask for volunteers.
They are the ones who want to escape to the nurse’s office, the restroom, or the pencil sharpener. They don’t want to look ignorant in front of their peers. Actually, they don’t want to confirm their suspicion that they can’t learn. For students with a fixed mindset, learning risks are dangerous and to be avoided.
The students with the growth mindset are a gift to you. Enjoy them. But those with the fixed mindset are the reason you became a teacher. How can you reach them? No matter how much your reassure them and protest that they could become accomplished learners, they won’t believe you. They have accumulated too much evidence to the contrary. They will only believe their learning is possible when they take the risk and discover success.
So, what if YOU modeled taking risks in your classroom? What if YOU experimented with different instructional approaches and confided to your students that you were taking a risk? Would they be surprised to hear you say that YOU aren’t an expert at everything? Would they be surprised to hear that teachers need to take courageous action in order to become better teachers? What would they think if they saw YOU welcome constructive criticism?
What if you said, “Today, we are going to try a new collaborative learning method. I have prepared, but I don’t know for sure how this will go. At the end of class I would appreciate your feedback – both what worked and didn’t work for you. I expect we’ll all learn something about learning today.”
Do you model risk taking as their teacher or are you like the boy on the basketball court waiting until you get good to try something new?
