The curious shall inherit the earth
In my experience, there is at least one aspect of the lives of eighteen-year olds today that is no different from eighteen-year olds' lives forty years ago: they don't have their teachers' or their parents' heads on their shoulders. Nor should they have or they will never truly learn anything.
Experiencing life, their own lives, not some reflected existence, is what provides the lesson materials, assessment tasks and growth. And it is curiosity that delivers the energy that drives all learning.
The focus of teaching the young must, therefore, be fostering and rewarding curiosity.
The focus of teacher education ought to be the same.
Subsequently, I recently came across an article in The Learning Network Journal from Spring, 2014: Can we use brain theory to enhance learning? by Dr Janelle Sheen. She wrote that she used the acronym ACE for "behaviour expectation guidelines" - Attitude, Curiosity and Enjoyment. This resonates very strongly with me.
It is highly instructive that learning is far less related to the lesson plan, unit structure, assessment types or erudition of the teacher. Students will remember the attitude of the teacher, their zest and curiosity for all things and the fun they had with them. Strange, is it not?
Perhaps this is how we "ace" teaching and learning. No doubt knowledge, expertise and planning are important. But working harder is not. Structuring more meetings is not.
Let's become curious and fun-loving teachers who have an attitude of positive encouragement and present-moment thinking. After all, it's all we have.
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