(Part of chapter 7, "Building Character and Trust")
The author says that Explain Everything means explaining to the students why certain decisions are being made and what the implications of students' decisions will be. The teacher should explain why certain pedagogical activities will help the students learn the lesson better. When a teacher does this, the students learn that the activities they have been asked to do having importance, and have been thought through.
But, the teacher should explain to students the implications of their decisions. The author suggests that if a student often asks to go to the nurse, the teacher should explain to the student that missing class will hinder the student's ability to excel. In this way, the teacher reminds the student that they are responsible for their own education, and that their decisions (going to the nurse) have implications -- perhaps long-term implications.
My response:
Explaining to students why certain activities in the classroom are important is a crucial technique at the college level. This is especially true if a professor employs techniques (from this book, e.g.) that college students are not used to seeing in the college classroom. The students are old enough to know that the professor has choices in how to teach, so when they are told the reasons for doing a certain activity, they can know what the professor is thinking, and they (hopefully) can be confident that the professor's methods have merit.
I have made a special effort to do this in my classroom, where I use Formative (or Diagnostic) Assessment techniques, and I don't lecture much. This is new to students, and some find it very unusual and are very skeptical about it.
As for the second part of Explain Everything -- reminding students of the implications of their decisions -- I think this is important, too. I don't do this enough in my classrooms. I do emphasize to students at the beginning of a course that skipping class is a sure-fire recipe for a lower grade. But, perhaps I could emphasize this kind of thing more during the course.
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Thank you for sharing your techniques. I have been teaching for the past 25 years, and employ some of the techniques that you mention.
ReplyDeleteWhen I explain the activities that I'm asking them to do, it is only to reinforce what should be happening, and what I know the 'onlookers' are capable of doing. Often, I've caught them "doing it right" and want them to demonstrate it for the rest of the class. I explain exactly what was so right, so the student doing it knows what they did, and the students watching know exactly what they're looking for.
The other comment that I want to make is that in your example regarding the student going to the nurse frequently, the teacher "explain[ing] to the student that missing class will hinder the student's ability to excel" presupposes that the student is going to the nurse's office for something other than being ill. This communicates lack of trust, implying that the student is lying about illness.
While that may be the case, it also may not be the case. The student may actually be having a medical issue. I say show genuine concern about the student's health. What's going on? Have they seen a doctor?
If it doesn't seem to be a medical condition, then why are they opting out of class? When students perceive that you genuinely care, and they trust you, they'll tell you. If you're going to point out that they are falling behind, discuss ways to stay current with their studies. No need to explain or to "emphasize" the idea that you think they're potential slackers, by talking about them "skipping class."
Especially at the college level, the attendance policy and the real time consequences of their actions will make that point. Sometimes students skip class, because they don't need to attend to get the material. It depends on how the instructor structures his/her class. Some instructors drone on and on, and the tests are based on the material in the book. So why suffer through class?
Please don't be like one of my professors whose class I got all A's in, for the exact reasons stated above, but then tried to give me an F because of attendance. :-/