Creating a Caring Classroom

My very first attempt at teaching ended in abject failure. In fact, it lasted all of two minutes before the student I was supposed to teach stood up and walked out of the room. Failure has served me well over my 30-year teaching career so far. That first failure launched me on a trajectory to find out how humans learn and what works best. Since then, I try to keep an open mind about how teaching is a changing landscape; it is fluid, children change, conditions and realities shift in different directions and influence change. Knowing this, it’s best to view oneself as a ‘researching educator’ who is open to trying new things on a regular basis. That being said, I adopt what John Sweller (2017) once said, “Without an understanding of the human cognitive architecture instruction is blind.”  I do not want to be ineffective, so I try my best to stay up on all the latest research and scholarship on teaching and learning.

Small Changes – Big Impact

Learn students’ names

I’m always trying to improve my teaching, so I’m open to listening to my students and I watch carefully how students react and engage with the ways I set up my classes. For example, I wasn’t happy with how I took so long to learn my students’ names. So, this year, not only did I have them put a name card on their desk on the first day (which is what I usually do) but now I arrange for a photographer to come to my first class, and we all go to a suitable location and have our photo taken. I then ask each student to fill in a personal profile sheet with typical demographic questions as well as an assortment of fun questions (i.e., What’s a fun fact about you that no one would ever guess? or Other than the Montreal Canadiens, who is your second favourite NHL team?). I then ask them to send me a selfie by email. I study each picture and memorize each person by the second or third class. Using their names in class, and when I see them on campus, is important. That’s one small change I made this year. I’m getting older so I need all the help I can get with my memory. 

Be explicit with your purpose

Another important thing I’ve changed in recent years is to deliberately model everything and talk about it as I’m teaching.  Since I’m teaching future teachers, I want them to know why I do certain things. For one example, I put directions on the whiteboard, explain my directions and then ask a student to repeat for me that they understand the directions. I then tell them, “This is an approach to how you can make sure your students understand during any moment what you expect of them and where they should be. The science on this is pretty clear. Researchers know that....”  and then I explain why I did it this way. I do this a lot. I may stand off to one side and ask students why I stand to the side while explaining the assignment that I just put up on the board.  I’ll then explain the science behind directing attention (PEN Principle 1).  I tell my students on a frequent basis that I’m trying to demonstrate and model cognitive principles, so they think that way too.

Expect rigorous student thinking

Finally, I decided in the last couple of years to adhere to a new saying I learned: “The teacher should not outwork the students”. It’s true. They should have to think more, process more, debate more, read more, write more, thing again some more, talk more, struggle more, and succeed more....than me. So, I use a lot of group work, case studies, challenge questions, puzzles, reading assignments, and so on. I try to put as much of the course work into their laps as possible. I want them thinking. I want them talking about it.....social construction, social negotiation....all of it. I talk less, they talk more. A lecture is still important but I use it now to set the table. I try to provoke a full meal of engagement and discussion. I want them to hear themselves talk through things and wrestle with interesting topics.

What impacts your perspectives on teaching?

The Science of Learning is a passion and a constant companion in shaping how I teach. My PhD is in Cognitive Studies from Queen’s University, and I am particularly interested in Educational Psychology and Cognitive Psychology. Of course, I’ve spent a lot of time studying topics such as memory, attention, cognitive load, information processing, and so on. In recent years, I’ve been drawn to research on pedagogy that addresses the cognitive architecture of the students we teach. What can teachers do to increase the likelihood that students will remember something, enjoy something, or pay attention to it. The learning sciences help us to filter our extraneous or ineffective teaching methods and hone in on ones that we know help students learn.

One example? Relationships. The science that supports classroom engagement (aka classroom management) hinges strongly on how strong student-to-student and student-to-teacher relationships are....so I work on them. I try to have every class session involve student-to-student conversations. I want students to know that they need to rely on one another to solve a problem or get full marks for an assignment. I also allow students to work together on assignments and even complete quizzes together. And, I like to have games in class. I try to do activities that are fun but involve teamwork. I sort of force students to depend on one another. Also, I’m trying to get to know my students better. In the past, I’ve taken a casual approach to this and hoped that I’d learn their names or a few things about them. I justified my casual approach because I was too busy to get too invested, but I’ve changed from this approach to a more deliberate relationship-building style. I want to know all of my student’s names and some things about them. I want to be available to talk about their studies and how I can make learning better for them. Truly, I enjoy my students....
 

Links to resources: 

I have deliberately sought to go deep into the Science of Learning and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  Some books I’ve enjoyed recently include:

1. Make it Stick (2014) by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel

1. Small Teaching (2016) by Lang

1. How Learning Happens (2020) by Kirschner & Hendrick

1. How Teaching Happens (2022) by Kirschner, Hendrick, & Heal

1. How We Learn (2020) by Dehaene

1. Why Don’t Students Like School (2021) by Willingham

1. The Cambridge Handbook of The Learning Sciences (2022) by Sawyer (Ed)

1. Uncommon Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn (2021) by Oakley, Rogowsky and Sejnowski

1. Outsmart Your Brain (2023) by Willingham

1. The Science of Learning and Development (2021) by Cantor & Osher (Eds)

1. Psych: The Story of the Human Mind (2023) by Bloom

1. Brain Rules (2008) by Medina

1. Science of Learning Research Centre (PEN Principals: Psychology, Education, Neuroscience)