Permission to learn

Conversations in the staff room, with teachers who have immense experience, are a tremendous inspiration. Real live 'case studies' where one gets the chance to interrogate a participant can not only be an addition to one's observation and reflection (as per Kolb's learning cycle), but also prompt one to look at another field in a different light.

A colleague who had to deal with very disruptive students noted that no matter how well he established a relationship with them, he didn't achieve anything until he was granted 'permission to teach'. How to gain this permission then. Wlodowski (1985) suggests that motivating students to learn is a combination of desire for success, volition (choice), value (valence) and enjoyment. The teacher who is to achieve this demonstrates expertise, empathy, enthusiasm and clarity. Amongst the detail of this good practice, two points stand out for me: continuously considering the learners' perspectives as part of the empathic approach and providing a clear way to comprehend what has been taught (clarity) when it has not been initially clear.

The former seems to suggest that planning a session cannot be too rigid - the students were not able to provide input other than the teacher's experience of their likely reactions, after all. The latter ties in with this week's PGCE session on assessment. Exploring assessment and academic research on the subject is something of a minefield: Murphy (1996) is clear that teacher assessment appears to enhance understanding but Broadfoot (1996) suggests that organisational assessment may not provide such benefits.

Broadfoot, P. (1996). Educational assessment: the myth of measurement. In Peter Woods (Ed), Contempory issues in teaching and learning. London: Routledge.
Murphy, P. (1996). Integrating learning and assessment. In Peter Woods (Ed), Contempory issues in teaching and learning. London: Routledge.
Wlodowski, R.J. (1985). Enchancing Adult Motivation to Learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.