Drive

Been so busy just lately but this tweet has reminded me that I need to post again :) Here's the tweet that motivated this post:

Often imo when people say they want their pupils to be "independent learners" they really want them to stop being lazy and do some work
— Bigkid (@Bigkid4) April 11, 2013

Surely every teacher's goal is to create autonomous, self directed learning. That is the end game, we start incrementally in the same way we do as parents. Leading by example; showing curiosity; rewarding interaction with the world and with the means of acquiring knowledge; – the trick is to find the way of creating the urge to learn and grow – the drive (recommended reading: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/184767769X) . From an educational perspective, this is where work on motivation fits (Dornyei et al). A skilled teacher, whatever their sector, knows how to create an ethos of rigour and investigation, collaboration and mutual support, interaction and mutual development. A student centred approach is not, as so often portrayed some kind of "happy, clappy" movement where there are no boundaries and even the feeblest, fake attempts to feign interest are praised. Why would anyone wish to accentuate the wishy washy! I find it annoying when teachers divide each other into the "strict" and the "fun". Such oversimplification is lazy thinking, not worthy of the profession. Like all reductionism it fails to acknowledge that a good teacher, like a good parent, modifies their behaviour to fit a given context in order to achieve their aim. Oh and what was that again? Creating autonomous, self directed, LIFELONG learners. Our aim is to make ourselves dispensable. We need to be experts whilst knowing that expertise includes knowing that we have little expertise:

"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge." Socrates