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The Best Questions for Learning May Not Be Ours

As soon as children learn to speak, they begin to ask questions. We can even become frustrated and impatient with the number of questions children ask. Sometimes we may not feel we've the time to respond. At other times we may not know the answers, and we don’t have the energy to pursue them. Yet, questions are a crucial way for children to learn. Our responses can shut the door to asking and learning or open the door to further inquiry and more information. Later as children enter school, they come to understand that the important questions are the questions that adults ask. These questions point the way to where adults want students to give their attention. In fact, student questions often are discounted and treated more as distractions than they’re honored, respected, and used as possibilities to generate learning. Consequently, students learn to explore less of what they don’t know and ask fewer questions. Unfortunately, the messages students receive about their questions risk cutting off key paths to learning that can be generated by questions. When students aren’t encouraged to ask questions, they often discount their curiosity, tolerate their confusion, and default to the thoughts and attention leveraged by adults. In a world that increasingly demands new ideas, thrives on discovery, and rewards novel insights, discouraging questions delivers a serious disservice to our learners. Alternatively, if we reacquaint students with their imagination, honor their curiosity, and encourage their questions, we place in their hands a powerful tool for learning within and beyond what the formal curriculum presents. However, for most students, we need to reteach the role and value of questions to stimulate and support their learning. Let’s explore four ways we empower students to enhance their learning through questions they develop and ask. First, we can teach students to ask questions about their learning as they learn. For example, when students study a concept, reading text, or develop a skill, they can ask themselves questions about the meaning and application of what they’re learning. Their questions help them organize, focus, and absorb new information and strengthen their recall. In fact, creating and asking oneself questions while learning proves a more powerful learning tool than highlighting or underlining text or taking notes. Second when students ask questions that are more significant than seeking clarification and direction, we can resist providing immediate answers and join them in their learning search. We might begin by probing the source and implications of student questions to gain full understanding of what’s driving their questions. Further, we can engage with students to find answers, even when we might have a ready answer we could share. When we learn with students, we honor their interest and curiosity, and we provide them with approaches, options, and modeling they can use to learn independently. Third, we can teach students to frame worthy questions about their learning. For example, we might introduce a taxonomy, such as Bloom’s or Depth of Knowledge (DOK), to help students to understand and utilize multiple levels of thinking and complexity in questions they develop. Then we can coach students to ask deeper, more significant questions in class discussions, probe with deeper questions and thinking in their writing, and practice deeper reflection as they learn. Fourth, we can leverage growing questioning expertise among students by having them create some or all the questions they’ll be asked on a quiz or exam. At first, we might think this approach to be unproductive because students would know the questions in advance. However, if we coach students to create an array of meaningful, complex, relevant questions, their responses will demonstrate learning that may go well beyond what would have been demonstrated by unfamiliar questions at risk of being misunderstood or confusing to students. In fact, the process of developing good questions leads to greater understanding of content and enhanced organization of what has been learned than responding to questions developed by someone else. Asking questions isn't only a great way for young children to learn; questions are powerful drivers of learning regardless of age. Our challenge is to renew the natural tendency for children and young people to ask questions. However, we also can help them to frame, examine, and pursue questions that feature greater complexity, depth, and significance. When we do, we give them one of the most powerful tools for learning they can employ.

January 27, 2023

Six Learning-Based Strategies to Counter Cheating

It‘s disheartening when we discover that the work students submitted as representative of their learning is not their own. They may have copied the work of others without attribution. They may have had someone else do the work for them. They may have devised a way to secure test questions in advance or otherwise submitted work that wasn't a product of their learning. The list could go on. Of course, many reasons explain why students decide to cheat. Some students have poor time management discipline and run out of time to prepare. Some students believe they need to get a high grade and assume they won’t achieve it on their own. Some students believe others are cheating, and they too must cheat to compete. Other students aren’t interested in what they’re asked to learn, and cheating seems like a workable shortcut. Still others just assume they won’t be caught. The wide range of forces and factors that lead to cheating argue for more than a single strategy to counter the behavior. We need to think beyond threats, punishments, and logistical strategies that may challenge cheating but fail to address the root causes. Our efforts to counter the behavior needs to be multi-part and responsive to what typically motivates students to cheat. Here are six strategies we can consider, adapt, and adopt. We can start by being clear about what constitutes cheating. Students typically are aware of the most blatant forms of cheating, but they may not have thought about other behaviors that fall within its definition. We might provide examples, share stories, and engage students in conversations about what cheating is and what it’s not. We might explain legal considerations related to plagiarism and similar issues, depending on the ages of our students. We need to be clear that cheating is dishonest, unacceptable, or a sign of poor judgement. Most importantly, we need to communicate to students that it violates the trust we place in them, trust which is central to our relationship. For many students, this step alone is enough to have them hesitate and reconsider cheating as an option. A second strategy is to avoid over-emphasizing grades and placing excessive pressure on students to attain them. For example, we need to provide multiple low stakes opportunities for students to demonstrate and measure their learning throughout teaching and learning cycles. We can remind students that grades are intended to reflect their learning; they aren’t the reason for it. Additionally, we need to avoid student-to-student competition that drives status and image, which can leave students feeling pressure to find shortcuts to winning. A third strategy is to make sure learning is meaningful and purposeful for students. When students are interested in what they’re learning, see utility in skills they develop, and feel ownership for their progress, cheating becomes less attractive. The secret for us is to connect what students are asked to learn, to what we know about them, and to what motivates them to learn. For example, we might give choices about how students will approach their learning, what materials they may use, and how they’ll share and display their work. Of course, when we show interest in what students are learning and sincerely engage with them in the learning process, we create a more authentic and engaging experience. A fourth approach is to focus on the process of learning over its product or outcome. We can focus our attention on the learning path students experience. We can offer feedback, praise their efforts and strategies, and engage them in conversations about their learning. Even a short conversation can indicate whether a student is learning and where they might be struggling. Interestingly, the more students know how much we know about their learning progress the more difficult is their decision to cheat. A fifth strategy is to treat cheating as misbehavior and consider teaching over punishment. Cheating, like other misbehavior, is an error in judgement and reflects poor decision-making. We can think about what lesson needs to be learned, not what punishment to exact. Our goal is to have students not repeat the behavior. While there may be consequences, we also need to give students strategies to deal with situations in which they might choose to cheat. As examples, they might come to us for additional assistance, request an extension for submitting a project, or learn better time management strategies. A sixth and final strategy is to provide structures and supports that discourage cheating. We might construct assessments that have students compose responses rather than select from a list or provided options. We can construct assessments that focus on deeper understanding than dates and facts. We also need to be clear about resources students can and cannot access and use during the assessment. Of course, the more our assessments involve learning performances, explanations, and applications, the more difficult it is to cheat. As noted earlier, there’s no one way to prevent students from deciding to cheat. Students look for shortcuts for many reasons. However, we can provide a learning environment and community that makes cheating less necessary and attractive. And when cheating happens, we can use it as an opportunity to teach rather than punish.

January 19, 2023

Four Reminders to Maintain Mid-Year Momentum

The learning success our students experience comes from the interaction among multiple elements. How prepared students are to learn what we ask matters. How students think and feel about their learning matters. How we position ourselves as students learn matters. The learning path and choices we offer to students matter. We also know that how we introduce new learning, the supports we provide, and the commitment we communicate to students that they will succeed all make a difference. We must create the supportive context students need to invest, persist, and succeed. However, in the press and pace of this time of the year, we can neglect some of the key practices crucial to the success of our students. Here are reminders of four key steps and strategies that can maintain learning momentum for our students and position them for success. First, we need to spend time preparing students before introducing new learning. For example, we might revisit and refresh students’ prior learning that will be required for success with the learning that lies ahead. It can be tempting to assume that students will have retained and be able to recall past learning to support new learning. However, too often past learning fades with time and some reminding and practice is needed to make it available to support the next phase of learning. During the review we may discover learning gaps needing to be filled. Now is the time to address them. Deciding to overlook or ignore learning gaps now can make new learning even more difficult and require us to take even more time repeating and reexplaining new concepts and skills later. Second, we need to discuss with students what they will be asked to learn and why the learning will be important and useful. Students are likely to be less anxious when they know what they will be learning. Students are more likely to engage when the path of their learning is clear. Further, when students understand the purpose and utility of what they’re learning, they’re likely to be more motivated and ready to engage. Third, we need to draw on our knowledge of our students to anticipate aspects of what students will be learning that may generate misconceptions and confusion. We can mentally revisit past experiences with our students when they’ve struggled and stumbled in their understanding and develop plans and processes to minimize distracting and confusing elements. We also can point out comparisons and connections to prior learning that can help students stay on track. Our attention to preventing confusion and misconceptions is an important time saver. Having to go back and unravel misconceptions and reteach key concepts can be difficult, time consuming, and is not always successful. Fourth, we need to remind students that we can’t be successful unless they are. Consequently, we we’ll be beside them as they learn, and they can expect our full support. Such reassurance may seem obvious, but when we tie our success to the success of our students, we position ourselves as partners in their learning journey. We become advocates and promoters of their success, not just dispensers of information and assigners of work for them to do. Maintaining learning momentum during the winter months can be a challenge. However, our attention and commitment to the practices that make learning most accessible for our students can be the difference between “slogging” through the mid-year months and sustaining a rhythm of learning success.

January 12, 2023

Five Instruction and Assessment Practices to Abandon Now

We recently turned the calendar to begin a new year. For many of us, we now face the second half of our academic year. These annual milestones offer an opportunity for us to pause and take stock of practices and routines on which we rely as we instruct and assess the learning of our students. It can be easy to assume that longstanding practices must be effective. Yet, some things that used to seem like good practice may look different as we consider their contribution to our students’ learning. Similarly, it may be time to re-examine some of our assessment practices to be sure they’re generating accurate and reliable information about the learning progress of our students. Here are five common instruction and assessment practices that are worth our attention as we move into the second half of the academic year. Let’s begin with the practice of assigning unit, quarterly, or end-of-course grades based on the average of grades given throughout the grading period. Students who enter our classes with limited background knowledge and experience related to the content often score poorly on early assessments. Even though these students may perform well as their learning grows, averaging scores risks under reporting the extent of their learning growth and may not reflect their current learning status. Conversely, students who enter our classes with extensive background knowledge and experience may score well early in the learning process and receive an advantage in the assignment of grades. In fact, students who begin with significant knowledge and experience may not learn as much as their less advantaged classmates and still be awarded higher grades. We do better when we assign grades based on what students have learned than on how much they knew when they began. Another practice worth examining is the use of timed tests to measure whether students have learned a concept or skill. Unfortunately, timed tests create a level of anxiety that can impede students’ ability to think clearly and show the full extent of their learning. This impact is most common among young students, those more likely to be subjected to timed tests. The ability to perform quickly under pressure can be a measure of memorization and reflexivity; it does not necessarily represent deep learning or full understanding. Yet another practice worth review is relying on a pre-set pace for instruction to ensure curriculum content coverage rather than allowing the pace of student learning to drive the nature and pace of instruction. Pacing guides and quarterly instructional plans can be beneficial, but they’re not measures of student learning and don’t guarantee that students will be ready to learn at the pace we might expect. What matters most isn’t whether we have “covered” the curriculum. In fact, coverage means nothing to students who failed to learn what they were taught. If we must choose between coverage and student learning, learning is the only responsible choice. Still another practice worthy of review is treating students who are fast learners as though they also must be good learners. We often use the terms “fast learners” and “good learners” almost interchangeably. In fact, fast learning students often are blessed with strong short-term memories. They’re capable of absorbing and repeating information quickly and accurately. However, they often forget almost as quickly as they learn, especially once their learning has been assessed. On the other hand, students who may struggle to grasp a concept or take more time to develop and demonstrate a skill may learn more deeply and retain what they learn much longer. We do well to coach “fast learners” to move their learning to long term memory and resist assuming students who require more time to learn aren't good learners. A fifth practice that, while embedded in the traditional design of schools, warrants review is the grouping of students for instruction by age. While it is a convenient way of deciding how to organize for instruction, we know that students grow at different rates and learn in different ways. In fact, the average American classroom includes students with academic and learning readiness levels spanning 3.5 years. Nevertheless, most classes are formed based on students’ years of birth rather than their readiness to learn what is taught. While it may not be practical to immediately and completely dismantle age-based grouping practices, any modifications and adjustments that can be made to better recognize learning development and readiness as a basis for instruction will be helpful to young learners. You may have additional practices you want to reexamine. There may never be a better time to make the commitment than now. Of course, making changes in relied-on practices can be challenging, but your students and their learning deserve your best.

January 12, 2023

Five Motivational Secrets From Research You Can Use Now

Much of our lesson planning time and energy is spent figuring out how best to motivate students to learn. We know that even the best content and crucial academic skills can go unlearned unless students are motivated. We also know that the best learning motivation comes from within students, not in response to external incentives and consequences attached to whether students choose to learn. Of course, some learning inherently is interesting, meaningful, and attractive for students. Known as intrinsic motivation, this drive to learn is commonly generated by one or more of the following conditions: Students feel confident in their ability to succeed. Students see their actions as directly contributing to an outcome. Students find value or are interested in what they’re learning. Students expect the learning effort they’re giving will lead to a sense of belonging or approval. So, what might these conditions look like in practice? Consider these five research supported examples to generate even more possibilities. It benefits students to see that what they’re learning is important or fun. The keys are for learning to be purposeful and to keep the focus on learning benefits, not grades. If students perceive learning as fun, adding dimensions to make it even more fun enhances the learning experience. Interestingly, according to research, if students see learning as important, adding a dimension of fun has little positive impact on their learning. Encourage students to share their best learning strategies and advice with another student to create learning advantages. Students often find getting advice from another student easier and more comfortable than from an adult. Surprisingly, studies show the greatest impact from students sharing advice can be on the student who shares the advice. Coach students to engage in productive self-talk. For example, students can remind themselves that they’re capable, competent, and creative and can recall past successful situations. Also, students may remind themselves of the consequences for not completing an assignment or feeling disappointment if they fail in their work. Another way is to encourage students to set up routines and organize their immediate environment to create a state of mental readiness and reduce interruptions. For example, students choose to follow consistent steps as they organize study materials, put away distractions, and get ready to focus. They also may establish consistent locations where they study. The consistency of preparation and location makes getting started easier as it becomes the next step of a familiar routine in a comfortable space. For extended learning sessions, having more than one location to shift to after an hour or so creates a motivating enhancement. Finally, we can give students procedural and cognitive choices. In contrast to organizational choices, such as choosing where to sit or what partners with whom to work, procedural choices invite students to decide how they’ll approach an assignment or display their learning. Cognitive choices extend to strategies students will use to engage in their work, prior learning and skills they’ll employ, and what processes they’ll use to solve a problem. While organizational choices provide students a sense of belonging, procedural choices generate early motivation for students to get started and cognitive choices generate interest, ownership, and commitment to learning activities. We know each student arrives with different needs, interests, and aspirations. The more we know about them the better able we’re to design experiences and present learning tasks they’ll find motivating. However, our long-term goal needs to be for students to recognize how they can motivate themselves. These five research-based strategies are a great place for them to start. Sources: Sparks, S. (2022, April 24). 3 Counterintuitive findings about motivation that teachers can use. Education Week. Stefanou, C. R., Perencevich, K. C., DiCintio, M., & Turner, J. C. (2004). Supporting autonomy in the classroom: Ways teachers encourage student decision making and ownership. Educational Psychologist, 39(2), 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3902_2

January 06, 2023

Help Students Learn Faster and Remember Longer

Our immediate goal with each lesson is to have students absorb content they encounter and build skills with which they’re presented. We want them to be successful today. However, our larger, longer-term goal is to have them become skilled, efficient, and effective learners. Students building skills and developing techniques equip them to learn faster and remember more of what they learn. When we teach and coach students to develop effective learning skills and habits, we support them to be more successful today. We also equip them with tools and techniques they can employ long after they leave our classrooms, creating long-term investment in and contributing to their success. This is a good time of year to introduce and review some of these tools and approaches. We can re-energize our students by giving them additional insights and advantages to accelerate learning and build stronger, longer lasting recall of what they learn. Consider these five tools and techniques to share. One of the best ways to help students organize and make sense of new learning is have them summarize and explain their understanding and observations to someone. The activity can be as simple as a brief “turn and talk,” or as formal as doing a stand-up presentation or developing a set of “how to” instructions. The process of transforming newly absorbed information into an explanation solidifies new learning and the process of sharing new learning helps transfer it into memory. If students study alone and there's no one immediately present with whom they can share their learning, they'll benefit by verbalizing what they learn or by writing a summary to solidify their understanding. Of course, summarizing and sharing learning also may reveal misconceptions and misunderstandings that can be addressed before they become embedded in memory. Another way to accelerate and solidify new learning is for students to practice frequent self-quizzing. Coaching students to pause frequently as they read new content or engage in a developing skill encourages them to ask themselves questions and test their growing knowledge. Like explaining or summarizing new learning, self-quizzing moves information from “intake” to “ownership” in students’ brains. As a result, newly acquired information more quickly becomes embedded in memory allowing gaps in information and understanding to be uncovered and addressed. Yet another strategy to help students efficiently build new learning and store it in memory is to have them space out and vary learning and practice sessions. Lengthy and intense practice sessions may seem like a good way to build understanding and automaticity in learning, but the strategy can also result in exhaustion and leave students not recalling key information. Alternatively, when learning a new skill or absorbing new content is spaced over multiple sessions attention remains fresh, and focus is easier to maintain. Further, when students vary their study processes and practice activities, learning becomes layered and varied. Consequently, it’s easier to retain and retrieve. Still, another strategy to improve and accelerate learning is to have students include multiple skills or concepts within the same learning or study session. For example, students might study math and chemistry in the same session, mix new information with review of past learning, or address content out of chronological order. Known as interleaving, the process of addressing multiple concepts or skills in succession keeps the brain alert and improves its ability to differentiate elements and aspects of the content students are learning. Their brain is required to adjust and adapt, thus building depth and detail in what students learn. Finally, we can help students develop confidence and readiness to continue learning by coaching and reminding them to pay attention to and celebrate their learning successes, even when they may seem small. Students often are tempted to focus on and remember their struggles and failures. However, when students celebrate even small wins, they stimulate a feel-good chemical in their brains known as dopamine. The feeling generated by dopamine reinforces the learning experience and leaves students wanting more. Further, giving attention to successes can build learning confidence as students prepare to engage in the next learning challenge. Learning often is hard, and finding the necessary energy and confidence to struggle and succeed can be challenging. We need to provide our students with the very best tools and techniques available. These five research and practice-proven approaches provide valuable additions to our students’ learning “tool chests.” Consider setting aside time in the coming week to introduce and have students tryout some of these learning tools and reap their benefits.

January 06, 2023

Share Your Tips & Stories

Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.

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When Students Say, “I Tried, but I Can’t Learn It.”

Students who’ve tried to learn a new concept or skill and have been unsuccessful often complain they’re not capable of learning what we ask. Their observations may be couched in statements, such as “I am just not good at…”— insert math, science, or another discipline. Or “My mother wasn’t good at learning this, so there’s no point in trying.” These observations reflect symptoms of students who experience low levels of academic self-efficacy. Their perception is that trying to learn something and not being successful proves their inability to learn. Yet, the cause is more likely to be an ineffective strategy, an unproductive effort, or a failure to make full use of resources that would assist the student in the learning process. Left unaddressed, these students may go through much of their lives believing they lack ability when what they lack are correct tools for learning support. Efficacious learners understand that when they attempt new learning and are unsuccessful, they likely can change the outcome by employing three key learning tools: strategy, effort, and resources. We can help students become more effective learners by coaching them to review the strategy they’re using and consider more worthwhile alternatives. We can explore with learners the nature of the effort they’re giving and how other approaches might be more successful. Finally, we can direct the attention of students toward available resources that might be helpful to their understanding and support their learning. Our discussion with students about learning strategies might include examples, such as:

Reading new content and taking notes for later review.
Listening to new content while simultaneously reading it.
Focusing on the big picture or general concept and then sorting details and exploring implications and applications.
Breaking down content or skills into parts and focusing on sections.
Self-testing occasionally to confirm and consolidate understanding.
Looking for connections with what has been previously learned.
Creating pictures or graphs to understand connections and relationships.
Explaining new content to others as it is learned.

Our coaching to subsidize essential forms of learning practices might encompass:

Sustaining extended periods of focus and persistence.
Giving intermittent focus followed by brief breaks for reflection.
Engaging in intense study followed by other, unrelated activities, and returning later to refresh and extend learning.
Spacing practice over multiple days to build recall.
Shifting physical locations while studying to employ context to assist memory.
Scheduling study sessions during optimal times of the day when energy levels are highest.

Our encouragement for students to use resources available to them could include:

Consulting fellow students who’ve already learned the content or skill for explanation and learning hints.
Watching online videos that provide explanation and practice opportunities.
Reviewing varied text explanations that provide different perspectives.
Exploring graphic representations of content or skills.
Reviewing and reflecting on examples of applications for new learning.

The oft-repeated teacher admonition for students to “try three before me” takes on new dimensions when students realize they have access to a wide array of tools to support their learning. By accessing effective strategies, employing smart effort, and tapping available resources, students can overcome most learning barriers and succeed with difficult learning challenges.

December 02, 2022

Slow Down - Accomplish More

Educators tend to be conscientious professionals. We want to do our jobs well. We want to be successful. We want to meet our own and others’ expectations. These desires can drive us to constantly try to not only do more things but do them faster and longer. Unfortunately, the secret to creating satisfaction and experiencing success is not found in how fast, how hard, and how long we work. We might think that we create momentum by pushing hard, going fast, and engaging in frenetic activity. Yet, the path to satisfaction, success, and serenity is not paved by doing more and doing more faster and longer. Just as much as slowing down doesn’t mean “quiet quitting” or giving up. Slowing down is accomplished by becoming clear about what is important to us, focusing on our goals, and being willing to say no. It’s about letting go of what doesn't move us in the direction we’ve chosen. Yet, the thought of slowing down may leave us uncomfortable and anxious. We’re conditioned to equate activity with productivity, but they’re not the same and don’t lead to the same result. We may think if we slow down, we’ll be seen as uncommitted, unconcerned, and uncaring. Yet, the opposite is more likely to be correct. If we really want to make a difference, serve the needs of our students, and build a career of which we can be proud, we need to be focused, not frenetic, and strategic, not scattered, in the constant building of our skills. Let’s examine six outcomes we can generate by slowing our thinking and moderating our pace:

Slowing down our thinking can accelerate and improve our results. This statement may sound counterintuitive, but when we slow down, we make space to think, reflect, adjust, and create. As a result, we plan better, we make fewer mistakes, and we learn more from any mistakes we make.
Slowing down gives us time to learn and grow wise. Wisdom is not the result of experience. Wisdom is created by taking time to understand, analyze, and learn from experience. Only when we make sense and harness what we know can we move forward and create momentum.
Slowing down may mean we do a bit less, but what we do, we have time to do better. We have time and energy to focus on creating quality not just quantity. Having time to generate, iterate, and polish a new idea, strategy, or skill can make a stark difference in the success of our efforts.
Slowing down allows us to experience the journey while remaining focused on the destination. We do not have to sacrifice one for the other. Slowing down can position us for long-term thinking while being focused and productive in the present. Success is not just reaching a destination. Success also is found in a journey that is worthwhile.
Slowing down invites the discipline not to be distracted by what does not contribute to our goals. Slowing down creates opportunities for us to decide what is most important, and it provides space to generate the focus necessary to accomplish what we value. Slowing down also requires saying “no” to what does not move us forward.
Slowing down means we can do our work and live our lives in ways that are a little better than we did the day before. Building anything worthwhile takes time. When we commit each day to learning a little more, we become a little better, and we move a little forward, resulting in eventual and certain success.

Deciding to slow the frenetic pace of life is not easy. It requires courage, discipline, and focus. However, the benefits in what we accomplish, the satisfaction we feel, and the success we achieve can be more than worth the effort.

November 28, 2022

Is Gamification of Learning the Answer?

Gamification in education typically refers to systems of incentives, experiences, competition, or other means to induce students to engage in learning. Gamification comes in many forms. It can be as soft a touch as providing rewards and badges for accomplishing a task or demonstrating mastery of a concept, or as extensive as a full-fledged game where separate rules, scoring, and other aspect of competition dictate how participants will engage and prevail. On one side of the debate, advocates argue that it’s a great way for students to learn and have fun at the same time. Many educators see it as a way to convince students to engage in learning they might otherwise find unattractive and want to avoid. Without question, students can find gamification of learning to be enjoyable and motivating. Meanwhile, students are learning academic content and skills to compete and be rewarded. On the other side of the parley, many educators fear students will become so preoccupied with succeeding in the game that little attention will be paid to the purpose and value of what they’re learning. While they may be able to show progress, it may be in the context of the game, not in response to purposeful engagement with academic content and skills. Also of concern is how well students retain what they learn beyond the context of the game. We know that when the perceived purpose for learning has been met, such as learning to pass an exam or win points in a game, retention can quickly drop. On the other hand, when learning serves a deeper and longer purpose connected to life opportunities and goals, it’s more likely to remain accessible to students farther into the future. Other questions regarding the role and value of gamification in learning include:

Might gamification be used as a strategy to gain initial engagement with a specific aspect of academic learning?

Can gamification be beneficial for learning that has no clear, life or learning goal connection, such as memorizing required technical information?
Should gamification be avoided when what we are asking students to learn has an important purpose, needs to be retained beyond immediate assessment, and holds the potential to be engaging for students without additional structure or rewards?
Does gamification detract from the development of key academic learning skills, strategies, and habits?

It might be argued that much of what is found in traditional academic curricula does not present a clear purpose for students. This problem is with the framing, presentation, and positioning of the content of the curricula, not the students who are being asked to learn it. After all, just about every student is interested in learning. They do it all the time. Our challenge is to help students see the purpose and value of the learning we present to them. Whether framing learning in the context of real-life benefits, value, and purpose, or embedding learning in the context of an artificial game, contest, or adventure, it is the ability to acquire, retain, and apply what students learn that matters most.

November 18, 2022

High Expectations: Our Superpower

These are times when we need to tap every strategy, technique, and advantage we can use to help our students succeed. In many ways young people are still finding their way back from the pandemic. They need to make up for lost learning time and accelerate their academic progress. It’s not easy when they struggle to regain their social identities, develop new relationship skills, and reestablish their positioning with peers. They also are looking for support on which they can depend as they make their way through normal developmental tasks and trials. Our commitment to teach, coach, guide, and mentor students through this time represents a significant challenge. We don’t always know the best thing to do or the best time to do it. We may not know what new skills to develop or what new tools to adopt. However, there is one gift we can give to our students that requires no new skills or tools and requires no extra time or training. Yet, it can have a significant and lasting impact on our students’ learning and life success. That gift is the deceptively simple and sometimes counterintuitive action of holding high expectations for our students. We may think that lowering expectations might help students as they struggle to regain their balance and momentum. However, holding high expectations may be even more important now than during more stable and disruption-free times. In fact, lowering expectations risks sending a message to learners that we do not have confidence in their ability to meet the challenges they face and succeed despite their current circumstances. Most of us are familiar with the 1960’s experiment known as “Pygmalion in the Classroom” in which teachers were told that certain students demonstrated test results that showed they were about to make significant gains in IQ in the next several months. In fact, the students had been selected randomly with no attention to intellectual capacity. Several months later the students were retested. The students who had the teachers who were told they were ready to make unusual progress demonstrated learning progress that significantly outpaced a matched group of students who had not been labeled as ready to make unusual growth. The only difference between the two groups was the expectations of their teachers. Importantly, the “Pygmalion in the Classroom” experiment has been replicated multiple times with similar outcomes. Bottom line: Teacher expectations matter to student learning. Now, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a new study that documents an even wider role that teacher expectations play in student success. The research focus expanded beyond test scores and grades to include other areas important to life success. The study found that when teachers hold high expectations the odds of their students completing college increased by seventeen percent. The odds of students having children before the age of 20 were reduced by three to six percentage points, and the odds of students receiving public assistance by age 26 were five percent lower than the general population. To be clear, it is not enough for us to say we have high expectations. Our behavior and interactions with students must reinforce and amplify our words. When we believe in the potential of our students and hold high expectations, our work with them changes, often in subtle but important ways. First, our language with students becomes couched in the inevitability of success. We talk with students about “when” they succeed, not “if” they succeed. When we communicate our belief in students through our language and behavior, it’s easier for students to believe in themselves and plan to be successful. Second, when students begin to slack off and underperform, we intervene quickly. Instead of seeing the behavior as an aberration that needs attention, we view it as reflective of the student’s potential. Third, when students struggle, we take extra time to explain the purposes, implications, and details of concepts and skills. Our focus moves to generating deeper understanding rather than focusing primarily on the steps and sequence of completing an assignment or finishing a task. Fourth, when we believe in the potential of our students, we take advantage to present them with challenges at the leading edge of their learning and development. We nudge them to struggle and grow, reinforce that their learning is worth the effort required, and we display trust in them to succeed. Fifth, when we engage students we see as having potential, we use ourselves and our experiences as examples. We share stories about our struggles and successes in overcoming challenges and present ourselves as models students can emulate. As a result, students are more likely to see themselves as having potential to becoming accomplished, successful adults. Of course, the power of high expectations also applies to us as adults. When we are viewed as successful professionals, are given more detailed coaching, receive attention and support, are given growth-evoking challenges, and frequently hear that success lies ahead for us, it creates a positive effect on us and enhances our abilities.