For the 2022-23 winter seminar, all members and guests met via Zoom on January 29th, 2023. Our topic was “ How To Reach Reluctant Learners”. Our guests are educators from Nebraska who teach a mixture of science and mathematics courses to high school and middle school students. The seminar was set up to be an open discussion that covered the previously stated topic. 在我们相遇之前, we were asked to submit questions to our guests/panelists, 还有我们的赞助商, 米歇尔·本, generated a list of these questions in addition to other questions. I personally learned a lot from this experience, including what a reluctant learner is, 为什么它很重要, 最大的挑战, 误解, 策略, how to consider if it is the teacher who is the problem, 自我效能感, 还有其他资源.
什么是不情愿的学习者? 在我们的Zoom研讨会上, we defined a reluctant learner as an individual (in our case students) resisting engagement with the curriculum. There are many factors that could lead to this, including but not limited to lack of confidence, 缺乏技能, 家里也有问题. This topic is important because there are many students who are reluctant learners. One current reason for reluctant learners is due to the social distancing from the COVID-19 pandemic. We also discussed how social media and technology could be a possible cause, as students have everything they need to know at the tip of their fingers and feel the curriculum is an unnecessary use of their time.
We also discussed 最大的挑战 for teachers when it comes to having reluctant learners in the classroom. Some factors were the time and curriculum. The curriculum can be too rigid to allow time and resources to focus on the more reluctant learners. There is also the factor of potentially having excelling students become bored and keeping a good pace for everyone. Another thing the teachers are facing is that they can't seem to get parental support, and they can’t get help or provide any assistance to their children. 在讨论过程中, we continually stated how large of a gap there was between students who were excelling and those who were reluctant.
Some 误解 that we discussed are scholars choosing not to participate because the students simply do not have any skills versus the students simply don’t care. These 误解 from a teacher can be extremely dangerous in how they approach students' needs and attitudes as it can hinder a reluctant learner's success even further.
Some ways the teachers help ensure success in their classroom is by making the class predictable with a routine. They also explained that they would put up the same slide during their warm-ups that states for the students what success looks like. They also would have “brainbreaks” and “ice breakers” as transitions and pose questions of the day that are not content-related. Some 策略 they used in the classroom were asking questions such as, “我能帮你开始吗??” instead of, “Why aren't you doing your work?” and, “What do you need from me today?” They also shared that it was beneficial to give students a 5-minute break to regroup. One important thing to keep in mind as a teacher is that students love to have choices, so giving students choices on what problems they want to solve is a great way to engage them.
To be a successful teacher with reluctant learners, one has to; be reflective, 拥有成长的心态, and apologize to students when needed. These ideas also lead us to the next topic, 自我效能感. You must have positive reinforcements built into your lessons and classroom environment. 作为老师, you need to be aware of what tools/skills your students have that they can use in your classroom. Have your students complete reflections as well. 例如, make prompts for them to answer after their test such as, “你是怎么准备这次考试的?”? Also, encourage attempts and mistakes.
The panelists also provided us with some resources, 例如APL培训, attending professional development, and visiting a teacher's classroom and observing. Some additional wisdom they left us with are as follows: Don’t give up, 寻求帮助, 开着门进去, 增长, 积极的心态, build relationships (especially earlier on), 认为“每天都是新的一天”, and “keep the big picture in mind”. 总之, I speak for everyone when I say that we all learned very valuable information during this year's winter seminar.
Kristina Quinn (’23) is a Noyce scholar at 十大网络娱乐平台注册. She plans to teach mathematics in a high-need secondary school.
