Cute Quotes in Education
Notice them and question them.
The Fluff in Our Quotes
Once you start noticing the fluff in educational motivational quotes, you will see them in almost everywhere - in books, speeches, and classroom walls.
Fluff, the way I define it, is the idealistic wishlist many modern educators have about how learning *SHOULD* happen, how teachers *SHOULD* teach, and how education *SHOULD* be.
Fluff is the teaching prescriptions hidden in these ideas. Fluff is the quote one above. Cute but semi-realistic.
Under What Conditions
One of the phrases that helps me separate the fluff (how learning should happen) from the reality (how learning happens) and think from a “critical” perspective is “Under what conditions”, which I first heard from Dylan Wiliam in one of his talks.
Wiliam said, “What works in education is not the right question. Because in education, everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere. The interesting question is: under what conditions does this work?”
Remember the three words: Under what conditions !!!
Dissect the Quote
Let’s apply this simple litmus test on this concept:
“The less a you talk in the class and the more students talk, the better.”
Well, okay. But, under what conditions?
Is this valid every time, everywhere, every class? Or, there’s more to it?
And, why is it better? What are the supporting ideas or evidences for this?
“The children are there to learn and to think and to express ideas in language - you have already acquired those abilities.”
I can think of one instance or condition in which this might be true.
Let’s assume, the students are supposed to talk or discuss or debate or present on certain topic which they have enough understanding of. And, the teacher interrupts them, starts giving his own explanations, and silences the students.
The teacher already knows how to do that. But the teacher does not let the students struggle, think, discuss, talk, question, and learn (provided that: they have build enough prior knowledge and skills in productive talking).
Except for this scenario, I am sure this quote is semi-true in most of the conditions, and rather unhelpful to the students.
My question would be: When the teacher talks less in the class and the students talk more, how do you know the learning that happens is better? How?
Another big concern that I see is, the quote is out of context. Because we/readers have no clue about the context, the risk of teachers misinterpreting the quote as the truth is higher.
They might think that a teacher *should* not talk more in the class. Or, the teacher talk time *should* be less than student talk time.
The chances of this quote turning into a *should* prescription is real. As pointed out by Tom Bennett in his tweet.
“Bad advice. This kind of thing leads to teachers thinking they shouldn’t speak, or all student talk is valuable. But expert instruction *should* involve a lot of teacher talk. Learning often involves listening. And this is why we don’t train teachers with inspirational quotes.”
So what can you do about it?
First, realize that most quotes are out of context. They are cute. But meh !
Second, start noticing the fluff in the quotes. You will easily realize that most quotes are not teaching manuals. Understand the difference between the “how learning should happen” and “how learning actually happens”.
Finally, question the quote. Question your own belief. And, question whether the quote is cute or useful.
[P.S. I realized that the quote is true under this condition: when you are suffering from common cold and you don’t want to sound nasal-y in the class.]
From the archives:
I have been writing a series on how learning happens. Check out the first one.
On How Learning Happens - 1
So, are there any parallels in the way one learns music and the subjects that we learn or teach in the classrooms? The answer is a resounding yes. From a meta level, a musician playing flawlessly (creating magic) on the stage is near similar to an MBA student coming up with analogies and creative solutions during a design thinking workshop.