I Refer you to My Previous Answer!

A couple of days ago I reflected on the importance of reason and variety in keeping a physical training regime going. The same is true for academic learning. I taught for 35 years and I saw thousands of students at all levels. The successful ones had one thing in common, a reason for putting the effort in day after day. When I talk about success I don’t mean in terms of marks. Some of my students, particularly in the latter years achieved the mark they needed, but as students they were failures. They had no intrinsic reason for studying and they were happy to do the absolute minimum to pass whilst deliberately disrupting the class for everyone else. Some students didn’t get the marks they needed but they improved throughout the year with constant effort. In terms of getting through to our university partner they were unsuccessful but in terms of learning they laid very firm foundations.

The variety was provided by me as best I could, using lessons we developed as a teaching team. In terms of quality and focus, the lessons were as good as they could be within our restrictions of time and support. Some of my colleagues were brilliant at incorporating gamification and I tried to use this unfamiliar and, to me, unnatural approach (!) with some success, although I don’t doubt that in John and Clara’s lessons the games and technology worked far more effectively and seamlessly.

As a teacher I can only provide the framework for students and hope they have the application to put in the work. As a student or an independent learner I have to have a reason to study and now that reason is that it is something I am interested in as a subject. That is why I like learning about social history, media and cultural history and music. That’s what keeps me learning, exploring and educating myself. I hope that when anything appears on the blog my enthusiasm and research shows that my days as a student are not over.