What to do? What to do? What to do?
Lately I have been fascinated and annoyed at the same time with dealing with students ho don't care. They show up to class but that is about it. I loved this thought from the Frick article. It was nice to hear an expert in the field address student apathy. Frick states: "Education cannot occur without a student who intends to learn. According to Steiner, if a student does not intend to learn, then no education is going on. A student's mere presence in a classroom is no guarantee that education is occurring. There has to be an intent to learn, which is facilitated by the guidance of a teacher. But this guidance does not have to involve face-to-face contact, nor does it need to occur in a classroom. I wonder though, how does a teacher facilitate that?
2 comments:
Hey Shawn, your comments and question remind me of the Garrison Keillor quote, "Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted."
Just because someone doesn't appear to be engaged, doesn't mean they're not being influenced. My guess is that you're having more impact that you think.
What about the direct approach? What if you asked everyone to write down why they showed up and what they hope to get from the class that day?
I think ARCS is a good checklist to look examine with students like that. Perhaps in seminary it would go something like...
Attention... is there attention maintained the entire 85 minutes
Relevance...do all the students really believe that ancient scripture has something to do with them.
Confidence...do they really think that seminary will actually aid in helping their life?
Satisfaction... what has been their experience in the past with seminary, do they really get what they want from it?
I don't know... some thoughts.
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