Be a curious researcher!
Suppose you are talking to one of your students because things are not going well at school. The student, Eva, has no overview, experiences a lot of stress and has no idea what needs to be done. She doesn’t finish her homework and turns in assignments late. Eva keeps chasing the facts.
You immediately see the solution. You know, Eva needs an overview. What are you doing? You will start working with Eva immediately. Maps everything and creates a clear overview. From there you make a plan and Eva can get started. Great, you helped Eva get back on track
Eva starts working on the planning fanatically, but soon she ignores the planning and can no longer find it anywhere. Frustrating, huh?
You tried so hard to help Eva, but it did not lead to the desired result. In this example, the student’s motivation has been skipped. We assume that students are motivated, but that does not necessarily have to be the case.
The case in these situations is that you draw conclusions (too quickly). Does Eva need a plan and an overview? How sure are you of that?
Is the student motivated to tackle the ‘problem’? Noticing it is different from actually wanting to do something with it
Why doesn't this work?
In this situation the teacher started repairing. Something I see happening a lot in 1-on-1 conversations, but also in lessons. Very logical, because you got into education because you want to help students. When you use the repair reflex, you want to help someone so badly that you start repairing or helping the other person. That doesn’t work and you should even try to avoid it
Now you should not be shocked by the repair reflex, because it is something natural. It happens automatically. We would like to help, improve or repair someone. That’s not crazy, but be aware of it!
What should you do? Be a curious researcher! In my free e-book I share what a curious researcher does!
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