Teach Like Water: Principles for Successful Teaching

In Daoism, there is a notion about a person’s actions being like water if that person wants to flow with the Dao. One must remain fluid and able to respond to whatever happens with the appropriate reaction. This notion is instantiated in the philosophical teachings of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kun Do. Rather than meeting an opponent with a rigid, well-practiced series of movements, one responds with just what was needed to achieve quick victory. This philosophy may also be seen in works like Mushashi’s Book of Five Rings.

Teaching does not pit the teacher against the students in combat, per se, but there is a struggle to find the best ways to lead the students from ignorance to being knowledgeable. At least there should be a struggle if the individual truly wants to be a teacher. Teaching, qua teaching, is not about the person leading the discussion, but about what happens in the minds of the students.

For nearly a decade I have had the opportunity to observe many individuals enter the realm of teaching, some successfully, some not so much. I have also had the opportunity to study the functions of the human brain and how those functions build memories and accomplish learning. What the experience and research confirms is that much learning is unintentional and that the most successful teachers seem implicitly aware that this is true.

The most successful teachers operate from an internal set of values or beliefs that temper the classroom experience. The most successful teachers live the principles and the outcome is that the students learn, not just the material in the texts, but how to be better thinkers. The most successful teachers make the subject relevant and teach students how to think about the subject rather than what to think. Education researchers like Deanna Kuhn and Paul Pintrich confirm that those considered highly educated are not those who can recite the most facts, but those who exemplify the attributes of higher order thinking.

The principles discussed below are just principles. For them to be effective, each must be imprinted on the core beliefs of the teacher. It must be noted that none of the principles stem from direct observation alone. In each case, the foundation of the principle is based on solid, credible research. While not detailed here, some of the research behind these principles may be found at www.teachlikewater.info

Attitude is nearly everything

What you think about a student will impact that student’s performance in class. If you see someone as a failure or incompetent, that perspective will impact the way you assess that person’s work and even how that person performs in the class. In a real way, your perspective of a student often becomes a self fullfilling prophesy. This is not only true of negative perspectives, but positive as well.

While it may be difficult not to form opinions of a student, especially after the assessment of work has begun, it is important to not act on those perspectives. What the successful teacher keeps in mind is that this is just one course and one encounter in an artificial environment. The student took an entire lifetime to become who he or she is at that moment and significant change is unlikely in the span of a single semester or course. One must also remember that personal perceptions can be wrong.

In the classroom, the succussful teacher works not to change a student’s personality, but his or her beliefs. Sometimes this will include a student’s beliefs about whether personal success is possible or not. When assessments are perfomed, it is important the evaluations are accurate and honest. Neither giving a students inflated grades, nor punishing them with unreasonably low grades is helpful. For a student to become successful, he or she must have accurate beliefs about personal abilities in the classroom. To receive that accurate assessment, the teacher’s judgement must not be clouded by personal bias. 

Learning = Changing Beliefs

The opinion that knowledge contained only true, justified beliefs can be traced to the writings of Plato [Meno]. The veracity of that statement has been much pondered in the field of epistemology. While philosophers ponder the deeper meanings of knowledge, educators and psychologists consider a person’s epistemology as beliefs about what can be known and how one might obtain that knowledge. It is also important to note that in education the concern is not about the truthfulness of statements as much as about the thinking behind the statements. A person may utter a perfectly true statement, but if the proper beliefs are not behind the statement, it cannot be said to be the product of knowledge.

Briefly, experiences become memories and collections of memories become beliefs. One cannot believe something for which there are no supporting memories. Fortunately, memories are malleable and subject to change. Because a person can have new experiences, that person can form new memories and develop new beliefs. The successful teacher will work to understand the beliefs present in a student and will work to change the beliefs to be more veridical.

It is important to note that these beliefs are about subject matters as well as broader issues. A student will have personal beliefs about abilities as well as about how well he or she can write, understand Algebra, and read philosophy. It is also important to note that a person’s beliefs are like a mental fingerprint and that each person will be unique. Sometimes, to change a student’s beliefs about what constitutes a proper introduction for an expository paper, one must first change that student’s beliefs about the ability to write in general.

It is NOT About You!

The adage “Pride comes before the fall” (modified from Proverbs 16:18) is true in teaching as well. The days of revering the pontificating professor have ended, thankfully, in any institution truly concerned with learning. This is not to disparage the function of lecturing as lectures in the classroom are critical to many subjects. That such a method has value is evidenced by the successful education most of us who are over 30 received.

However, there is ample research on theories such as andragogy and learning styles to demonstrate that any adult student’s learning is more about the student than the teacher. In that there are so many different ways in which any given person can learn, the successful teacher must keep two things in mind. One is that every student is different. Second, the classroom experience is about students learning and not one person seeking glory or getting an ego boost.

As soon as any instructor voices that the students are lucky to have that instructor because he or she is just that good, the experience is sullied. The successful teacher must recognize his or her own strengths and weaknesses and be willing to acknowledge them. Successful teachers are able to say, “I do not know, I will have to do some research before answering your question” without guilt (unless it was something that should have been obvious given the course). No teacher can reach all students. Ultimately, a person will learn because he or she chooses to do so.

Well, Maybe Just a Little

While the learning is, ultimately, up to the will of the student, there are a number of things the successful teacher can do to help. One way to facilitate this choice is to is by being an expert who thinks like a novice. There is ample research to support the notion that when the expert attemps to remember what it was like to approach a subject before the knowledge was gained, the students are greatly benefited.

Another way to help in this choice is to provide timely, honest, and accurate feedback. The best things a teacher can do is to be honest with a student about his or her abilities. However, there a few things to keep in mind as you think about the accuracy of your assessments.

Writing well does not mean writing as you would have written the assignment. This seems to be a failing of many instructors. The goal when assessing writing is to see if the paper satisfies the assignment. Then, and only then, help the student hone his or her writing by focusing on rules, not on the teacher’s preferred style. The ideal is to help the student become the best writer he or she can be, not someone who writes just like the teacher.

Tests are only useful when considering the construction of the test and the ability of the students to take those kinds of tests. Some students have mastered the material, but have a hard time taking any test. Some students can sleep through class and still do well on many tests. The goal, when creating a set of assessments for any course is to keep the nature of tests and test takers in mind and use multiple methods (tests and papers or tests with essay components).

Lastly, rememeber it is about the student, not you. If you are not willing to take the time to accurately and honestly grade papers or tests, you should not be teaching. Successful teachers are those who are more aware of the needs of their students than a timeclock. Successful teachers realize that helping students choose to learn takes a commitment of time, energy, and an emotional investment in the course. Again, those not willing to make these commitments should find something else to do in life.

Quality over Quantity

I have asked students the same question for years, “Would you rather get a C in a course from which you learned much or an A in a course from which you learned little?”  The response is nearly always the same, the C with learning is better. While encountering that student who who is more obsessed with GPA than learning is not uncommon enough, most students would rather have the learning than the grade.

The successful teacher is the one who focuses on the students and helping them become better students and human beings. To become consumed with the grading is an easy thing to do, but the act of grading can be performed by computer programs. Assessment of the student and determining ways to help that student become more accomplished takes dedication. Again, if you are not willing to be that dedicated, you should consider another occupation.

Think about your thinking

There is ample research on metacognition in education to confirm its value in the classroom. Personal research in this area backs up the assertion that when the teacher gets the students to think about their thinking, they just do better in all subjects. There are two kinds of metacognition, thinking about what to do when and monitoring one’s own thinking.

The best thing a teacher can do in the classroom is teach different strategies for learning, when to use them, and how to determine if the strategy is successful. What strategies are taught will depend on the nature of the course. Strategies for learning to write will not be like those for learning mathematics. The thing to keep in mind is that there is not, for any subject, a single strategy for success. Because of the differences in learning styles and personalities, the successful teacher will keep in mind that there are always different paths up the mountain.

As to evaluating the success of the strategies, the best thing one can do is take the time before an assignment to discuss different strategies for completing the assignment. Then, when the graded assignments are returned, one should take the time to discuss the successfulness of the strategy used for that assignment. If a student felt certain he or she would make an A on a test or a paper, but got a C, that student needs to reconsider the strategy used for completing that kind of assignment. The successful teacher will see this and make it a part of the classroom experience.

Considering the monitoring of one’s thinking, this is an extension of considering the success of one’s chosen strategy. For a student to be able to monitor his or her own thinking, that student needs honest and accurate feedback. This has already been stated a few times above and I do not know that its importance can be overstated.

 Conclusion

The principles stated above are general principles, but they are exemplified in the most successful teachers I have encountered. They are also proven effective in the research that has taken place over the last few decades. Teaching is considered both an art and a science. The principles above express the science in the art and the art of applying the science. Only by learning both can a person truly be a successful teacher.