Composition 5: Explain the "Why"

“We can’t get these students to learn!”

Have you had this topic at a roundtable in your faculty-circle roundtable or a workshop retreat?

If you want people to understand science. To WANT to learn about science. To question more and add more to science. Then you need to make them appreciate science.

History tells you that for nearly anything, if you genuinely want longevity, you are going to have adapt to new dynamics…especially newer personalities among changing generations.

If you keep having reforms and the impact changes little from before, then maybe what stands out, at least to me, is that the curriculum doesn't matter.

I talked briefly in two previous compositions about the foundation of teaching and metacognition. However, I wanted to focus a bit more on the students themselves.

Teachers can only put in so much time or create study plans that are certainly creative, but unless the students want to engrain this knowledge in their brains, it just isn't going to stick.

I can make a stark comparison with a few figurative student examples:

A, B and C

Student A sits at the top corner of the class and is generally very involved. They see the plan to go to medical school and want to be doctors, therefore they recognize immediately the high value in learning the scientific material. They also have an appreciation of how important the core sciences are in relation to helping others: typically they will shadow in a hospital, work as scribes, or volunteer in healthcare organizations. So they do very well.

On the flip side, you may have a student, B, that isn’t dead-set on a future healthcare/pre-med career yet is obligated to take the initial general science courses in completing their degree. This student sees science, like chemistry/biology, as comparable to every other class. We would like to impress on this mind the capacity that the integral sciences carry, because regardless of their future career field, the sciences carry a great weight in the fundamentals of the world. They come to class and still keep themselves focused on the curriculum syallabi.

The third student, C, just sees the class as a worksheet with problems on it, and an?occasional?exam each month. They do not have an?appreciation?for the?utilities?science provides or the value of the critical thinking methods that science forces thinkers to apply. They may attend every class and they attempt to cut corners with shortened guidelines and connecting with other students to acquires assignment answers.

All students can still be elevated to the same level of equity if you sing the magical notes.

“Tell me whyyy.”

For a lot of students, you?have?to do two things: explain what the point of it is, and show why it is important.

Regardless of what space or career interests they are in, they will respect the subject matter if they can honestly be directed to the purpose and value.

Sometimes teachers will try to “fun” or “exciting” approach by having activities or live assignments.

Having a hands-on activity?definitely will force students to?approach?the?scientific?method directly because they are literally being put in the driver's seat.

Still, I caution the teacher or facilitator to watch out for the?assumption that learning will simply result as a by-product.

Take for example the multitude of biology or chemistry labs one may endure. Another lab experiment might just be?another?worksheet a student sees as something to "get through." The student must be able to explore the material and want to explore, and that's a personality trait that may not be pre-organized in a professional curriculum.?

Even if you did that, or had in class activities, you still may lose the metaphorical “Student C.”

My concern is always the people who actually need the help the most- who need questions answered- won’t come to class, while the students I regularly see will do fine.

As someone who has facilitated dozens of pedagogy workshops across multiple college-course science classes, I recognized the heart and minds of many students. I tried to connect with them why the class was important in a realistic perspective.

They were just really glad that even if they didn't understand it completely…that there was a method to the madness, and there WAS a reasoning. It wasn't just "something you had to know."

Tell them why it is important if you have a passion for the material.

Tell them why it is important if you can relate real life stories.

Tell them why it is important if it created a magnificent change in their world.

Tell them why if it’ll help in their career aspirations because finding the roadmap to a real job and monetary gain is definitely a checkmark on students’ bucket lists.

Tell them why through a proxy if a Ted Talk, expert, or positive role model can connect them more closely.

But do not just tell them the first day of class during the syllabus introduction.

Remind them, challenge them, and deliver to them at least one “why” every class lecture.?

Is this a challenge you have faced recently?