Messy Learning, Messy Teaching
Neil Flemmings’ VARK model from 2012 described four learning styles that were supposed to encompass all learners. A neat, out of the box solution to the age old educational question of “how best to teach this pupil”. It suggested that everyone is either a “Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing or Kinesthetic learner” and that educational planning should work on the basis that different learners should be stimulated and engaged in different ways.
Since then the model has been routinely published, debated, expanded and debunked. A simple search for VARK on Twitter will bring up a gold mine of debate around the question of whether the model really does provide a reasoned solution to how different pupils learn. Even now, nearly two decades and a whole load of research later the argument rages and the two camps are firmly entrenched in their opinions.
The same can be said about countless models, hypotheses, theories, processes and resources. Masses of educational ideas tried and tested, debated, discarded, rediscovered, redesigned constantly. There are always pros and cons to everything. It’s bewildering at times! I feel like I need a second degree just to keep up!
Whilst many research driven educators throw arguments back and forth about the validity of models such as Flemings’, most teachers (like me) barely scratch the surface of such lofty issues, but sandwiched in between the need to keep your classes progressing, adapt your teaching materials, write reports, keep data trackers up to date, get to your duties on time and the multitude of other roles we are expected to fulfil on a daily basis, is it any wonder that we don’t have time to keep abreast of the latest research papers on cognitive development or constructivism? Don’t get me wrong, I know I should try and I’d definitely be all the better for it of course. I’m sure we’d all like to, but where to find the time!
Praise be then, to those teachers who do keep abreast, and snapshot information to the rest of us. Those Twitter experts whose timely posts can spark a thought in a busy teacher’s head that might just solve a problem, answer a question or initiate a moment of pondering. There are true expertis out there in social media land and someone to help in every situation. Thank you to every single one of you educational researchers and authors, but the reality is that the vast majority of us just can’t be that committed to research and academia.
I’m a pretty dedicated teacher. I work damn hard. I’m not an expert but I have come to realise that the true reality of teaching and learning is this. It is messy. It’s complex, it doesn’t fit well into little neat boxes. It can’t be labelled, it’s not always perfect but it almost always comes from a teacher’s determination to be as perfect as possible.
By our very nature, we teachers are creative problem solvers. We are sales people, project managers and (especially in 2020) tech support assistants. We are Human Resources, Marketing, Health and Safety, Wellbeing Coaches. Can you imagine having to shuffle even a few of those roles outside of education?
Most people are experts in their own field, whilst we have to be near experts in everyone else's too. The flipping from role to role is exhausting at times, exhilarating at others and we embrace the chaos and love the challenge. It’s a mess and that’s okay. It’s your mess, you are the expert in your own mess. You know your students, you understand their needs and the mess is unique to them and you. Out of that mess will come brilliance, otherwise you will learn, move the mess a bit and try again. That’s our real job.
Embrace the mess. Draw it out in your head, or on paper. All those things you do, all those ideas you have, it’ll look chaotic and disorganised but if you look closer, it’ll also be brilliant. Somewhere inside that wonderful messy teaching is everything you need to deliver the very best for your pupils. The research and data is great and sometimes exactly what we need, but the mess is even greater, and always what we need.