Teach Secondary 14.4

the things they feel are important; and can resolve the issues that are on their mind. Rogers devised a new client-led approach to therapy that viewed these personal issues as a kind of ‘cognitive blockage’ that psychotherapists could only uncover through the client leading the conversation. The therapist’s role was to listen and encourage. Rogers’ work on client- centred therapy has since been adapted and adopted by teaching circles as the ‘humanistic approach’. Not far removed fromAbraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the humanistic approach states that self-actualisation can only be reached when lower level psychological needs are met first – think food, safety and security, love, a sense of belonging and self-esteem. Autonomy,mastery and purpose One of the biggest motivators of success I’ve seen first-hand is the ‘queue jump ticket’ – a reward for students that enables them to skip the line for food at lunchtimes. It sometimes seems as though even the most basic of Maslow’s needs isn’t yet met for many schoolchildren – an observation supported by the government’s own statistics pertaining to below average income households. In his book Drive: the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us , author Daniel Pink argues that traditional, reward-based motivation doesn’t get to the heart of the human condition. Instead, he maintains, people are motivated to a far greater degree by autonomy, mastery and purpose over cash (or equivalent) incentives. And yet, many of the pedagogical strategies I regularly see actually remove students’ autonomy, based on the premise that highly directed and controlled teaching and learning environments eventually lead to mastery. And these pedagogies, alas, leave very little room for space in which an adult can help a student discover their purpose, ambition and inspirations. 60 seconds to sympathise The theories underpinning the humanistic approach suggest that a desirable cognitive end state depends, at least in part, on the relationships we have with the people around us – relationships that emphasise listening, meeting important human needs and the discovery of one’s own purpose. But how can we forge those relationships as one teacher before a class of 30 students? A one-hour lesson gives us two minutes per child, assuming that the entire lesson will be given over to relationship building – but let’s be more realistic and call it one minute. That’s 60 seconds to listen. Or 60 seconds to sympathise. Or 60 seconds in which to foster safety, love, self esteem and inspiration. Rather than promoting one-to-one engagement that can speak to the needs of individuals, we instead often have to focus on the shared needs of the group. We exchange the significant benefit of providing therapy that every individual student needs, with the mutual minor benefit of knowledge and understanding. Amisleading bet Pedagogy attempts to turn small gains into large wins by co-opting those large classroomnumbers. After all, if 30 students can each make small gains, then that’s surely better than just one lone student making a significant gain? But the numbers don’t stack up. Those small gains –made through significant planning and scaffolding of cognitive strategies, such as fast-paced, closed answer recall, mini plenaries and so forth – are so hard won, and so easily lost, that they make for a misleading bet. It’s a slot machine that accrues small wins easily, but loses everything to the banker before any big jackpots can be cashed. The pedagogy I’mmost concerned about are those strategies that decrease the emotional connections between teacher and learner, and reduce the human contact that students receive frommature, compassionate adults. Strategies that make us too ‘busy’ and time- pressed to get to know one another as humans. What I want to see is pedagogy that increases the contact we have together. I want to know how to give 30 individuals 20 minutes of time each lesson. For we humanist teachers, the numbers may well be against us, but we should be driven by giving time to individuals. Which is something that can’t always be said of existing pedagogy. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aaron Swan is an English teacher, Language For Learning, and has been a head of department WHAT I DO The one pedagogy I’ve developed formyself and try to followwhere I can is as follows: 1 I give myself 10 minutes to teach a concept and model it. If I can’t teach it and demonstrate it in that time, then it’s too complicated. 2 Students then get 20 minutes to collaborate on a shared challenge to recreate the model. 3 After this, they have a further 20 minutes to work independently on creating it for themselves. 4 During these 40 minutes, I won’t be at the board or sat at my desk, but sitting with the students, asking them how they are. We’ll talk about the work, or we might talk about them. Because when students are heard, they’re happier. And when they’re happier, surprising moments of progress can be made. 63 teachwire.net/secondary P E D A G O G Y