July 14

Attitude and Patience

Without a doubt, nobody learns the same way at the same pace. It would also be fair to say, every one has a different learning attitude. A positive attitude may actually determine how accepting the student is – it can be part of the rapport. Although unfortunate that teaching is dependant on popularity or persona so to speak, it is becoming a trend to entertain, sell smiles, and sing praises.

What is the teacher going to do?

Teach Positive Learning Attitudes

An experienced teacher would say: scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. Scaffolding learning from increasing levels of difficulty will lower the stress students will have. Learners feel less burdened because the tasks are easy and manageable. It’s all about preparing learners for the ending task. Once they see the benefit and the transferability of the skills, they will be ‘happy’ to follow along with you. However, there are those that will ‘completely’ don’t understand. Those are the ones that may lack confidence besides disinterest – but that’s another discussion there.

Here, an instructor may choose to build positive learning attitudes by constant reassuring that learning is not an instant ability. Try saying the following phrases – at your discretion:

It’s alright. Let’s learn slowly. We’ll start slow. Just follow along. I’ll help you.

What I teach may be something you’ve learned before, but it’s always good to refresh your memory. Perhaps you can try other expressions here.

Try to speak more. The more you speak, the better you become.

It may seem a lot of words but you don’t have to remember them all. Learn at your own pace. Learn slowly. Take your time.

Sets/Groups

Learners might feel more motivated with more friends in the class. The more interactions the better! I know that some learners want to go to school because they want someone to talk to.