“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” Ferris Bueller told us this truth. He is right about life in general and, as much as the movie mocked high school, he is right about schooling.
There is a baked-in pace to teaching and learning like the gear-locked speed of a roller coaster. The pace is firm and regulated on the uphill and then accelerates on the downhill. Riders are thrilled by the speed and the turns and loops. There is an instant “wow” before the pace automatically returns to slow and regulated for the next uphill. There is no time for a rider to enjoy the thrill. So, it is with teaching and learning. There is no time after the thrill of successful learning for “looking around” and enjoying the moment. We can do better because we know better.
What do we know?
In all successful learning there is a moment of insight when the brain understands a resolution of a problem or a question. Consider the “aha!” moment when a child’s face lights up or they “whoop!” with excitement or seem to collapse from the exertion into a happy place. That is the “aha!” of the physical effect of the brain making sense of disparate pieces of information or problematic steps in a sequence or seeing how the threads in a story fall into place and make sense. It is not simply that the child got to a right answer. It is the reality that she knows the process of getting there and can repeat it with confidence. It is “AHA!”
This is the moment teaching tries to achieve – aha! learning. It happens every day in every school and in all classrooms. However, many teachers may not recognize an “aha.” It is as if the teacher is so focused on teaching that she is head down and keeps putting tension upon the child to learn without seeing the “aha! when it happens. Sometimes we must remind ourselves what “aha” looks like, to recognize its characteristics, and then to stop when we see it, and enjoy the moment with and for the child.
Technically successful learning is an epistemic curiosity resolution. In short, “aha!” For a child, it looks like these –
- Going quiet. A child who was anxious and fidgety about while working a problem or a storyline suddenly goes quiet and still. Instead of looking around wondering, she intensely focuses on her conclusion. She sees the success.
- Gazing eyes snap into focus. A child is looking out the windows or at the ceiling seemingly unfocused on anything when suddenly her eyes snap back to work with a wide grinning smile.
- Big eyes. Physiologically the eyes dilate as the brain realizes a breakthrough idea. The eyes say “wow!” It is the dopamine reward.
- Got it! A child verbally erupts shouting “I get it now!” There is a dopamine squirt that comes with “aha! that sounds like joy and many children cannot help being loud when they “get it.”
What really happens in the “aha!” is a mental structural reorganization of thinking. It is pattern recognition. It is seeing what seemed disorganized and messy to be orderly and neat. It is finding the right words to explain what has happened. It is putting a solution into words and telling another a person “this is how it works.” It is the release of mental tension and frustration like the second you realize a headache stopped hurting.
What to do?
Value the struggle. Working through mental problem solving resembles building muscles. It is challenging work. It is fatiguing. It is frustrating. However, these are prerequisites to getting to “aha!” Tell children that they are on the right track. Help them to know what they know and what they do not know. Clue them in to finding connections to prior knowledge and to look for patterns and sequences.
Look at attempts positively. A child at a potter’s wheel trying to form a vase from a lump of clay is a good example of finding success through trials. That child must learn the technique and feel in the hands and fingers to successfully pull clay vertically with enough wall structure to hold a shape. There will be many failures before there is a success.
Use questions without providing answers. Ask – “At what point does this move from I understand into something that is hard or into the area of I do not know?” “What is this like? How is this similar to …?” “If you tried again, what would you do differently?” Say – “Let’s look at what you have and peel it back to where your answers were correct?” “If you asked a classmate for help, who would you ask? And what would you ask that person?” Asking questions keeps the struggle moving forward. Giving answers deprives a child of the dopamine that comes with their reaching a successful conclusion.
Then, when the child finally gets to “aha!” stop to enjoy the moment. Celebrate with and for the child. And quietly use the moment to reinforce your teaching skills that caused a child to learn.
The Big Duh!
Look at the children you are teaching. Remember that success begets success. In the years ahead, they will remember their “ahas!” and the teacher who helped them get to “aha!” And they will remember how the successes you caused gave them the steppingstones to many more successes. Taking the time to stop the speed of teaching and learning and celebrate an “aha!” moment is a lesson in living not just in learning.