A good teacher provides students with (1) direction, tools and time to learn efficiently; (2) a challenging, engaging, and rewarding setting whether in a classroom, tobacco barn or under the sky; and (3) temporary isolation from daily distractions and diversions not directly relevant to the lesson.

Notice that these conditions do not say, “Make learning harder, more complex, or more time consuming than is necessary to reach a specific learning criterion for each lesson.” That’s because  dysfunctional teachers do that.

Most of us have seen and some of us have been one of those dysfunctional teachers, at least temporarily, at one time or another. That means we used our own reasons for arguing against ideas and practices which we did not fulfill. Those arguments also resulted in rationing  learning by consuming time we could have used to refine our instruction.

If you want to increase the efficiency of learning by students in your classes, they’ll get there faster by doing the Antedote and not the dysfunctional teacher practices made bold. The quicker learners reach criterion, they more you can teach them to do.

1. Give incomplete and indirect direction and expect learners to read your mind. You’re in a hurry again today. You haven’t taken time to plan a lesson. You have a few key words in mind and a vague mental image of how your high school math teacher conducted this lesson. It didn’t go well for you then, but you believe you can make it more fun for your students today. You decide to hold a class discussion about the topic or maybe hand out worksheets. After all, they can look up the content of a good lesson online with their Tablet PCs or smartphones. Your time is important to you. Why should you take more of it to write down a lesson plan when you can “wing-it” with OK results?

Antedote: There’s never an acceptable excuse for wasting the time of students in your classroom because of your incomplete direction or preparation. Reasons, yes, but they are not sufficient to wipe away what students could have learned, if you were fully prepared. Write a lesson plan before facing students assigned to you. That will at least give you something to fall back on the next time you offer this lesson and you don’t take time to adapt it into your ideal session.

2. Stay comfortable and don’t upset anyone. You’re a professional!

Don’t make waves with students assigned to your classroom. Keep your head down so nobody complains to you. Continue doing what you’ve been doing. You believe you have the right answers for your teaching. After all, teachers are different. You have a wonderful life with a steady income that pays your household expenses plus some perks. Don’t rock the boat. At the same time, figure out with other teachers how to neutralize the hotshot teacher with new ideas. They could threaten your job security, if those ideas catch on. Remember: Never “foul your own nest” or let someone else foul it with something you don’t understand or believe.

Antedote: Challenge yourself to learn how to do and to critique what “the hotshot” does in class. Test it in one of your classes. If you’re adventurous, talk with your supervisor about your challenge and results. This is how people show that they’re trying to stay current in their field.

3. Keep on keeping on. It’s just another PD session about another fad. This too shall pass.

Don’t forget to take your knitting or some papers to correct when you attend professional development sessions. Oh, and don’t forget to message someone on your smartphone or Tablet! These sessions are perfect for messaging. You already know what and how to teach. You prepared to teach. You like teaching. The state gave you a license to teach, and you
already try hard when you teach. Really, no one could reasonably expect more of you. You shouldn’t have to endure the indignity of another PD sermon by an outside expert. They just want you to use their websites and buy their books.

Antedote: Set a goal for each PD session to learn one new vocabulary word and how to use it. If you’re really adventurous, try two new words. If unsure, ask the speaker to describe how best to use that word to adjust your instruction so students in your classes increase their learning more than they now perform. Ask for support from the expert.

4. Let the school board take the heat for your school’s reputation. They’re elected to do so. You’re selected to do what they allow you to do: teach.

They’re responsible for the quality of your school, not you. They hire the administrators who make the curriculum and sort of sometimes enforce it. You need the paycheck they give you. But, don’t let anyone tell you what to do with students in your classroom. Anyway, administrators get paid too much and there are too many of them. The board
should do something about that before they try to make me take the fall for board
and administrative failures!

Antedote: Stand and deliver what you agreed to do regardless of what others do! You know letting the school board take the heat is bogus reasoning. They hired you, unless you are saying that action was bogus too. You also know the sermon about your contracted duties to increase learning by students assigned to learn from you. Focus on what you do best: teach.

5. Don’t critique or deliver bad news to your students.

They already have a hard life. Their previous teachers passed them on to you, so they must be doing something right. Support that. Make your classroom a sanctuary from pressures to perform. Be their friend. After all, you don’t believe the state has any right to impose all that standards stuff on you or them anyway. It’s your judgment and your standards in your classroom with your students that matter. Not what students in elite private schools or
in Singapore or some other place are lerning to do.

Antedote: Change advisors to at least one who is in tune with the changing ecosystem of education and public schooling. Be straight forward and direct with students. Tell them what they are expected to do and how to do it successfully and efficiently in each lesson. Give them goals that require them to stretch rapidly toward what the most informed people know and do. It’s probably your contracted duty to instruct, to correct, and to show learners how to do so in order to avoid academic performance errors.

6. Ignore suggestions from others about ways you can adjust your lessons that will likely increase learning by students assigned to you.

Ignore similar suggestions for at least the first three or four times to find out if you really must pay attention. After that, adopt some of the words and phrases from suggestions in order to describe what you already do. Cite exceptions to their suggestions, no matter how unlikely those are to occur. What you’re saying by doing this: You are doing what is more
important to you than the likelihood that students assigned to you will learn more
of what is possible for them to learn.

Antedote: This is a reasonable position to take, if you are perfect and students whom you teach earn perfect scores on third party exams. Failing either condition, prepare for more suggestions and competition from inside and outside the academy. Some educators as well as education software and hardware developers have products available and are ramping up more that replace your instruction. Yes, replace even if you argue, “Never!” Learners using these products outperform students of teachers with dysfunctional practices in schools. You will likely at some point find that this competition makes you uncomfortable enough to adapt your teaching or you will retire from teaching one way or another.

7.    Give priority to your beliefs over students in your classes earning adequate scores on third party tests.

Assert that you have the right to use your religious freedom to determine what your students will learn, even when that right is not in your contract, the content has not been
approved by the school board, or what you teach repeatedly results in students earning unacceptable scores on state achievement tests. Don’t be a doormat. Don’t let the district walk all over you. Make them take you to court and prove that you don’t have a right to this expression of your religious freedom with public school students. If you don’t insist on expressing your beliefs, it’s all downhill for believers.

Antedote: If your beliefs preclude you from teaching only what school administrators and the school board approve, hire a good attorney in contract, education, and  constitution law to review your rights and obligations under your contract, including Federal court opinions in related disputes. Ask the attorney to determine if students assigned to you are “your students” or if that term is jargon that gives you no right to claim ownership of their time and activities in your classroom. Consult with your
union’s policy and legal affairs national offices to clarify the potential impact of this dispute on your career. Make sure your family is prepared for the public scrutiny of your and their lives that may occur. If you still decide to proceed, we wish you and your family all the best.

The prudent step to take instead of the dysfunctional ones is to challenge yourself to instruct students in ways that result in them increasingly earning scores in the top percentiles on standardized tests. Adapt your instruction to that end.

The rapidly changing ecosystem of education and public school demands that level of performance. Perform like a good teacher. Demonstrate that students who learn from you increasingly earn top academic performance scores. Then, you will not be seen as a “dysfunctional teacher” who rations learning.

Reference

Heiny, R. Teachers’ Conflicts of Interest Ration Learning: NESI Conversation 11, Tablet PC Education Blog, August 24, 2009. (Captured June 28, 2009, 4:40 PM.)