Thoughts for new teachers

The value of cooperation is important when you are teaching or working with someone who is a beginning learner or an expert in learning.  

A research study shows the power of cooperation and uses a party game to re-enforce the concept. The game is called the "tapper-listener" name-that-tune game. You may have played it or a variation of this game at a party.

The original research took a roomful of people and gave them all a list of the names of simple and widely-known songs, such as the birthday song, a national anthem, and children's songs. 

The group was then divided in half and organized into pairs. One of the pair was designated the "tapper" and the partner was designated as the "listener."

The tappers job was to secretly select a song from the list and then tap out the song without telling (or singing) the song to the listener. The listener's role was to determine the name of the song being tapped out. 

The research showed, remarkably, that only two percent of the listeners could correctly identify the song being tapped out. The tappers found this to be very frustrating, and had extreme difficulty accepting the fact that the listener didn't "get it."

The reason there was such incredulity on the part of the tappers was that part of their process of tapping included humming (or singing) the song to themselves while they were tapping. In other words, the tapper heard the song very clearly (and loudly in his or her head) and the tapping (according to the tapper) was an easy give-away clue as to the song.

But from the listener's viewpoint, he or she heard no melody or song, but only rhythmical tapping. The tapping could have been virtually any of the songs on the list.

I'm equating the "humming along" to the tapping as what often takes place in an interaction between a teacher and the students, with which he or she is working. 

That is, the teacher knows exactly what the melody, phrasing, spacing, tone, and notes (intention, method, and purpose) might be, but the only thing being communicated to the other students are questions, listening type responses, and occasional supportive statements.

The learner does not really have a way of knowing the intention and purpose of the behavioural responses of the teacher. This type of communication limits the opportunities for the learner to be cooperatively involved in the engagement with the teacher. 

By sharing intention and rationale for methods with the learner, the teacher has an even greater likelihood of achieving the progress that they both desire.

Not every behavioural action taken by a teacher needs to be or should be preceded by an explanation of its purpose or the rationale for the method choices.

These explanations or method descriptions are best placed at the beginning of the relationship and restated in some form at the beginning of each subsequent session.

In addition, when a student appears puzzled or reluctant to move forward, the teacher should be prepared to understand this hesitation and rekindle the students cooperation by sharing his or her own thoughts about what he or she as the teacher is hoping to do.