In pursuit of discomfort…

So, I have been reading a publication called ‘Education in Chemistry’…I know!  This is an unusual venture for me but one of the most brilliant things about teachers at RPCC is their desire to collaborate and also their enthusiasm for academic research…

The article that Mr Grainey passed to me is entitled: ‘In pursuit of discomfort’:

“If students are at ease, they’re not necessarily learning much…” claims Editor Paul MacLellan.

MacLellan ponders the idea that most teachers would associate ‘enjoyment with engagement’ and ‘engagement with learning’ based on the premise that if students enjoy a subject they will invest more and therefore ultimately achieve higher grades – however, the wealth of academic research available exploring student motivation could prove that our assumptions are often wrong in this area…most studies actually conclude that students like their teachers more when they learn less…

The article cites a study that looked at undergraduates at a prestigious Italian University which concluded that students ranked those teachers who ‘simply’ taught to the test more highly than those teachers who sought to enrich their students’ preparedness for the world beyond education…

Is it as simple as assuming that when our students feel more comfortable they feel more positive?  This idea is particularly interesting for RPCC at the moment as we explore our strategic plans for collecting whole-school Student Voice data…the necessity for a standard set of questions seems particularly pertinent with this in mind if a bias linked to ‘popularity’ is to be avoided?

MacLellan refers to a study published in ‘Chemistry Education Research and Practice’ which examined students’ wellbeing linked to the outcomes of lessons that made them feel uncomfortable.  The researchers ran an extra-curricular non-compulsory programme which developed students’ abilities to think in different ways – to enhance insight through evaluative discussion and supported collaborative reflection – the findings are interesting:  students felt ‘safe’ in the philosophical discussions and the process easily facilitated the ‘discomfort necessary for learning’.

Student-teacher relationships at RPCC are a real strength and it’s certainly true that Student Voice data indicates that when students like and invest in a subject it is commonly because they feel positively about their teacher – but perhaps this article raises the question – do students need to like their teacher in order to make progress…?