Teaching Independence

Today, I spent an entire period teaching about parts per million (ppm). I broke down step-by-step every detail on how convert from basic ppm (1g / 1 000 000 g) to how it can be 1 mg / L to or even 1 mg / 1 kg. I went slow and steady for everyone. A lot of them felt much better about it. I'm glad I did the class.

At the end of the day, 5 students came out to try a few more questions.

As they worked, they wanted me each to look at their individual answers. Up here, a lot of kids have a sense of learned helplessness. It's easy to get in the habit of coddling them - even if you're running around the room, getting a calculator for them or flipping the textbook to the right page just to make a class go quicker - and I know I need to stop doing. These are Secondary V students after all! Some are mature students, the oldest one at 20!

As I was making fruit smoothies for them and they were all whining for me to come over, I told them to check their answers with each other. They looked at me as if it was a strange idea. When I finally convinced them to do so, they all turned to me and said, somewhat surprised and still unsure of themselves, "We got the same number." I replied, "Well, you all did it right and don't need me now!" They must have felt proud but didn't feel entirely confident they were actually correct.

Many of the students here have low confidence and would never even think of checking their neighbour's answer. Why would you cheat if your buddy doesn't even know if he has the right answer?! Part of my job is to teach them to become independent, especially if they want to success and go to colleges next year. The professor is probably not even going to know your name, let alone come up to your desk and help you with your work.