How I Teach When I REALLY Want My Students to Learn
3rd July 2014
Bryan Caplan realizes that he’s doing it wrong — and so is everyone else.
My lessons were fully effective. Before long, my sons were experts – and so they will remain for their whole lives. Which led to an awkward realization: My technique for teaching shoe-tying is much more effective than my technique for teaching economics. In my experience, only 5-10% of my students master the material by the final exam. And even my best students tend to quickly forget most of what they learned.
I’m tempted to lament the Iron Laws of Pedagogy. But my shoe-tying experience tells me that’s a cop-out. I know how to make my students learn more. If filling my students with life-long knowledge were my top priority, I’d replace my thoughtful lectures with catechisms. I’d make the students chant aloud with me. I’d break every lesson into baby steps, and drive the students to master them one by one. How? I’d randomly and mercilessly put students on the spot, pressing them to apply the lesson aloud – and correct the slightest misstep. We’d meet seven days a week for half an hour, endlessly recapping what we’ve learned. Sure, I’d cover far less ground. Yet after a semester, my students would know the basics for a lifetime.
Why don’t I do this? While I could say, “The best way to teach shoe-tying is radically different from the best way to teach economics,” that’s an excuse. The truth: I don’t teach econ the same way I teaching shoe-tying because I’d hate it, and my students would hate me.
I guess being loved is more important than being effective. (And people wonder why our schools are so ineffective.)