What Helps Students Enjoy School?
No catchy slogans in this post
I saw a tweet recently that said "no student is running to class to fill out a worksheet." I see this general idea a lot from eduinfluencers on Twitter, but also from regular teachers. A lot of people think that regular typical school is boring, and the best way to get students to enjoy school is to do lots of projects and have students collaborate and give them authentic experiences and critical thinking and creativity something something something.
First, I disagree with the idea that students aren't excited to go to a class that involves worksheets. I ranted about this a few weeks ago — and sure, I doubt a student will say "I'm excited we're doing a worksheet in Mr. Kane's class today!" But students absolutely do rush to a class because they know what to expect, because in that class there's a mix of stuff they know how to do and stuff that's challenging, because the teacher makes sure there's a balance of routine and variety. Well-designed worksheets can be a part of that.
But I have a larger point. I want students to enjoy school. Students are in school for over 10,000 hours throughout their childhood. The least we can do is try to make it a pleasant place to spend some time.
My concern is that so many teachers seem to have accepted this idea that students only enjoy school when it's projects authentic collaborative whatever whatever. That's not my experience. Sure, those things can be enjoyable. But in my experience, designing a class that students enjoy comes down to a lot of the mundane things we don't often talk about, that don't make for punchy one-liners but really matter in the day-to-day student experience. Here are a couple things that I see make a difference:
Give clear directions
The number one thing I hear students complain about when they complain about a class is "I didn't know what to do and the teacher got mad." Giving clear directions is hard and we don't talk enough about it. Help students know what you want them to do and make sure they have the tools to do it.
Be predictable
Some students — often the most vocal ones — can thrive when class is off-the-wall different every day. But there’s an often-silent majority for whom school isn’t easy, and who benefit from routines and predictability. This doesn’t mean that class is the exact same every day. It means building routines students become familiar with and then fitting those routines together in different ways to suit the goals of the day so students know what to expect and what to do.
Keep grading simple
It's fashionable to talk about how grading is inequitable and antiquated and whatever. And sure, to some extent I agree. But I see a lot of schools and teachers implement solutions that are just plain confusing. Your system can be as equitable as you want in theory. If kids are confused about how it works, it won't be equitable in practice, and kids will feel like they can't be successful.
Give students a mix of things that are easy and things that are hard
Students want to feel successful in school. Too many students are turned off from their education because day after day they arrive at school and feel confused and struggle through class after class. That doesn’t mean teachers should dumb down everything; students also don’t want class to feel easy all the time. Do your best to ensure there’s something in each class that’s accessible for all students, and something that will be challenging for everyone.
Don’t ask students to flail
Productive struggle is also fashionable right now. I think productive struggle done well can be a great thing. Kids love to productively struggle with video games and Rubik's cubes and at basketball practice. But if there isn't a clear goal and a good ratio of productive to struggle you're just asking kids to flail and pretending their struggle is helping them. If you want students to struggle with something, have a clear purpose behind it and make the goal attainable. Don't tell students "you're actually learning from your mistakes" if all they ever do is make mistakes.
Explain why
Too often teachers forget to explain why we do things the way we do. Or, we explain it once in the firehose of information at the beginning of the year and never explain it again. Make sure students know why you do things the way you do. They want to know, and they’re often afraid to ask.
Coda
I’m not trying to take a position here on authentic projects vs regular school. I’m pointing out that authentic creative collaborative experiences or whatever aren’t the only way to help students enjoy school. I’ll also gently observe that, in lots of cases, during those “fun projects” lots of students don’t understand what to do, struggle with the lack of routine, are confused about what they’re being graded on, and give up because it feels too hard.
No consultant is going to make six figures going around to schools saying, “what you need to work on is giving clear directions, keeping grading simple, and explaining why you do things the way you do.” It’s not a catchy message and those aren’t the things that inspired teachers to join this profession. But all of this stuff matters. I want to teach a math class that students enjoy coming to. These ideas are my first priority in trying to make that happen. They’re not the only things that matter, but they’re an important place to start.