Meeting Students Where They Are
I once heard an educator say that in order to best serve your students, you have to "meet the kids where they are." He had spent his entire career working in high-need communities, and above all else he emphasized simply knowing your students' needs and helping them make sure they were met. No matter what community you serve, students walk into your room from unique backgrounds, carrying unique histories. The teacher with memorized lectures and ironclad curricula cannot be surprised when not every student is capable of conforming to expectations made without them in mind. As teachers, we have a tendency to beat ourselves up over the finer points of pedagogical practice, while too often overlooking students' more basic needs. There are needs that, if left unmet, trump all our best practices. If we can't meet our students where they are, we risk not meeting them at all.
For me, this evokes Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. A complete pedagogical theory it is not, but we can a learn a lot from looking at that pyramid. The "self-actualization," the growth we're shooting for as educators, is only possible after we achieve four tiers of environmental security. We have to climb a majority of the pyramid before we can even "open up to page one." Before our classroom can be a classroom it has to be a physical space and an interpersonal community.
To get students where we want them to be, we first have to meet them where they are. Click below to explore a working theory of effective learning environments.
For me, this evokes Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. A complete pedagogical theory it is not, but we can a learn a lot from looking at that pyramid. The "self-actualization," the growth we're shooting for as educators, is only possible after we achieve four tiers of environmental security. We have to climb a majority of the pyramid before we can even "open up to page one." Before our classroom can be a classroom it has to be a physical space and an interpersonal community.
To get students where we want them to be, we first have to meet them where they are. Click below to explore a working theory of effective learning environments.
Works Cited
Maslow, A.H.. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review. 50(4). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-5-JeCa2Z7hNjZlNDNhOTEtMWNkYi00YmFhLWI3YjUtMDEyMDJkZDExNWRm/edit.
Graphic: "MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds" by FireflySixtySeven - Own work using Inkscape, based on Maslow's paper, A Theory of Human Motivation.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg#/media/File:MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg
Graphic: "MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds" by FireflySixtySeven - Own work using Inkscape, based on Maslow's paper, A Theory of Human Motivation.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg#/media/File:MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg