You Can Make Your Students Smarter

If the only vision you had of yourself came from the social mirror your view would be like the reflection in a crazy mirror at a carnival.  The view would be distorted and out of proportion.   The social mirror is often a projection of the concerns and weaknesses of those giving the input rather than a true picture of what you are. 

Author Stephen Covey writes about a classic story of a self-fulfilling prophecy.   The story is how a computer error in England incorrectly programmed student’s grades and IQ’s.   The error was not discovered until five months into the school year.  What was discovered demonstrates how critical it is that children believe they are capable.  The scores of a lower achieving group of students had all gone up.  Their teachers had treated them as thought they were bright.  The teacher’s energy, hope and optimism reflected high individual expectations for each of these students. 

The teachers reported that during the first few weeks of school when they saw the usual methods of teaching were not successful they changed them.  They believed that their students were bright and when things were not working well they figured it must be the teaching methods.  For this group of teachers apparent learner disability was nothing more than teacher inflexibility. 

Small interventions can make a big difference in learning.  Geoffrey Cohen a psychologist at the University of Colorado has found that telling students that their intelligence is under their own control improves their effort and performance.  If students believe they possess the ability to work hard and make themselves smarter they will be smarter. 

As schools and government examine how to increase academic achievement and where to spend their dollars they must not ignore the most critical component in learning -the attitude of the classroom teacher.   They must keep in mind that small influences in children’s lives can have very big effects.   Ambitious reforms are still important but children who have successful learning pictures in their heads will be better equipped mentally to try, and to succeed.

Failure to achieve is intimately connected to a child’ self-image and ideas on self worth.  To change this paradigm you must as a teacher believe that although a child may have failed in the past he can succeed in the present.  A failing child will continue to fail if his teachers continue to remind him of his failure.  To break the cycle of failure the student must first have a caring nurturing relationship with his teacher. 

When you as a teacher refuse to label your students you will see them in fresh new ways.  Your view can help them become independent, fulfilled and capable of doing satisfying work. 

Goethe taught, “ Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can be and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

Anyone involved in education should become excited at the prospect of injecting this kind of positive energy into a system that many regard as broken.   Administrators, parents and teachers must dedicate themselves to providing a network of support and renewal for all teachers.  Their job is too important not to do this.