classroom
A Voice from the Classroom: The Puzzle of Trust
Last year I was meeting with Mr. O- in his classroom in a high school for emotionally disabled children, when Tyreek (not his real name) slipped in. A slender kid with a serious, intellectual demeanor, he approached me and asked if he could have a look at the ballpoint pen in my pocket. New at the school, I was still naïve about the ways of the students, and felt it could only be a decent gesture to trust him. Bad move. He sidled to the other side of the room, began dismantling the pen, and, when asked to return it by Mr. O-, made his escape to the...
A Voice from the Classroom: The Learning Pyramid and the Chinese Room
Have you ever seen the famous (or infamous, depending on your opinion of its validity) “Learning Pyramid”? Its basic claim is that as a learner you retain 5% of what you hear, 10% of what you read, 20% of what you both hear and see, 30% of what is demonstrated to you, 50% of what you discuss, 75% of what you practice by doing, and 90% of what you teach to others.
It is a too simplistic explanation of how humans learn, and its research origins are...