I'm stupid!
I have read my course several times and I don't remember anything!
I wrote my vocabulary during two hours yesterday and I've just failed the test again!
Does that sound familiar to you?
As a teacher, it's quite easy and convenient to explain your students' bad school results with a simple: They don't study their vocabulary and grammar!
Of course, this can happen but most of the time your students study hard for very poor results. They simply don't know how to use their brain efficiently because they have never been taught. They repeat the same mistakes again and again: reading, writing, repeating.
Every year when I get to know my 'new' 16 to 18-year-old students, it's always the same story: they don't use any learning strategies and I have a high failure rate.
When we start discussing how the brain works and what can be done to improve memorizing, my students quickly realize some important things:
I'm not dumb!
Solutions exist!
I can make progress if I try them!
And every year, I hear at least once: "But why haven't we been taught how our brain works before?"
That's the question! And I haven't found the answer yet!
Again and again, I must first deconstruct the ideas that:
- talents and abilities are innate.
- you are born with a good memory or not.
- intelligence is fixed once and for all at birth and unchangeable.
Even if it takes some time, it's always time worth spending. I'm never disappointed when my students leave me. After two years, they have improved their learning skills, feel much more confident and on top of that, I have no more failures.
Promoting metacognition awareness is probably the most powerful weapon to help them make progress and it is so rewarding at the end!
Wanna have a try?
Here is an example of metacognition class activities my 16 to 18-year-old students are very fond of: Do you have a fixed of growth mindset? (freely inspired from Dr Carol Dweck's theory).
Read too:
Let's think out of the box together!
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