[Edu-sig] Brainstorming and a neat link

[Stephen R. Figgins]

Roman writes: 

> My personal experience is that it doesn't matter how to teach programming,
> what to use (a programming calculator or a supercomputer), when to teach
> (at what grade from 6 to ...), etc.
> 
> What really does matter is: your student must be highly motivated to
> learn! 

Finding what motivates can be the hard part.

One of the things we discussed in an art of mentoring class I took
from the Wilderness Awareness School was how we learn best when we are
excited, particularly when our adrenelin is flowing.  This is one
reason memories of frightening events are so vivid.  But you
don't have to frighten your students into learning, any excitement
will do. 

One key to mentoring is to teach to a student's passions, whatever
they are.  What we learned in Art of Mentoring was how to profile
students, and how to use those profiles to manipulate them into
learning.  My teachers called this Coyote Teaching, because it
involves some trickery.  After you find what hooks them, you draw that
out, don't give them what they want right away, but dangle it before
them some, dragging them through things they might otherwise have
avoided.  Excite their passions and manipulate them into the right
situations and they will pretty much learn on their own.  My teachers
called this, "creating a vacuum," the empty gap between what they know
and what they want to know.

Coyote teaching works best one on one, but you could also use it in a
small classroom if you can figure out some common passions your
students have.  Individual projects will also give you an opportunity
to tailor things to each student. 

-Stephen